After Pablo, who? The question every NDC youth must answer

I have been asking myself a question for some weeks now, and I want to put it before every young person in the National Democratic Congress.

What happens to the youth after the victory?

Many young people in the NDC were present in 2024. Showed up for rallies, on the ground, at the polling stations, and stayed up through the nights. Many gave their time, their data for social media engagements, their money, no matter how insignificant it was, and their energy because they believed in the reset agenda of President John Mahama.

They were told on different platforms that the youth are the backbone of the party, and that wasn’t a lie.

But the campaign is over, and power has been won. So let me ask: does the backbone still matter when the body is now standing? And who will make sure that it does?

These are not idle questions, because across the world young people are no longer waiting for anybody's permission to matter.

In 2024, young people in Kenya forced their government to drop a Finance Bill. They were not divided by political party affiliations, nor ethnicity, nor religion. They took the bill, broke it down, explained it on TikTok in the local languages, and organized X spaces.

Young lawyers came out to help arrested protesters. Young doctors set up clinics. Young designers made the posters. Every young person brought their expertise to champion one cause.

In the same vein, in Senegal, young Senegalese carried PASTEF from persecution to power. Bassirou Diomaye Faye came out of prison and, less than two weeks later, won the presidency in the first round at 44.

That made him Africa's youngest elected leader. But for me, the bigger lesson came months after. The same youth went back to the polls and gave the party a commanding majority in parliament. They won power, and they consolidated it.

Then look at Nepal and Madagascar in 2025. Young people organizing on Discord, Instagram, and Facebook brought down governments within weeks. These young people were displeased about how their futures were mortgaged. They achieved results. This should tell us the force of young people.

Even in Ghana, a more relatable context for the majority reading this, between 2021 and 2024, we witnessed key national protests across the country; chief among them were #FixTheCountry, #StopGalamsey, and #OccupyJulorbiHouse. Many of us know the impact of these protests on the general election in 2024.

So the message is clear. Young people will organize, with political parties or without them. When a party gives them purpose, structure, and respect, they become its greatest strength. When it treats them as people to be called upon only at election time, they will find their power somewhere else. Sometimes that place is the streets.

Pablo's Less-Talked-About Legacy in the NDC

This is why I believe the young people in the NDC, who profess party loyalty, want succession, and believe in the place and impact of young people in the party, must pause and give credit where it is due. In Ghana's 2024 election, the party saw something novel, and one man was at the centre of it: Hon. George Opare Addo, Esq.

I had the distinct privilege of being among a group of young people who volunteered at the NDC Youth Office ahead of the elections – where I served as the Team Lead for the Research and Content Team. So let me make this clear: I didn’t write this from a distance. I wrote it from a place of experience – in history, it is called “an eyewitness account.”

Pablo did not just lead the youth wing. He rebranded and organized it. He gave it a modern, national identity. The “Green Army” became more than just a name tag for the NDC youth wing. It became a structure, a discipline, and a sense of belonging. He brought in young people who were good at research, communications, tech, law, operations, and fieldwork, and he didn't just bring them in.

He equipped them, trusted them, and gave them space to work under distinct roles and targeted committees across the country. Under him, the NDC launched Ghana's first-ever Youth Manifesto. For once, young people were treated as a constituency with ideas, not just a crowd to fill a park.

The youth wing became attractive. Young people wanted to be part of it, and the NDC became attractive to many young people because of it. Arguably, for the first time in Ghana’s recent political culture, young people at various levels of higher education were easily drawn to and associated with the NDC. For many of us who gave a part of our student lives to student governance or politics, we saw how politics of identity drastically shifted in favor of the NDC.

In October 2026, he once again masterminded the organization of the maiden edition of the National TEIN Conference. One that saw the rank and file of the NDC participating actively.

The country noticed the relentless efforts of Pablo. Before President Mahama named even his first set of ministers, conversations were going on everywhere that if a dedicated ministry was going to be created for young people as promised in the NDC’s manifesto, there was no person better fit to serve as its minister than Pablo. And that was undeniably uncontested. He had made the case for himself with his work.

And he has not disappointed in that role. As Ghana's first Minister for Youth Development and Empowerment, he has taken youth issues that were scattered across different ministries and brought them under one roof. The National Youth Authority (NYA), the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), the National Entrepreneurship & Innovation Programme (NEIP), and the National Service Authority (NSA) now work under one ministry with one agenda. Under his leadership, the Ghana Youth Federation, led by its President, Sherif Ghali, is fully functional and has gained global recognition.

Through the Adwumawura initiative, over 10,000 young people were admitted into the maiden cohort to build their own businesses, and grants have started reaching thousands of them. At least 60 percent of the opportunities were reserved for women, persons with disabilities, and young people leaving galamsey.

The National Apprenticeship Program passed its target of 10,000 and reached over 14,000 beneficiaries. He has pushed the YEA to move beyond temporary placements towards jobs that are sustainable. He introduced the State of the Youth Address (SOYA) and held the first National Youth Forum, so that young people can sit with the heads of the youth agencies, key policy makers, and hold them accountable face to face.

That is what it looks like when a youth organizer is prepared before the opportunity comes.

His participation in continental and global youth gatherings cannot be overstated. We have seen him make the case for deliberate investment in the Ghanaian youth through the dedicated ministry established for them rather than through fragmentation. An approach that is best practice across the world. This is because young people are a peculiar constituency which cannot be treated as an afterthought.

I believe that a significant number of young people in the NDC haven’t done justice to, or tried to chronicle, the kind of firepower and novelty Pablo has given to the youth structure of the party. One may have issues with any leader, but Pablo’s impact as the National Youth Organizer can only be downplayed by individuals who have failed to do a deep and critical analysis of the structure that existed in years past and compare it to what exists now.

Even the NPP's newly elected National Youth Organizer, Abanga Fuseini Yakubu, inherits a bar that Pablo raised for political youth organization in Ghana.

Now, to Pablo, you didn’t sleep on the job as a National Youth Organizer of the NDC. Even as a Minister of State with numerous national responsibilities that extend beyond a political party, you didn’t give room for excuses. You still show up. I believe any young person, either from the NDC or NPP, who has read this article to this point has a better picture of the work you’ve done so far and is really appreciative of your work and contribution. Ayekoo, Pablo!

The Transition Debate – It cannot only be interest-driven

Pablo is moving on, and the party will soon elect a new National Youth Organizer on December 12, 2026. This, for me, is where we must be very careful.

Pablo himself put the question well. Do we want a youth wing that produces a disciplined, intellectually confident and politically conscious generation? Or one that reduces young people to "foot soldiers for political confrontation"? I agree with him completely.

Winning power and keeping power are not the same thing. In opposition, a youth wing runs on anger and hope. In government, it must run on delivery, action, discipline, and trust. Very soon the young people who voted for change will start asking, " What has changed for us? Whoever becomes the next Youth Organizer will have to answer that question, and their answer can shape the outcome of the 2028 election.

We should also not forget that the world is watching. Ghana is one of the democracies Africa points to with pride. The youth organizer of a governing party is not just a party officer. That person tells the world how young Ghanaians do politics. Will it be ideas or insults? Discipline or violence? Building, or just noise?

So when I think about who should come next, these are the things I look for. I want someone who has already worked with young people at scale and delivered results under real pressure, not someone who is only promising. I want someone who understands both the online and Gen Z space, where opinions are formed, and the ground, where elections are won.

I want someone who knows the youth wing from the inside, every unit of it, and not just the stage. It must be someone secure enough to attract brilliant young people and confident enough to let them shine. I want an individual who must be able to connect the party's victory to real opportunities for the young people who worked for it.

An individual who is tactful and accessible, and fit to represent Ghana's young democracy at home and abroad. And they must be someone who was engaging young people long before this position was on the table, not just now that it is.

Every aspirant in this race brings experience and something valuable, and each one deserves a fair hearing. But the question before us is not who is more experienced and who joined the party before the other. The question is this: who is fit for purpose, at this particular time, to lead the youth wing of a party that is in power and wants to consolidate power.

Think about it. Look at the records. Ask the hard questions. And I hope when you give your answer, you can be accommodating enough to accept and answer questions from anyone who has one.

#NDC #ndcyouthwing #GreenArmy #YouthPower

Justice AlorEmerging Public Policy & Democratic Governance ProfessionalSocial Democrat