Three presidential aspirants to empower youth in job creation

THREE presidential hopefuls in the 2012 race have expressed deep commitment to empowering the youth economically to create jobs.

Presidential aspirants of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom; the Peoples National Convention (PNC), Mr Hassan Ayariga and an independent contender, Mr Jacob Osei-Yeboah, all acknowledged that the development of the Ghanaian youth could improve the country’s fortunes.

The three aspiring presidential candidates were speaking at the 2012 Youth Presidential Dialogue organised by the Africa Youth Network. It was a platform given to all the presidential aspirants for the 2012 polls to engage the youth on their policies and programmes.

Only the three aspirants turned up for the event which also attracted a sparse audience at the national theatre.

When he took the podium with chants of “Edwuma wura,” to wit “employer”, a smiling Dr Nduom told the youth he had a track record of creating jobs that had improved the lives of quite a number of Ghanaians.

Making a case for the PPP, he said the party stood for “jobs, jobs, jobs for every Ghanaian” which remained the focus of the party’s campaign.

He said a PPP government would create a lot of jobs, hence its decision to make education free and compulsory to meet what would become a growing need for a competent human resource.

“Join us the progressives to reinvent ourselves, our attitudes and our way of life as Ghanaians. It is time for our young people to engage in positive activism.”

Urged on by the applause from the audience, he said the jobs the young people were looking for would not come until there was change of governance in the country.

He said a PPP government would use the state purchasing power to create a strong purchasing power that would grow the private sector.

He said the PPP would expand the School Feeding Programme and give every child every day a nutritious meal from fresh foods and drinks produced locally.

“If you do that, then we make sure we put money in the pockets of Ghanaian farmers.”

He said even though the country had gone through military dictatorship over the years, it had now been transformed into what he described as “elected dictatorship.”

According to the PPP flag bearer, the situation needed to be changed.

In his usual blister of attacks of the prevailing system, he rumbled “We must transform the way we govern ourselves. We need a president who is prepared and bold enough to give away some of the powers that the 1992 Constitution gives to that person.”

The PPP flag bearer said it was time to give some of the power back to the people at the district assembly level to elect their own metropolitan, municipal and district chief executives “so that development can start from where it should be at the local level. There if they don’t listen to them, they can vote them out and bring somebody else.”

Dr Nduom reignited the debate about the need to separate the parliamentarians and ministers of state.

In a rather contradictory stand, Dr Nduom who was once a Member of Parliament for the Komenda- Edina- Eguafo- Abrem Constituency and at the same time served as a minister of state during the Kufuor administration said the executive should be removed from Parliament.

“If someone is a Parliamentarian and he is made a minister of state, that person should resign from Parliament so that the Parliamentarian could concentrate on legislation” and not parliamentarian-ministers of state wanting to do the bidding of the government.

That, he stated, would ensure that the office holders whether at the ministerial level or parliament got the full attention to concentrate on their task.

He also touched on the need to separate the job of the Attorney-General from the Minister of Justice and put in their stead, an independent prosecutor so that the country could begin to deal with the corruption in the system.

“Without eliminating corruption, we will continue to throw away billions of Ghana Cedis every year. In my estimation, we lose three billion Ghana Cedis to corruption and waste in government.”

“Think of what we can do, the roads we can build, the hospitals, the better schools and the rail lines throughout this country and think of the jobs we can create with that kind of money,” he added.

On education, he said the CPP was committed to free compulsory and quality basic education from the kindergarten level to the senior high school level.

In an apparent reference to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Nduom said “you cannot build more schools to expand access without making it compulsory so that children can still be cracking stones and still be at the beaches and threaten the future of this country.”

“We have to build more schools, make it compulsory making it free. We don’t want to leave any child whether boy or girl at home.”

In a speech punctuated with the PNC mantra “two sure, two direct,” Mr Ayariga said it was appalling that in spite of the fact that the youth formed the greater percentage of the country’s population, they had been relegated to the background in policy formulation and implementation.

He said a PNC government would tackle the inadequate information made available to the youth to create opportunities for the youth of the country.

“Our administration will work with youth groups and organisations to make government policies and programmes and accessible to the youth. We shall achieve this by involving the youth from policy formulation to implementation.”

“We will make available necessary i information on career building, job creation and innovation and many others that will give the youth the power to rise.”

To position the youth as the engine of growth and de-emphasise the attention of the youth on white colour jobs, Mr Ayariga said capacity building centres would be built across the country.

Mr Ayariga whose speech also touched on the preparedness of the PNC to use agriculture and Information Communication Technology to improve the lives of the country’s youth also urged the youth to prioritise the nation’s peace above all other things.

A relatively young looking, Mr Osei-Yeboah whose sense of optimism was high said the country was struggling because the political elite had not shown any commitment to pursuing a national development agenda.

He said his administration would champion the full implementation of the National Youth Policy.

He observed that without a clear cut national development agenda, there was no coherence in the country’s development leading to the waste of billions of Ghana Cedis.

Mr Osei-Yeboah, therefore, urged the youth to reject the two leading parties as they had no hope for the country’s future.

Mr Emmanuel Ansah-Amprofi, the President of AYONET, urged the leaders of the various political parties not to pay lip service to issues concerning the youth but promote practical and realistic solution to challenges confronting the youth.