Some Ghanaians Say the 22 Year-Old-Francisca Oteng Mensah is too Young to Become A Parliamentarian| A Look At How This Has Happened In Other Parts of the World

Yesterday, Francisca Oteng-Mensah, a 22-year old young woman made headlines for beaten the incumbent MP of the Kwabre East Constituency in the Ashanti Region in the New Patriotic Party (NPP) parliamentary primary to become the eventual winner…

She is set to contest the next general elections to become a parliamentarian in the above mentioned constituency—and this has opened a worm hole of discussions on social media, with many people arguing that she is ‘inexperienced’ and too young to become a legislator.

Before, I jump to look at Francisca Oteng-Mensah’s case as nothing peculiar in the world of politics, let me mention that I prefer a 22 year-old inexperience young woman with enough reasoning power to be in a Ghanaian parliament—compared to that old empty legislator who recently said women who commit adultery should be stoned in contemporary Ghana.

The United States has several under 23 legislators—with Saira Blair, 18 years, being one of them. In 2014, Blair made headlines when the young Republican fresher at the West Virginia University won a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates.

In the recent UK’s general election, Mhairi Black, a 20-year-old Scottish student who was studying for her final exams at university won the “Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat from Labour heavyweight and former shadow foreign secretary-Douglas Alexander to become the youngest MP since 1667”.

In 2010, Wyatt Roy won the federal seat of Longman in Austrulia at the age of 20—and became the youngest MP.

As far back as 2002, Anna Luhrmann, 19 at the time became the youngest MP in Europe when she took a seat for the Greens in the German parliament…

Even in Africa, Proscovia Oromait was 19 when she became a member of parliament in Uganda and remains the youngest MP Africa has ever had.

There are several under 25 legislators all around the world, especially in America—and they’ve done great as representatives of their people.

So what is the whole talk about experience and age in relation to Francisca Oteng-Mensah who has secured a ticket, capable of becoming the youngest parliamentarian in Ghana?

I will reiterate that, such energetic and young brains who can at least reason are far better than the many sleeping men who have taken all the seats in our parliament. I don’t want even want to talk about those who sincerely believe women are inferior and they deserve to be stoned.

Give us a break with the ageism…