Who cares about the youth?

By William Antwi Asiedu

In 1995, the UN General Assembly adopted the World Programme of Action for Youth, setting forth a global framework to address key issues related to youth and reflecting a dialogue that had been ongoing since the 1960s. All these were meant to make life better for the world’s youth. But is that the case today?

Recently in Ghana, the issue of a working national youth policy has become a matter of what I would describe as a political merry-go-round. The last time I checked, the appointment of the Acting Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council, Dr Sekou Nkrumah had been terminated. 

He was ‘disappointed’ allegedly because he was ‘incompetent.’ Presently, there is no substantive Co-ordinator of the National Youth Council. So clearly, there is a crack in the co-ordination of affairs on the youth front in Ghana.

Sometimes, I am tempted to believe that older people, especially those in leadership positions, do not care so much about the future because after all, they will not spend much time in ‘the future.’ By the time ‘future’ comes they would be dead and gone.

Although the terms youth and young people are conceived differently in various parts of the world, they most commonly refer to adolescents and young adults between the ages of 10 and 24, where adolescent describes those between 10 and 19 years; youth describes those between 15 and 24, and ‘young people’ can be used to describe either grouping. Despite these commonly used categories, countries often use different distinctions, and ‘youth’ can include people up to the ages of 29 or 35.

Youth is thought to be a transition stage between childhood and adulthood, but it is a very challenging period of time when many significant life events occur and decisions are made. That is why the leadership of the country should not toy with issues concerning the youth at all!

Development, peace, and participation have been the three most popular themes in the past four decades to raise issues of concern for the youth. Reflecting these themes, the World Programme of Action for Youth outlined 10 priority areas of concern for young people. These included education, employment, hunger and poverty, health, environment, drug abuse, juvenile delinquency, leisure time activities, girls and young women and participation. 

The UN Commission for Social Development had also identified five new priority areas significant to the well-being of young people: Globalization, information and communication technologies, HIV and AIDS, conflict prevention, and intergenerational relations. 

All the above issues have an effect on the youth of Ghana, who constitute a significant group in the country. Their well-being should therefore be of major concern to everybody, but what do we see in Ghana today? Well, I see a neglected youth whose lives are left in their weak and unskilled hands by the country’s leaders (in all spheres of life).

According to the ‘Advocates for Youth’, a group committed to youth empowerment, millions of adolescents face the prospect of early marriage, early childbearing, incomplete education and the threat of HIV and AIDS. And the youth of Ghana are not left out.

That is why there is the urgent need to increase the youth's knowledge, improve services for young people and also encourage youth participation in programme decisions in order to help all young people to lead healthier and more productive lives.

 However, it is sad that policy makers, over the years, have not done much to better the lot of the Ghanaian youth. Evidence of this abounds in the country, where many young people are confined to a dangerous life of working and living on the streets and in our prisons; where many of the inmates are young people who are literally wasting away. 

Indeed, some are in jail because they stole plantain or fish. Yes! Stealing is wrong but how many prisoners in the advanced countries are in jail because they stole food?

Experts estimate that in the 49 countries classified as having a high proportion of undernourished people, 110 million youth live in hunger. About 133 million youth in the world are illiterate and the youth comprise 41 percent of the world's unemployed people. 

What a sad story!! The story will get sadder if immediate steps are not taken to straighten things in the social, educational, health, and employment sectors, while eagle eyes are fixed on corruption to check it so that money meant for development will not end up in pot-bellies. 

Gas, Urine expose 21 stowaways

Reports indicate that oil is flowing “waa waa waa waa “ in the Cape Three Points area of the Western Region and that very soon Ghana will become rich; and hopefully life for the people will not remain “pinsooooooooooo.” But sadly, these oil-rich reports have failed to give hope to the Ghanaian youth. Recently, 21 “y-o-o-o-u-u-u-n-n-n-g” men from Takoradi, the Western Regional Capital, whose bodies are solid enough to give them the power to dig all the oil wells in the country, embarked on a dangerous journey to Spain when they hid on a vessel at the Takoradi harbour.

However, an overpowering stench from flatulence and urine in a poorly ventilated corner of the merchant vessel on which they were hiding exposed them. 

Aha! You see, the flatulence alone could have killed the young men because “21 smelling air shots” per day, multiplied by the number of days they would have spent at sea before arriving in Spain, would have been more powerful than any known biological weapon ever produced in history. Ei! Flatulence! My friend, please, don’t joke with it. It is powerful papapapapa!

Please don’t blame these young men because it is quite obvious that they had lost hope in the economy of Ghana. Instead of putting them before court, they should be placed in jobs. But the question is; where are 1.6 million jobs? Uncle E. T, the Employment Minister says he can’t find them. He is going to ask Bro Ablakwa, at the Information Ministry for the jobs.

Reverend Minister swindles young people?

The Criminal Investigations Department of the Ashanti Regional Police Command has reportedly mounted a search for the founder and leader of the New Vision Pentecostal Church, Prophet Daniel Nkansah for ALLEGEDLY defrauding a number of people in Kumasi under the pretext of  taking them abroad.

Prophet Nkansah is also the leader of the New Vision Party, denied the allegation and stated that he was indeed in touch with the France and US Embassy in Accra to secure visas for some people to travel to the respective countries to attend the launch of the New Vision Party. 

Hmmmmmm! Papa Sofo, you are a man of God so I do not think people should talk by heart about you, especially in public but if you dare send any souls to France and/or US, they will flee from you. Period!