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Wake up Ghanaians youth

Sat, 24 May 2008 Source: Manful, Kweku

WAKE UP GHANAIAN YOUTH AND SHAPE YOUR DESTINIES

THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE YOUTH OF GHANA TO WAKE UP AND TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THE SHAPING OF THEIR DESTINY. There is no hope for you and your children unless you ACT NOW.

At this critical moment when all resources (land labour capital) must be mobilised to ensure that our dear Nation achieves and sustains socio-economic and political growth, it beats my imagination why an integral part of this equation (labour) has been marginalised, trivialised and subjected to “political football.” Yes I am referring to Ghanaian Youth (Youth, ages 18 - 35). Let me remind all that the greatest assets of a nation are its Youth? As a nationalist, I cannot sit unconcerned whilst our youth waste their talents as a consequence of botched government policies over the last 26 years of Ghana’s history. It’s rather unfortunate that our scholars have distorted facts in books, journals and in the news media in some inordinate way to misinform you about where our nation has come from and where it’s going. I pray that someday, someone somewhere, will write books about our history without distorting facts and make them available to schools, colleges and higher institutions in our nation for studies to replace European and America history which do us no good.

If you have not been told, your educational destinies changed direction in the 80’s with a bizarre educational policy implementation by the P/NDC. What is this policy I’m talking about? It’s the Junior/ Senior Secondary System. By all accounts, the intent and purposes of the JSS/SSS was/is good as it was/is in line with the educational system in North America. Ask me was there any policy research initiatives done before its implementation? Were there adequate infrastructures put in place to support the new system? Books, tools, proper supervision, teachers/staff preparation for the new responsibilities. Was the economy adequately prepared to absorb the products of the new educational system? None whatsoever!

This was a diabolical policy implementation ever undertaken by our nation. As a result of this our nation stands to suffer since manpower/human development is one of the most significant factors of production. The aftermath of this policy fiasco is a complete topic by itself and I need not touch it.

Since the greatest assets of a nation are its Youth, our nation has been weakened as a result of mistakes done in the past 27 years. It is affecting and will continue to affect economic development. Visit the cities and towns and you will be appalled by the number of strong minded, able bodied intelligent young men and women all trying to make a living selling “pure water”, peeled sugar cane, phone cards, pushing carts, shoe shine and many more unskilled trades in a country that claims to be the mother of democracy, education and civilization in sub Saharan Africa.

These JSS/SSS graduates left school without any skills sets. In reality it is the welders, carpenters, account clerks, plumbers, nurses, teachers, commercial drivers, mechanics, machinists, farmers etc who should be the “movers and shakers” of the economy and yet these are the professions we frown upon in our Ghanaian society. If I may ask, is this a legacy left by the British? Or our own mine sets?

The intent of the JSS/SSS system was to prepare students for these professions whilst the others continue to higher institutions.

Youth of Ghana, there is a great law that I want to draw your attention to and goes like this:

“God and Nature first made you what you are, and out of your own creative genius, you have to make yourselves into what you want to be.”

I believe in 15- 20 years’ time, you would be running the affairs of the nation, some in very sensitive positions, in politics, business, academics, banking, sciences, media trades etc. But you don’t want to be struggling with weak foundation as a result of insensitive government policies taken before you. “It is BETTER TO PREPARE for heaven and die to find out that there is no Heaven, than NOT TO PREPARE and die only to find out that there is a Heaven”. It would be too late. Do not allow the destinies of your children be dictated to by the saboteurs who are bent on controlling what kind of food to eat, cloths to wear, kind of social life to lead. Their accomplices are the same people who come to you every 4 years, cajole, use and discard you when out of use. They come with a veil and shrouded slogans like, “indigenous capitalism” and “AKATAMANSO”. They have enriched themselves to your disadvantage. Ask them where they got their monies (as civil servants) for the extravagant presidential primaries, mansions, expensive cars, sponsorship of their children’s education abroad expecting you to languish in the local educational system that they have helped to destroy?

For the past 25 years, we have witnessed a crescendo of international loans without proper thought out plans. Mansions, Presidential jets, mass unemployment, misplaced priorities, unbalanced & misleading budgets, looting and sale of Ghana’s natural resources, ridiculous sale and annihilation of the nation’s infrastructure and corporations, sucking up to the IMF/WB and killing of viable local industries. As I speak, MANUFACURING Industry in Ghana is totally collapsed. Instead the NPP has allowed their paymasters to use Ghana as dumping ground with their factory rejects. I’m sorry NPP, but we are not inferior people.

The 20 wasteful years of the P/NDC should be enough. We cannot afford to subject the nation and its marginalised people to further years of destruction. Now they have the guts to tell you to reject the NPP. Isn’t that ironic? Mr. Peter Ala Adjetey (a renowned statesman whom I hold in high esteem) repudiated his own Party (NPP) for lack of policies and direction? His words are not in any way condescending, but bare facts. NPP should now be called No Policy Party.

In effect P/NDC and NPP are the same. They have woefully failed to lead the nation.

Now this is a message for the Youth of Ghana: Let the sky and God be your limit, and Eternity your measurement. Yes You. There is no height to which you cannot climb by using the active intelligence of your own minds. Mind creates, and as much as you desire you can have through the creation of our own minds. Another day has come, to test the worth of your character. Your lives and homes, you see, are threatened by each bad policy implementation. The time is now, for you to do and then to dare.

Now this is your Duty Tomorrow:

With God’s Grace, forget not the past with all its good and ill tales. Contemplate your future by the experiences you have had. The CPP has a well documented record of empowering the youth, giving equal opportunity to all to belong and to become. If you must strike to live, strike hard and surely reject the P/NDC and the NPP. The CPP has a new dynamic youth organiser in the person of James Kwabena Bomfeh. A selfless dedicated youth, blessed with wisdom from above. The passion he has for youth empowerment is above reproach. He has put his life on the line to ensure that the youth are given a voice and opportunity in the policy direct of the nation.

The time has come FOR THE YOUTH OF GHANA TO WAKE UP AND TAKE AN ACTIVE ROLE IN THE SHAPING OF THEIR DESTINY. This is your time. I am reminding you that the worst thing to be without is HOPE. Yes YOU CAN! And the time is now! There is hope. Your hope is in the courage of the time, so go ye forth and win the battle that is sublime. Act now!!

Calling all Ghanaian Youth to write to these respective addresses. If you live in:

1/ North America and Australia: write to the CPP North America Branch via [email protected].

2/ UK, Northern Ireland, Far East & Europe: please write to [email protected].

3/ Youth in Ghana should write to Mr. Kwabena Bomfeh at [email protected].

God Bless our homeland Ghana.

Kweku Vice-Chair CPP North America



Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.

Columnist: Manful, Kweku