Unemployed youth begins hunger strike

Aggrieved unemployed Malcolm Selase Asamoah on hunger strike at the forecourt of National Service Secretariat in Accra

A young unemployed man, Malcolm Selasie Asamoah has begun a two-day hunger strike due to the collapse of his Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), Graduates Initiative Africa (GIA).

Malcolm, who attributed the collapse of his NGO to alleged unfair practices of the National Service Secretariat (NSS), appealed to President John Dramani Mahama and the Ministry of Education to intervene in the matter.

He called on the President to, as a matter of urgency, instruct the NSS to allow the introduction of the Graduates Fund Project for National Service Personnel nationwide.

He appealed to President Mahama to instruct the NSS to commence negotiations with GIA to ensure deductions in the allowances of National Service Personnel at the District or Municipal level annually to enable his organization resume its operations.

Furthermore, he wants the President to instruct the NSS to pay him compensation commensurate with his untold losses.

Briefing members of the press at the NSS in Accra on Tuesday where he began the hunger strike, he said GIA was made up of over 100 members, who travelled across the nation regularly to meet all graduates offering their national service.

Mr. Asamoah accused the NSS of discriminating against graduates with great ideas to create jobs for themselves by refusing to introduce the Graduates Fund Project nationwide and declining to allow deduction of the allowances of members of GIA who are national personnel.

Meanwhile, he said “while NSS has refused to meet our demands, they are doing the same for a hire purchase company which operates here in Accra, and this is a complete discrimination against the graduate youth of Ghana who we represent.

“If we don’t hear from the President within a week, we the members of GIA would go on a hunger strike till we die,” he said.