NDC youth need Sammi Awuku-like leadership for victory 2020

When Sammi Awuku was elected the national youth organiser of the NPP in April 2014, he seemed like a different kind of a leader.

Not just the everyday politician but a new sort of youth leader: thoughtful, reflective and determined to represent all of his party folks.

Now, some two years after galvanizing the Ghanaian youths for the NPP 2016 victory, he has come to represent the standard in youth activism and leadership.

The guy has an amazing capacity to assimilate a lot of information. He really likes to solve a problem pragmatically – but from a perspective of being as well informed as he can be.

He certainly doesn’t reach snap decisions. He is a pretty deliberative guy, but you put the facts in front of him he will reach a conclusion pretty quickly.

You cannot talk about the NPP 2016 victory without mentioning Sammi Awuku. He was the main architect behind the NPP victory. He led a youth movement unparalleled in the politics of Ghana, and delivered the youth to the NPP. 2016 was a youth revolution and it was Sammi Awuku’s call.

And going into 2020, the NDC youth wings need a Sammi Awuku-like leader – The NDC youth wing is tired and discouraged these days. The party youths are right to seek a little inspiration, a lifting of the spirits, a sense of renewal. A youth leader cast in the same mould of Sammi Awuku is the perfect antithesis of everything the party needs to win 2020.

The youth wings need somebody more seasoned in maneuvering our very complex political systems just like Sammi Awuku did to bring about needed changes.

We need a very tough customer cast in the mould of Sammy and can make the case that needs to be made. Someone who can relate to anybody from anywhere, be they child or adult, male or female, black or white, educated or uneducated, mediocre or talented.

Someone who can inspire a new generation to new heights of social responsibility with his exemplary biography. Someone who will bring in a new and fresh generation of a hardworking, intelligent, educated, upright and incorruptible batch of Ghanaians youths into the public realm.

That’s what Sammi Awuku did with the NPP youths and if the NDC is interested in returning to power in 2020, then it is George Opare Addo (Pablo) or no else. Pablo alone represents the Sammy Awuku-like youth leader.

If the NDC youth pass up this opportunity to see what changes a formidable youth leader can bring to our democracy, we may not get another chance for decades.

We know Pablo just like any other human being isn’t perfect, but then all we really crave for is an honest man who will do an honest job and not continue to make the NDC youth a laughing stock in the eyes of Ghanaians. He has more than two decades of youth activism experience, standing his ground in the face of adversity.

He is the tried and tested candidate when it comes to responding to mud-slinging from the NPP. Pablo has already proven that he has the resilience and the sense of humor needed to take the hits and keep on keeping on. He represents a choice that the NDC needs in these challenging times and we owe it a duty to posterity by selecting him to lead the NDC to victory 2020.