Member of Parliament for North Tongu Hon. Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has encouraged the incoming New Patriotic Party administration to consider giving young people appointments to serve in their government.

The legislator who recently retained his North Tongu seat took to his Facebook platform to express gratitude to the National Democratic Congress for giving him the opportunity to serve in the party at a young age himself.

He however emphasised that they young appointees be given support and guidance while suggesting that he was not necessarily given adequate guidance after his appointment as Deputy Minister of Information.

On the back of his party's defeat to the NPP in the just ended December 7 elections, Mr Ablakwa expressed appreciation to late President John Mills and outgoing President John Dramani Mahama for giving him the opportunity to serve in the executive arm of the government in 2009 and 2013 respectively.

His Facebook post read:

As we countdown to January 7, may I take a moment to express my profound gratitude to President John Mills (God bless his soul) and President John Mahama for giving me the opportunity to serve in the executive in 2009 and 2013 respectively.

I am exceedingly grateful to God for seeing me through consistently all these 8 years especially as we must admit that no one Ghanaian is entitled to these ministerial positions as of right and that Presidents like Coaches have the discretionary authority to make substitutions and changes to their team selection as they so desire.

May I also convey my deepest appreciation to the good people of North Tongu for re-electing me to serve in our legislature - a task I pledge to continue to give my all.

I remain thankful to you all for your prayers, advice and criticism.

It's my hope and prayer that the incoming government also affords many young people within their ranks the honour to serve our nation and that those young appointees should receive from us all the support, guidance and encouragement needed to make an impact even if some of us didn't always get that. Every government and every nation including ours needs the collective positive contribution of all, be they young, old, women, men from diverse backgrounds to help move our country forward.

Let's wish the incoming government well for if they succeed, Ghana succeeds and we all succeed.

God bless our homeland Ghana.

Happy new year.

Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa is the outgoing Deputy Minister of Education.

He was appointed Deputy Minister of Information in 2009 after serving as President of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) from 2005 to 2006.

By Musah Abelyire/ghanaguardian.com