Mahama not committed to youth employment – Awuku

Youth wing of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has taken a swipe at President John Dramani Mahama and his National Democratic Congress (NDC) for not being committed to youth employment.

At a press conference in Accra yesterday which was addressed by the National Youth Organiser of the party, Sammy Awuku, the youth expressed fear at the alarming rate of youth unemployment in the country

“We do not see a future for the youth under President John Dramani Mahama and his NDC. What we see is a future of joblessness, indebtedness and hopelessness.

“…for example, in 2015, for every one Ghana cedi, President Mahama invested only 27 pesewas in capital expenditure, building schools, roads, hospitals, and all the infrastructure projects that can create jobs for engineers, builders, painters, welders, teachers, nurses, drivers, etc. So ask yourselves where did the remaining 73 pesewas go?” he stated.

According to him, their fear was further heightened by the latest World Bank report on employment which estimates that 48% of Ghanaian youth are without jobs.

He stressed that what it means was that in the eight years of the National Democratic Congress, nearly half of the young people of Ghana, who are not in school, have no jobs and therefore no income.

He asserted that this was “dangerous, criminal, suicidal and unacceptable for any nation.”

According to Mr. Awuku, President Dramani Mahama, who projected himself as a “youthful” President has, in fact, become the biggest disaster of a President for the youth of Ghana.”

He said whiles Ghanaians were losing their jobs under the “toxic mix of dumsor, criminally inflated electricity prices, high interest rates, high cost of production, and high cost of living all round, President John Mahama and his NDC are still engaged in propaganda with the issue of jobs.”

“Our hopes were once again dashed, when few days ago the Komenda Sugar Factory which was commissioned by President Dramani Mahama had to be shut down barely 48 hours after operation. Indeed, as it has turned out to be, what President Mahama commissioned amid all the pomp and pageantry was an NDC Propaganda hub and not a sugar production hub.”

He contended that all across the country, from the Volta Region to the Northern Region, the youth, especially the many young people who voted for the “younger” President Mahama, have regretted doing so because not only has the President not delivered on his promises, he has actually killed the little hope that was there.

In fact, Mr. Awuku stated that what the youth have witnessed in the last eight (8) years has been gross mismanagement, which has brought about the collapse of productive initiatives created by the erstwhile NPP administration to solve the unemployment situation in the country.

He pointed out that the Mahama-led NDC administration has failed woefully to provide any clear-cut policy direction aimed at systematically training and providing employment opportunities for unemployed youth.

“We have witnessed the metamorphosing of the NPP’s National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP), to a series of stealing schemes, the Mills-led NDC GYEEDA, and now President Mahama’s Youth Enterprise Support (YES). The truth is that President Mahama has used the excuse of creating jobs for the young people of Ghana only to steal and abuse taxpayers’ money.

“…As we head to the November 7th elections, we expect the NDC to start rolling out numerous “youth employment modules,” which again will create avenues for the NDC to steal money and distribute monies and freebies, as they did in 2012. The youth of Ghana must wake up,” he stressed.