UE YOUTH SLAM CALLS ON HLODZE TO RESIGN (PAGE 13, JULY 15, 2010)

THE Youth Wing of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the Upper East Region has slammed calls by some youth activists of the party for what they term incessant verbal attacks on the National Youth Organiser, Mr Ludwig Hlodze.
According to the leadership of the youth of the NDC in the region, such incessant verbal attacks and constant calls on Mr Hlodze to resign was premature and unjustifiable.
A statement signed and released by the Regional Youth Organiser of the NDC, Mr Robert Yeli-oni, said those pushing for the resignation of Mr Hlodze must exercise a lot of restraint and decorum about their differences with the style of leadership of some national leaders of the party.
It made reference to recent demands by Mutala Ibrahim, a Deputy National Youth Employment Programme Co-ordinator, and an earlier one by Mohammed Mubarak (Ras Mubarak), a youth activist, on Mr Hlodze to resign his position and described such calls as not only baseless and unnecessary but also premature.
It explained that Mr Hlodze and his deputies had been in office for just six months and had been working very hard with the various regional executives and tertiary institutions on how to mobilise resources and logistics to put the youth in productive ventures, adding that following the youth summit in Ho in April 2010, a lot of data had been collected and a number of programmes drawn up, all targeted at equipping the youth of the party.
“We want to believe that Mr Mutala and others who think like him are probably ignorant of these activities for the youth, hence their accusations are empirically and poorly underpinned.
The demand for Mr Hlodze’s resignation is purely ill-conceived and diabolical, aimed at disrupting the solid foundation laid for the youth of the party,” it said.
“We wish to further state that as humans, Mr Hlodze may have his weaknesses. However, it is our conviction that his critics have not been fair to him, since they blatantly failed to provide any evidence of his non-performance but rather focused on a petty generalisations that he doubles as a presidential aide,” it added.
The statement advised that “as much as it is their right to criticise our leaders, it should be done within the confines of laid down structures in the party, instead of the constant recourse to the media”.
The leadership of the Upper East Youth Wing admonished the national youth organiser not to be distracted by those negative criticisms but rather focus on the ultimate objective of engaging and pursuing the interest of the generality of the youth to propel the party into another victory in 2012, as was done by his predecessor, Mr Haruna Iddrisu.