IMANI boss warns of youth uprising

Head of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, is warning of a possible youth uprising, akin to what was seen in the Arab Spring, as he sees “raw and brewing anger in the eyes of the many disgruntled youth whose lives could have been positively affected by a fraction of the official loot.” According to the IMANI boss, “These economic and Machiavellian attempts at disenfranchising able bodies will leave them with no option than to attack us physically at some point.”

Franklin Cudjoe’s comments were made on his Facebook wall hours after touching down at the Kotoka International Airport from Morocco to news of “grand theft, grand looting of the state's purse with very little in sight of any attempts, if at all, to stem the tide.”

His comments were made in an apparent reference to the Ghc144 million GRA/Subah scandal that has hit the nation, stating emphatically that “I'm becoming very scared for my life, your life and possibly that of the powers that be.”

Corroborating the assertions made by the IMANI boss, a report on CNN on how the Youth of Africa can go the way of the Arab Spring explained that “Youth unemployment and underemployment in Sub-Saharan countries is cancerous and the primary cause is the corrupt, unfavourable and discriminatory policies of gerontocratic systems with unfettered control over most government branches.”

According to the report, The Arab Spring proved that despite the dictatorial political systems in countries like Libya, Egypt and Tunisia, where the youth was suppressed for so long, the increasing "battalion" of unemployed and peripheralised youths in Sub-Saharan Africa can also stir-up upheavals and unleash mayhem that will undermine the stability of democracy in most countries and change governments.

When the New Statesman contacted one of the aspiring National Youth Organisers of the NPP, David Asante, he explained that the youth of Ghana are currently facing a future of hopelessness, with the corruption and grand thievery that is going on under the leadership of the John Mahama-led National Democratic Congress government.

According to King David, statements from former President Rawlings, Brigadier General Nunoo Mensa present two sides of the coin, with one pointing to the rot that is going on in Ghana whilst those in officialdom, instead of addressing the problems are rather asking Ghanaians to leave the country, “if the kitchen is too hot.”

Former President Rawlings recently said that President Mahama has surrounded himself with “crookish monsters” and “greedy bad ones” bent on looting the scarce resources of Ghana. Unfortunately, he added that President Mahama is “unable to kick the bad ones away, and I guess it’s because he doesn’t know about some of them and their nature.”

President Rawlings, in the run-up to the December 2012 elections, also noted that the nation’s resources were being controlled by a few “greedy bastards” in the country.

King David noted that Ghanaian Youth are well aware of how the governing NDC deliberately set up phony and ghost companies in the lead up to the 2012 elections for the sole purpose of illegally diverting state funds into sponsoring the party's re-election bid as contained in the GYEEDA report.

“What this Government is effectively doing is building a future of debts for the youth of Ghana to inherit and struggle with, when ironically over the last four years alone official records show that Ghc950 million has been spent directly in the name of creating youth employment, but with evidentially very minimal impact in the lives of the youth of this country,” Kind David lamented.