Don't allow partisan politics to break your front-student bodies told

Fiapre, (B/A), Nov 30, GNA - Mr Ahmed Ibrahim, the Deputy Majority Whip, at the weekend challenged student bodies not to allow partisan politics to break their front.

He emphasized that the country required a strong and vibrant student body to make inputs into the formulation of legislations and national policies.

Mr Ibrahim who is also the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banda in the Brong-Ahafo Region, threw the challenge at the inauguration of the Student Parliament of the University of Energy and Natural Resources at Fiapre, near Sunyani.

The Public Affairs Department of Parliament with support from the Parliamentary Service Board, is undertaking a programme to establish student parliaments in tertiary institutions in the country.

This, according to the Department, is to inculcate the tenets of parliamentary democracy in the youth, and also afford them the opportunity to learn about parliamentary democracy and its workings.

Mr Ibrahim noted with concern that the unity and oneness which was found at the student front had been dislocated because of partisan politics.

He said because some students bodies had taken entrenched positions in politics, they had allowed their affiliations with political parties to influence and control their thoughts.

He observed that partisan ambitions had taken over the once national interest found at the student front, a situation which according to the MP, had caused the nation dearly.

'The objectivity and constructive criticisms can no more been counted within the student bodies because they no longer use their conscience to help develop national policies,' Mr Ibrahim stated.

Mr Ignatius Baffour-Awuah, the MP for Sunyani West, explained that concept of the student parliament also served as a mechanism to involve the youth in devising ways of debating contemporary issues confronting young people.

He charged the student parliament to use the platform to discuss pertinent issues that were relevant for their survival, such as the provision of quality and affordable education, maintenance of good health, and sanitation.

Mr Baffour-Awuah, who is the Second Minority Whip in Parliament, also asked it to adhere to and cherish the principles of tolerance by guarding against unnecessary confrontations with institutional authorities.

GNA