“The Akufo-Addo/Bawumia government is pumping millions into the media to cover their incompetence and manufacture another version of reality for us. They take all of us as being dumb, so they pay the media to tell a certain story and change the narrative,” the National Youth Organizer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), George Opare Addo, popularly known as Pablo, disclosed during the NDC Youth Manifesto launch at UPSA in Accra on Monday.
Pablo condemned the government’s failure to address the country’s pressing issues, highlighting the alarming 21.7% youth unemployment rate, with 1.4 million young people without jobs, and 8.4 million Ghanaians going without food daily.
“We are all too familiar with the 001 or 100 or 000. This has become a formula that most of us live by. And if you don’t understand it, what it simply means is that one stands for the only meal you have a day,” he added.
The NDC Youth Wing Leader criticized the government’s response to citizens’ concerns, citing examples of excesses such as the president’s $17,000-an-hour private jet hire, the appointment of friends and family to high positions, and lavish spending on condoms, air conditioning, and tourism capacity building.
“When we tell them our women give birth in hospitals without beds and lights, the President responds by hiring a private jet at $17,000 an hour. When we tell them young people struggle without jobs, they answer you by appointing their friends and families into high places.”
Pablo emphasized that the government has become the problem, with daily scandals and no solutions to the country’s challenges.
“They don’t care about you. We complain about higher rents and they respond by installing 11 air conditioners in a two-bedroom house. And as if that is not enough, the owner of the two-bedroom house is appointed board chairman.”
The NDC Youth Wing is calling for change and accountability from the government, urging citizens to demand better from their leaders. “We elected governments to solve our problems. Unfortunately, this government has become our problem that you and I will have to deal with every day,” Pablo said.