I will win NPP National Youth Organiser post -Gifty Oware-Aboagye

The race for the national youth organiser position of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is getting keener each passing day, with a  27-year-old woman, Gifty Oware -Aboagye, becoming the latest to declare her intention to contest  the position.

Announcing her intention to the Daily Graphic, Ms Oware -Aboagye, who is a social scientist and  product  of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), said  even though the men had done well in past elections, she was eyeing the position of National Youth Organiser to drive the party to victory in the 2016.

Already, six names have come up as possible contenders. They are;  Mr Sammy Awuku,  Mr Pius Eyonam Hadzide, Mr Emmanuel Attafuah, Mr  Gideon Buako, Mr David Asante and Mr Evans Nimako.

What makes the entry of Ms Oware-Aboagye interesting is the fact that she is the first young woman to contest the position that had been male dominated in the recent history of the party tradition.

Ms Oware said the NPP had a history where women had played tremendous roles in the organisation of the party, citing the late Mrs Hawa Yakubu Ogede, former Member of Parliament for Bawku and the mother of former President J.A Kufuor, Madam Abena Dapaah,  who had a strong conviction of the party’s tradition  and helped in its organisation.

She expressed the hope that the party would take a cue from this tradition and vote for her to bring the needed dynamism to the position.

With her slogan “Think Different, Change Position’’,  Ms Oware-Aboagye believed her message of economic empowerment of the youth could be appealing enough to attract floating voters, as well as win more voters from other parties.

In the view of Ms Oware-Aboagye, the NPP needed a youth leader who could organise the youth in particular, both within the party and outside the party to vote for NPP during elections.

She opined that no political party could come to power on the support of party members alone, saying it was her key objective to attract floating voters, as well as win more voters from other political parties.

Vigilance at grassroot

On her chances to win the youth organiser position, as well as NPP chances in 2016 elections, Ms Oware-Aboagye said the Supreme Court petition, if anything at all, had drawn the attention of the party to the fact that a lot of  vigilance was required at the grassroots.

She said the Supreme Court verdict also opened up hurt feelings and her role, when elected, as youth organiser, was to manage those feelings  through  conciliatory speeches.

She said when it came to grassroots mobilisation, she had the track record and mentioned that she currently heads an organisation with a focus on helping teenage expectant mothers to start a trade, as well as put them back to school after delivery.

Brief profile

Ms Oware-Aboagye has held the position of President of Green Earth, Vice President of  the Ghana United Nations Student Association,(GUNSA), Associate Editor of KNUST Independence Hall Journal and the first female  to contest the presidency of the  Faculty of Social Science of KNUST and was  nominated for the best writer award of the National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS).

Ms Oware Aboagye was also a fellow of the Moremi African Initiative of Young Women leaders in 2010 and currently the Director of Berry International, an NGO and co-partner of Berry Events, an event organising company.

By Abdul Aziz/Daily Graphic/Ghana