The National Youth Wing of the New Patriotic Party led by Henry Nana Boakye Esq (Nana B), a young lawyer, leader, political activist and youth advocate and his two able deputies, Pepertual Lomokie and Joseph Kwayaja, in the spirit of accountability, have set out to take stock of their stewardship for the three years they have been in office.
Their inclusive leadership style and determination to see the youth succeed, has led to a number of successes, including steering the Youth to play a critical role in Election 2020.
In the just-ended 2020 Election, Nana B and his team culminated their hard work by rallying the youth through engagement and mobilization, leveraging digital tools and strategies as well as helping to provide the needed resources for victory.
In an election which had over 900,000 registered voters between ages of 18-19, and more than half of the electoral roll aged 18-35, efforts at youth mobilization were consequential to the outcomes.
Over the period, the National Youth wing has achieved a lot with far-reaching benefits for the youth in particular and the NPP as a whole.
The over 30 giant strides made in consolidating the electoral fortunes of the NPP and building of a vibrant and results-driven youth wing, dominated by motivated and trained young men and women have been captured under eight (8) thematic areas, namely Logistics and Resource Mobilization; Repositioning and Development of TESCON; Student Committee; Capacity Building and Job Facilitation; Strategic Youth Mobilization and Engagement; Communication/ Information Dissemination; Welfare and; Leadership Roles and Responsibilities.
LOGISTICS AND RESOURCE MOBILIZATION; REGIONAL & CONSTITUENCY LOGISTICAL SUPPORT & RESOURCING PROJECT
- Provision of motorbikes to every constituency youth wings as well as the regional youth wings for outreach and campaigning programmes
- Strengthening of the National Youth wing’s database collection by providing several laptops and other gadgets to all the regional youth wing secretariats.
- Over hundreds of thousand T–shirts distributed to various regional youth wings, Constituency Youth wings and volunteer groups for campaigning during the 2020 general elections.
- Provision of startup kits including sewing machines and hairdryers to support young Entrepreneurs in small scale businesses.
- Over tens of thousands of different types of 2020 campaign paraphernalia distributed, these included party branded footballs, aprons, scarf’s, megaphones, caps, flag, jerseys and many more.
- Regional Based Resource Mobilization Forum: The National Youth wing organized series of fundraising events in several regions prior to the 2020 general elections. This initiative helped raised financial support to prosecute the youth campaign in election 2020.
REPOSITIONING AND DEVELOPMENT OF TESCON
- The number of institutions where TESCON is fully operational and functional have increased from 186 to over 247, a 33% increase with other institutions pending inauguration under the current National Youth Wing leadership.
- TESCON National training and orientation: For the first time in the history of TESCON, all executives in the over 240 accredited TESCON Institutions underwent National and Regional training and orientation programs. This was done to train members on the ideology and policy of the party, how to canvass for votes and how to conduct retail (door to door) campaigns.
- ACKNOWLEDGING THE MILESTONE OF TESCON – The generational pillar, TESCON’s relevance was acknowledged and celebrated with a grand anniversary at Ho in the Volta Region to mark its 20 years of impact in the NPP’s fortunes where the President H.E Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and the Vice President H.E Dr. Alhaji Mahamudu Bawumia honored the occasion.
- Foreign Scholarships – We Facilitated several scholarships opportunities for members of TESCON and the Youth Wing to further their education in prestigious tertiary institutions in countries like Germany, France, the United States, United Kingdom, Ukrain, etc.
- Local Scholarships – We facilitated several local scholarships for undergraduate and postgraduate programs for members of TESCON and youth wing.
- Globalization of TESCON – This is a novelty, for the first time the wing has establish an active and vibrant TESCON branches in countries like UK, USA, China, Germany etc. The presence of TESCON in the diaspora will enable the NPP to maximize its votes when ROPAL is implemented by the Electoral Commission (EC) in future.
- TESCON GH APP — Plans are far advance to launch and fully operationalize the TESCON GH APP. The APP will bring all TESCON institutions across the country on one platform and will resolve coordination challenges at all levels of operations among the various Tertiary Institutions.
STUDENT COMMITTEE
- The Student Committee of the NPP Youth Wing was strengthened and resourced to deliver on its mandate. It’s refreshing to note that, over the period, the youth wing has maintain considerable control.
- First Time Voter Project: In-depth analysis of the first time voters data established that majority of them were students at Senior High Schools and Tertiary Institutions. The National Youth wing, through the student committee implemented specific activities to ensure high turnout for first time voters and more importantly, guide them to vote for NPP Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates.
- Campus Campaign Initiative: In order to maximize our votes on the various campuses (SHS and Tertiary Institutions) across the country, the Student’s Committee, for the first time, targeted students using diverse strategies and approaches. This helped the NPP to consolidate its dominance on the various campuses culminating in enhanced electoral fortunes.
CAPACITY BUILDING/JOB FACILITATION
- International Exchange Program – The National Youth wing secured several international exchange programs for dozens of NPP youth. The countries where such exchange programs went on includes India, US, UK, Spain, Finland, German, Belgium, Morocco, Ethiopia, Cote D’voire, Belgium, India etc amongst many others.
- In collaboration with Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, several symposia and workshops were organized for all the Regional Youth Wing leadership and some notable members of the Youth Wing.
- The National Youth Wing successfully presented delegates (Youth Organizers and TESCON executives) annually, to receive technical training in governance and economic development at the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
- The NPP National Youth Wing sponsored a candidate to contest and win as the first ever president of the Young Democrat Union of Africa (YDUA) Louisa Atta Agyemang
- The National Youth Wing has facilitated several job opportunities for the Youth. It however acknowledges that unemployment is still a challenge and collectively, we are working assiduously to resolved it.
- Nationwide Youth Wing Communicators and Social Media Team Training: This was done on regional basis across the country. Participants were trained in online campaigns, use of digital tools and social media. Serial callers were trained as well.
STRATEGIC YOUTH MOBILIZATION AND ENGAGEMENT
- First ever National Youth Wing Conference (Tamale): National and Regional Youth Wing Leadership, TESCON executives, volunteer groups and youth wings from the Diaspora met to strategize on Victory 2020 which was Honored by The Vice President, H.E Dr. AlhajiMahamuduBawumia and the Second Lady, Hajia Samira Bawumia
- Formation of the Young Appointees Forum(YAF): The current Youth leadership championed the formation of a platform which brought all young appointees together to support the youth wing and the party’s programme
- Orphan Constituency Project (OCP): The national Youth Wing strategically and carefully adopted all orphan constituencies and supported them with logistics and human resource to help in the election 2020 campaign. This largely accounted for the NPP winning a number Orphan seats.
- Support for selected Young Parliamentary Candidates in Election 2020: This was done through frequent human Capital support to the various constituencies whose candidates were youthful.
- “Boots on Grounds” campaign. This campaign strategy was a game changer in the COVID-19 troubled 2020 electioneering campaign season. This program saw series of youth mobilization for campaign activities, taking place simultaneously at the grassroots level in all the 275 constituencies. The youth campaign strongly at vantage areas including
- street corners
- lorry stations
- community parks
- bus stops etc.
COMMUNICATION / INFORMATION DISSEMINATION
28 The Youth Must Know Series: In order to bridge the information gap observed within the youth especially with the misinformation and propaganda from the opposition, the Youth Must Know series of press conferences were introduced to address pertinent issues. This initiative always set a good agenda for the government and enhanced it’s image in the sight of the Ghanaian youth.
- The National Youth Wing Call and Communication Center: The call and communication centre was primarily set up to streamline communications. These included
- aiding communication with youth in the various constituencies
- collect feedback on Youth Wing programs
- Bulk SMS system was set up to send messages to Free SHS beneficiaries eligible to vote based on their database accessed by the National Youth Wing.
- NPP Youth Wing Social Media Team: Due to the importance of social media in disseminating information, a Youth Wing Social Media Army was set up. This ensured that the party through the regional youth wings was well represented on the social media space.
WELFARE
- The National Youth wing through the Regional Youth wings has provided timely support in the form of financial advances to several youth across the country over the period. Such delicate supports have largely focused on:
- Education
- Health
- Family related
- Development of a framework for the establishment of a robust NPP Youth wing Welfare Scheme is far advance and will be roll out soon.
LEADERSHIP / ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
- The Youth Leader, Nana B was appointed as Spokesperson for the Presidential Legal Team for the 2020 Presidential Election Petition
- Nana B was twice Elected as the Vice Chairman for the International Young Democratic Union, A global alliance for Centre-right political youth organizations and the Young wing of International Democrat Union.
- Nana B was Member 2020 NPP National Campaign Team
- Nana B was appointed as Member of the Board of the National Youth Authority(NYA) which successfully constructed 10 new Youth Resource Centers in the regions across the country.
