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Communications Director of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Nana Akomea says Deputy General Secretary of the ruling NDC, Koku Anyidoho misfired when he accused the NPP of not in favour of giving the youth political appointee in government.

Koku Anyidoho patted the opposition NPP on the back for allowing the youth to now contest in their parliamentary race – a situation he claimed was not permissible a couple of years back.

According to him, involving the youth in parliament and government positions has always been the ideology of late President John Evan Atta Mills and the ruling NDC administration – “This is why president Mills introduced many youth in his administration and you can see the benefit of it”.

“NPP has learnt some lesson from us [NDC]. We wish them well. The youth policy is the best. The old must pave way for the youth…they are the future leaders,” he said in an interview with OKAY FM’s "Ade Akye Abia" morning show.

But when the NPP Communications Director again heard the acting NDC Chief Scribe on Oman Fm’s National Agenda, repeating the same assertion, he quickly fired back.

He maintained that NPP has always involved youth in government as former President Agyekum Kufuor was first made Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs at the age of 29 during the era of Prime Minister Busia.

He again cited that he was the youngest NPP Member of Parliament in 1997 and later became the youngest Cabinet Minister in 2006, and debunked the assertion that the NPP abhors giving the youth leadership positions in government.

He emphasized that no political party in the world can do away with the youth in its activities as fresh blood and energetic young people are needed to carry out the duties of political parties.

“NPP has always involved youth in government. Which political party in the world does not like youth, fresh blood in its administration? When you look at NPP, former President Kufuor was made a deputy minister for Foreign Affairs at the age of 29 years in 1969. So if you say NPP does not want youth in government then he is wrong,” he debunked.

He was of the view that “it doesn’t matter whether someone is youth or old, if you don’t do your work well, people will talk about it”.

“It was not NPP that accused the NDC government of appointting only youthful persons, it was incompetence that the people were complaining about and the person who first started this complaint was a member of the NDC, Spio-Gabrah when he said the late President Mills has used inexperienced youth in his government while the older experienced ones have been sidelined,” he opined.

He again recalled that “the founder of NDC, Mr. Rawlings also accused the late President Mills of appointing babies with sharp teeth in his government who have a proclivity for spewing insults instead of focusing on their official duties”.