A former Majority Leader in Parliament, Dr. Benjamin Kumbour says he refused to contest in the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) primaries in order to give the youth in his constituency the opportunity to go to Parliament.
Dr. Benjamin Kumbour who is the incumbent MP for Nandom bowed out of the November 7 Parliamentary primaries though he picked his nomination forms.
[contextly_sidebar id=”qs2vLJCbG0RBzySqLe9p5cACpzEX1weT”]Speaking on The Big Issue on Saturday, Dr. Kumbour said he felt it was time for him to groom the younger ones instead of being in Parliament.
“I thought that this is about the time to introduce a younger person that I will have all the energy to support and develop,” he noted adding that recent trends on the global stage shows more youth taking leadership roles.
“I have been meeting with the youth of Nandom, I’ve met with all the identifiable group and they made a clear statement last year that, honourable if you are not going to contest again then this is our year. I listened to their concerns and I thought that this is about the time to introduce a younger person that I will have all the energy to support and develop.”
I’m still popular in Nandom
When asked whether his diminishing popularity in Nandom was anything to go by, Dr. Kumbour said “That is not the case.”
“I didn’t even ask anybody to pick my form. My form was taken in Nandom, before I even got home because the timetable was so short. They had completed the form, I could have asked them not to pick the form but the difficulty was that we would have had the type of situation we had in Damango. So I went home, went round almost all the opinion leaders and tried to explain to them what the dynamics were so when they agreed it was clear that I was not going to stand.”
Give the youth a chance
Dr. Kumbour who had been in Parliament for three terms advised his long serving colleagues to give the youth a chance.
“…There is all this issue about whether people want contest election to have power or to servce. When I see the acrimony across the political divide in almost all the political parties, there is a generational battle that is taking place and we need to manage that generational battle. The youth across Africa and across the country are believing that all the stakes and odds are against them because they are not at the level of decision making. So you find them as very fertile ground for anomic forces to recruit them. and people have to wake up to this reality, loosen up and clear a number of spaces where the youth can really emerge.”
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana