Ghana’s joblessness, debt frightening – Togbe Afede

The Agbogbomefia of the Asogli State Togbe Afede XIV has said the joblessness among the youth and the country’s debt is frightening and a threat to the future peace and stability of the country.

According to Togbe Afede XIV, if Ghana were a company, it would not have survived.

Speaking at a durbar of the Asogli Trdaitional Council to welcome former President John Dramani Mahama as part of hos ‘Thank You’ tour of the Volta region, the former President of the national house of chiefs also raised concerns about the spate of corruption arguing that it undermines development.

He said “The joblessness in our country is frightening, the fact that our young men and women could be out of school as many as five years and still be looking for jobs, that is indeed very frightening. Apart from problems of our underdevelopment, the joblessness we are also confronted with, mounting national debt, indebtedness to the tune of 80 per cent of GDP is massive and frightening and indeed it’s a threat to our economy and also to our future peace and stability.”

“If Ghana were a company,” Togbe Afede XIV noted “certainly it would not have survived.”

He explained that “nations can always issue new debt as we’ve been doing to finance old debt but of course that option is not available to corporations and that is why we still survive not withstanding our holding so much in terms of debts.”

“I’m also very concerned about the level of corruption in our country. Corruption undermines our development. I have always said corrupt officials are like termites under a woodwork eating at the very foundations of our development,” he bemoaned.

He stressed that “our low level of development, our lack of basic amenities and infrastructural facilities, joblessness that our youth have to deal with, our growing indebtedness and of course our levels of corruption are all threats to our future survival and threats to our peace and security”.

In his view, “we can resolve all these challenges and turn our beautiful country into a paradise in which our people will be happy. I believe we have the resources and mobilisation is what we need to undertake urgently in order to bring development to our people.”

Togbe Afede XIV further noted that changing the fortunes of the country will require a change in the nature of Ghanaian politics.

“I’ve always said that a winner takes all kind of politics does not auger well for our peace and unity which are essential for our development. Politics that excludes some people is not healthy. Unfortunately, for many of us, exclusivity is good so long as we are the beneficiaries. We must all aspire to bring in everybody involved in our development process …it is unfortunate that sometimes parties in power think that only their members deserve to live. Our lives are inextricably linked and we are strong together,” he stated.

He continued that “secondly, we also need to respect the truth. The truth is very important. Today, we are not sure what the truth is because of the amount of propaganda that fills our airwaves. Without adherence to the truth, our country cannot march forward. The most developed countries are the ones that uphold the path of the truth and we should all aspire to hold onto the path of strictest honesty in all that we do and in particular in our elections, truthfulness in our elections is very important…”