New Patriotic Party (NPP) General Secretary hopeful Eugene Boakye Antwi has rejected claims that the party does not give young people opportunities to rise into leadership and government positions.
He says the argument that the NPP does not appreciate or promote the youth is inaccurate, pointing to the number of relatively young people who were given appointments under the party’s previous government.
“When people say that the NPP, it’s a way of saying the NPP sometimes don’t appreciate, or doesn’t appreciate the youth,” he asserted.
Sitting down with Desmond Okraku Danso on Good Afternoon Ghana on Metro TV on Tuesday, September 1, Boakye Antwi noted that the push for greater youth participation should be balanced with experience, particularly when it comes to managing major government institutions and ministries.
He argued that being young should not automatically be treated as sufficient qualification for taking charge of critical ministries.
“For a 30-year-old, that means they probably have left the university about six, seven years… So let them work for a while,” he said.
According to him, young people should be allowed to build the necessary professional and political experience before being handed major responsibilities.
His position comes on the heels of calls within Ghanaian political parties for greater representation of young people in leadership, with youth participation often becoming a major issue during internal party elections.
It also comes months after the Professor Henry Kwasi Prempeh chaired Constitutional Review Committee proposed reducing the presidential eligibility age from the current 40 years to 30 years, and the the Mahama government subsequently opting for a minimum age of 35 years.
Eugene Boakye Antwi said the NPP has already demonstrated its willingness to give younger people opportunities and disagreed with attempts to portray the party as one that shuts out the youth.
Eugene Boakye Antwi, the former Subin lawmaker, is seeking to become the NPP’s General Secretary in the October 3, 2026 national executive elections, where he has made party restructuring, unity and preparations for the 2028 elections central to his campaign.
