Fix the country or yourself: The youth are crying

“A scroll through social media you’ll get the feel of how young people have transformed digital spaces into a small-scale version of what the Ghanaian should or should not be. If only their ideas and passion in the digital space could be transformed to engage and used to participate on the ground, then there is a light at the end of the tunnel.”

So, what now after the FIX THE COUNTRY DEMO OR FIX YOURSELF?

I asked this question a few weeks ago and I ask again, what do you want from our leaders?

I have three areas of this subject matter to discuss: Education, Employment and Environment. So, my question is, how are our leaders handling their personal views alongside their hopes for this country, the extent to which government is a servant to the people. How does the government consider the citizenry not as spectators but citizens, while the country is riddled with all these many problems? And, how do we break the barriers that breed cynicism and apathy among young people?

On Education: The youth recognize government support but lament poor access to quality education due to lack of good school infrastructure, which has come with the introduction of the free SHS. In our colleges, they are complaining about high cost of admission fees etc.

Speaking to some of the youths they also noted the continuing threat to peace and security, and teachers struggling with low morale due to pay issues and outdated and inadequate learning facilities is a major one for them. Those from remote rural communities would rather stay home, because while the cost of tuition is waived, they still have to worry about where to get the money for transportation and food, forcing them to drop out of school.

On Employment: Young Ghanaians are talented and ingenious yet there’s little support for them to become entrepreneurs. They recommend increased access to micro-financing opportunities or credit to enable young people to start their own businesses and eventually generate jobs. The youth want the government to develop what they call a Regional Career Management Center (RCMC) which should be linked to our education system that will help in the development of entrepreneurs to promote courses that are more relevant to the needs of their localities, instead of those that zero in on high-income jobs in big cities and abroad.

On Environment (Sanitation): The youth need to promote the campaign on the fight against galamsey and its effects on our water bodies, but what the youth are saying is the government’s failure to bring to light progress on action taken against the people who were arrested before and now makes it difficult for them to trust the government. If they get informed on what has been done to these people, it will encourage them to help in the fight against this environmental canker. It doesn’t help that governments have also failed to enforce environmental laws either.

So, we suggest the development of a public list of area-specific environmental problems and efforts made to tackle these. And to address it holistically down the line, we recommend environmental education to penetrate households in the villages and in our cities.

We believe there’s distrust in youth-oriented government agencies. We say this since officials heading these agencies are usually political appointees or connected with political parties, making them vulnerable to undue influence, corruption, and abuse. A more objective composition with less government intervention should be sought in achieving better representation in government offices.

So, what we want as youth is that leadership should sit up and begin to fire those officers who are sleeping on the job and also give more youth the chance to serve in ministries, as it is clear there are so many people serving today who have passed the retirement age.