Photos: From youthful voice to political power in Ghana – Elorm Mensah motivates NDC youth

At a gathering of student leaders and party activists, the National Democratic Congress (NDC’s) National Deputy Women Organizer, Abigail Elorm Mensah, delivered a pointed message to the country’s youth: visibility is not the same as influence.

Speaking to members of the Tertiary Education Institutions Network (TEIN) at AUCB, she urged young people to move beyond online engagement and into the structures where decisions are made.

“A voice can inspire,” she said, “but power writes policy.”

Her remarks come at a time when youth participation in political discourse is high, yet representation in formal decision-making remains limited.

While young Ghanaians are active across social and digital platforms, many are absent from party leadership, governance, and policy spaces.

Rejecting the notion that leadership is reserved for age, she argued that political authority must be earned through preparation, discipline, and service—not delayed by convention.

Young people, she said, must engage political systems directly: joining party structures, building competence, and contesting for leadership roles.

She placed particular emphasis on the role of young women, challenging them to move beyond supportive roles into positions of authority.

Their participation, she noted, is essential not only for inclusion but for the quality of leadership itself.

Her address framed the current moment as a generational turning point.

The choice facing Ghana’s youth, she suggested, is whether to remain a visible but peripheral force—or to become central actors in shaping national outcomes.

“The future,” she concluded, “will not reward the loudest voices, but the most prepared.”