National Communications Director of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Sammy Gyamfi, believes the controversial critique by Adansi Asokwa Member of Parliament, Kobina Tahir Hammond, on the youth is an attempt to gain favor from President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Speaking on the September 29 edition of Metro TV’s Good Morning Ghana programme, Sammy Gyamfi attributed his claim to the fact that President Akufo-Addo has neglected the MP for five and a half years.
Gyamfi while making a submission on the recent booing of President Akufo-Addo at the Global Citizen Festival emphasized that the youth of the country have every right to either praise or hoot at leaders depending on whether they were performing or not.
In the case of President Akufo-Addo, he said the booing was a ‘show of protest’ from the youth who are reeling under severe economic hardship while the members of the government live comfortable lives.
“The man says that young people in this country are airheads, there is nothing in our heads. Our heads are like coconut. We cannot manage the affairs of this country. Is that how an elderly person is supposed to speak?
“The young people of this country have every right to praise the duty-bearers of our country when they are doing the right thing,” Sammy Gyamfi said
“They also have every right to call them out, to criticize them and even when the situation demands, to hoot at them when leaders have become numb to their felt needs and are not showing any care or sensitivity about their problems and any genuine desire to address those problems and turn their fortunes around.
“They have very right to do so. What happened was a show of protest and it happens in every part of the country. It doesn’t mean young people in this country don’t respect elderly folks,” he added.
Sammy Gyamfi mentioned that the comments by KT Hammond were condemnable adding that a senior politician like him should not utter those statements.
In his view, however, the MP was only trying to ‘catch the eye of the president’ having been ignored for the last five and half years.
“What he did and the things he has said are very condemnable, very shameful. It should not be coming from a senior politician like him. I know that he is trying to catch the eye of President Akufo-Addo having be ignored for the last five and half years but this is not the way to go about it,” he remarked.
What KT Hammond said
KT Hammond recently expressed disgust with the September 24 booing incident. He said in an interview with journalists that the youth must at all times remain humble and respectful towards authority
“We don’t live in a country and do that. Let’s be humble. Whatever we do, the president is the executive head of this country. When he came, he didn’t say anything. It wasn’t even a political platform.
“He only said the event has brought the attention of the world on Ghana and the youth started booing at him. We will always tell the youth to be humble. When a matter comes up, we say we are going to consult elders. We don’t say we are coming to consult the youth whose heads are like coconut.
“We consult the elderly on matters because they are wise. But because of politics, we do anything with the elderly. Let it even be a political platform that you can heckle but it wasn’t even a political rally.
“The youth should respect the elderly. We shouldn’t let it be that because of politics we can insult everyone. It’s not possible for the youth to be left to manage the affairs of the country.
“They won’t know how to do it in the first place. You don’t understand. You are galivanting about in this town with beard, nothing is in your heads,” he said in the Twi parlance.
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Sammy Gyamfi is National Communication Officer of theNDC