"It is only a ‘mad man’ who will sleep under his roof burning…….” (Chinua Achibe - Things Fall Apart). It should not surprise anybody when I say there are ‘mad men’ within our party who are currently sleeping under our roofs burning. One such person is the NDC national youth organizer, Ludwig Hlodze, who is comfortably and negligently sleeping at the Castle - the seat of government – whiles there is fire on the roof of the party’s youth wing. I refuse to be a ‘mad man’ and that explains my effort at putting out this piece of article hoping that those who have ears will hear and act accordingly. What I basically seek to do with my article is to draw the attention of the NDC leadership to this leadership vacuum that exists and to call on Ludwig Hlodze to do the honorable thing by resigning from the position for a more serious and committed youth to lead the NDC youth wing. Apart from the fact that Ludwig is ineffective as a youth organizer resulting from his double roles, his quest to hold on to several positions within both party and government constitutes greed in contrast to the very values that must guide us as a party in the NDC. Some supporters of the NDC youth organizer will ask why I have chosen to use the media to address this matter instead of using ‘appropriate party channels’ but I have an answer for them. This thing about internal or appropriate channels is a myth. Besides, the media is the oxygen of democracy and therefore, unless they want us to suffocate with our opinions, there couldn’t be a more appropriate channel than the media. And we know that, as a youth of the NDC, the appropriate channel which is the youth organizer Ludwig Hlodze has been blocked. Ludwig could have been better placed to listen and act on the problems of the youth due to his proximity to the President. Instead, the highly agitated NDC youth have decided to use crude means of registering their concerns to the NDC leadership; WHY? WHY? Because Ludwig is an inaccessible youth leader. Yet, we had some ministers of state pointing fingers to some personalities. It was obvious to me that such ministers who made such a suggestion were either naïve of the problems facing the NDC youth or they were being mischievous. Of course, if they had no adequate understanding of the problem, they certainly couldn’t find a solution to it. LUDWIG IS THE PROBLEM… Ludwig Hlodze deceived the gullible NDC youth to vote him as youth organizer. Before his election, he was deputy youth organizer. He worked hard then, and contributed to the victory indeed. However, after winning power, the man who prides himself-and indeed has boasted severally of being the scheduling officer to President Mills has woefully failed to get TEIN members, youth organizers and other youth affiliates engaged in any role in the better Ghana agenda. Indeed, it is an open secret that TEIN chapters cannot even afford to design banners on the various campuses to welcome their fresh colleagues to schools although their party is in power. This clearly shows a neglect of the NDC youth by its national organizer. He has created a gulf between himself and the NDC youth without a doubt. Even though there was a directive that people who wanted to vie for various party executive positions must not already be serving public officers, Ludwig violated this directive and went ahead to promise the youth of his commitment and readiness to do his work well. He even sited Haruna Iddrisu the former national youth organizer who also dabbled as a member of parliament as an example to support his argument. But as it is now, Ludwig is a pale shadow of his predecessor in terms of his performance and delivery as a national youth organizer. The main spirit behind the party directive before the election of national officers was to ensure that officers paid full attention to their duties. This however was violated by Ludwig due to avarice on his part. When Ludwig took advantage of the president‘s visit to Kumasi to campaign for youth organizer, I was a part of his audience. He was accused of neglect and refusal to communicate with the youth. These accusations he didn’t deny except to say that he was really too busy to engage in private conversations. He also promised to change and relate better after his election. Knowing that these promises alone was not enough, Ludwig with the help of the presidency employed several machinations which indeed are alien to the NDC and eventually ‘stole the verdict’ in the Sunyani congress and true to his words, and not surprisingly, he has gone back to lording it over the NDC youth and treating them with disdain. I can say without any fear of contradiction that Ludwig Hlodze is a failed youth organizer of the NDC and his failure is being clearly manifested in the widespread agitations by NDC youth all over the country. I’m beginning to wonder if he attends functional executive committee (FEC) meetings or national executive committee meetings (NEC). He has totally lost touch with the people and it is so objectively factual that he is going to go down as the most unpopular NDC youth organizer ever. When he wanted power, he asked to be voted a youth organizer who will operate from the party secretariat but he now prefers to stay at the castle with the president. The truth may be bitter but must be spoken. It is for this reason that I call on all well meaning youth of the NDC to join hands with me to make a clarion call on Ludwig Hlodze to either resign from the castle and concentrate on serving the NDC youth from the secretariat or resign as the NDC youth organizer if he wants to work with the president. Right now, I’m convinced that he cannot handle both jobs efficiently and effectively. Indeed, when the centre (Ludwig Hlodze) cannot hold, things (the youth) fall apart. So the question is, should generations forgive the President if the party goes into hibernation as a result of keeping Ludwig at the castle at the expense of the party? The cupidity that has suddenly appeared in our party will influence some people to dismiss my article as containing no substance. But to such persons, I will refer them to a saying from Ola Rotimi in his book ‘the gods are not to blame’ in which he says that ‘’All lizards lie prostrate, and with that it is difficult to tell which one suffers from a belly ache……..however with time the pain will make one of them lie flat on its back, then shall that which has been unknown be made known’’. They should continue to live in CLOUDCUCULAND. We must all remember one of the fundamental principles of the NDC: the courage to speak the truth and stand by it no matter the cost. Long live the NDC youth. By Brogya Genfi (aka Armani), founder, Organised Youth in Ashanti