Member of Parliament for the Madina Constituency, Francis Xavier Sosu, has urged young people not to aspire to be politicians but instead find a career for themselves which can be a lifetime commitment.

He revealed that though he is into politics, he is engaged in a lot of work outside politics. He disclosed that he is currently undertaking a Ph.D. program in law at the University of Ghana which has afforded him a lot of opportunities outside the practice of politics.

“I am actually at the tail-end. I should be graduating this year if God permits and I pray that my supervisors will work with me so that I will be able to tender my final research proposal. It is not an easy thing”.
Esq. Francis Xavier Sosu

The Member of Parliament also admonished the youth not to waste opportunities. He urged young people not to take life for granted and to rise to the occasion when the need arises.

Mr. Francis Xavier Sosu argued that the youth can engage in active politics but also have a life beyond politics. He suggested that serving Ghanaians in politics should be time-bound so that the individual can move on and do what they want to do in their professions.

The Member of Parliament argued that contributing toward Ghana’s development does not require one to be a career politician. He asserted that people can still contribute their quota to national development even outside politics.

He suggested that the trajectory of the world in the 21^st century requires that politicians and aspiring politicians have something beyond politics effectively working for them.

He claimed that the idea that politics is a lifelong career, which it is not, has confused a lot of young people, especially at the tertiary level.

Mr. Francis Xavier Sosu stated that identifying with a political ideology is not wrong. He however indicated that neglecting schoolwork for these ideologies – as it is often the norm – on Ghana’s university campuses is wrong.

Ideology Inclinations An Acceptable Phenomenon

The Member of Parliament opined that students can identify with political parties and their ideologies but their foremost aim should be to get the education and training they are in school for. He asserted that focusing on their education makes them employable after school.

”You are in school to be a student. They turn themselves into politicians in school and they come out of school and they don’t have jobs. They become embittered against political parties”.
Esq. Francis Xavier Sosu

The lawyer and Human Rights activist further disclosed that even though he was an activist at the university, he was never a political activist. He stated that he was not part of any political party in school and his activism aimed at helping the disabled.

Mr. Sosu argued some students in tertiary institutions nationwide engage in so much partisan politics at the risk of not graduating as they barely have time to study and do the coursework required of them.

Most tertiary institutions in Ghana boast of the presence of political parties. Most noticeable of these are the tertiary wings of the two major political parties in Ghana, the New Patriotic Party’s Tertiary Students Confederacy (NPP-TESCON) and the National Democratic Congress’ Tertiary Education Institutions Network (NDC-TEIN).

While the initial aim of both the TESCON and TEIN was to educate students on the ideologies of the NPP and the NDC respectively, these political wings have rapidly metamorphosed into campaign and propaganda machines for their mother parties.

The NDC and the NPP use these wings to spread their agenda on university campuses and what was intended to be an education for students became an indoctrination machine that erodes students of common sense as they push various party agendas.

These political parties make this possible by sponsoring a handful of student leaders and their supporters. It is, therefore, common to hear of political parties sponsoring the SRC election campaign of students on many tertiary campuses.

The remarks of the Member of Parliament follow the increased student participation in politics and the tendency of the youth to choose politics as a career path over many other professions they can choose from.

In conclusion, while politics is seemingly a lucrative venture in Ghana, youth participation has become an occurrence that is most taken advantage of. The youth view it as a means of swift and stress-free financial gain while the political parties involved use the opportunity to drive their agendas.