Former President John Dramani Mahama has said the youth are disappointed in the country’s democratic governance and its leaders and has, therefore, called on the political class and traditional leaders to listen to the cries of young people and create sustainable jobs for them.
According to Mr Mahama, youth unemployment is a threat to the nation and no leader will be spared the wrath of the youth if they decide to go on the rampage over it.
Comparing the #EndSARS movement in Nigeria to the #FixTheCountry movement in Ghana, Mr Mahama said the Ghanaian youth demonstrators were civil and their call must be heeded.
Speaking at a meeting with the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, as part of his Thank You tour on Tuesday, 17 August 2021, Mr Mahama denied and described as “lies”, allegation that he sponsored the #FixTheCountry demonstration two weeks ago.
The former Ghanaian leader told the chiefs: “Our youth are getting disappointed in our democratic governance; they don’t see any future for themselves. Youth employment has been a problem for governments all over the world but it’s, particularly, a problem for governments in Africa”.
“We have 12 million graduates coming out of universities and tertiary institutions all across the African continent and yet we are producing between six to seven million jobs a year, and, so, what happens to the other five million graduates who cannot find employment? And it’s beginning to show in other countries”, he said.
“In Nigeria, they had the SARS movement. It was like a rebellion against police oppression but who are those who took part in the SARS movement? It was unemployed youth and the point is: let’s not think if you’re enriching yourself, you are safe. When the youth rise up, they think that everybody living a good life is one of the people oppressing him; that’s why he cannot get a job.”
“And, so, in Nigeria, they went on the rampage on the streets. If you’re driving a nice car, they will break your glass and molest you. Meanwhile, you’re probably not part of the government; you’re a doctor or something and your hard-earned money has bought that Mercedes-Benz car but when they see it, they say: ‘It’s because of you that they cannot get jobs’, and we must not allow that situation to happen in Ghana,” Mr Mahama warned.
He noted: “In Ghana, it is more civilised. What have they [#FixTheCountry Movement] done? They’ve not gone on the rampage. They’ve not destroyed anything and, so, what we should be doing, as leaders, is to listen to them because these are our children and the youth of this country.”
“’Fix it’ is not a problem of only NPP, it’s a problem of Ghana, a problem of all of us and, so, when people in government think that these young people, ‘we must demonise them’, it’s not because of NPP, it’s all of us; they are expressing disappointment in all our collective leadership and the earlier we listen to them, dialogue with them [the better],” he stated.
According to Mr Mahama, if he were president, he would have called a national strategic meeting on “how we can create youth employment, sustainable jobs, because no one party has the answer.”
“One of them has been hounded out, ‘Afia Something’ because she can’t take it anymore and, so, she has dropped out but her dropping out has not solve the issue of youth unemployment, it’s still there staring us in the face and the government communicators go and lie that I have given them 85,000 pounds and I’ve given them GHS1.5 million for their demonstration; absolute lie,” Mr Mahama said.
The 2020 flagbearer of the main opposition party noted that “those old Machiavellian tactics won’t work”.
“I haven’t given ‘Fix It’ one single cedi and yet [they want] to demonise their leaders, and create the impression that their leaders have collected monies so that you can detach the leadership from their following. For me, I take them seriously because those young people are our children and whether you demonise them or not, the problem of youth unemployment remains and it will continue to grow.”
Mr Mahama explained to the chiefs that he was bringing the issue before them “because you, as our fathers and as a moral voice of society, should be conscious of what is going on”.
“There’s growing insecurity because young people don’t have jobs, many of the armed robbers they are arresting today are our children, they are Ghanaian youth who have dropped out of JHS and SHS or who have finished tertiary institutions and there are no opportunities to find work”, he bemoaned.
“Formerly, if there was armed robbery, we said it was Nigerians [but] today, when you catch armed robbers, you’ll find our Ghanaian youth amongst them”.
“Right now, there’s insecurity in this part of the region. In the night, you must not risk travelling on our highways because your chances of running into highway robbery is very high and, so, these are all things we need to be mindful of.”
Mr Mahama noted that, as the biggest opposition party, the NDC is ready to play its role and will not obstruct government but wants to hold the government accountable and to collaborate with the government where they are doing the right thing in order that life will be better for the Ghanaian people “because one day, however, long it takes, we’ll take the administration of this country again and the country must survive so that when we come into office we’ll be able to continue from where whoever left of.”
Source: Classfmonline.com