Do not lose hope – Nana Addo tells Ghana’s youths

By Kwabena Opong

Legon, Nov. 4: The flag bearer for Ghana’s New Patriotic Party, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, assured students and youths in Ghana Wednesday November 4, not to lose hope “because change is on its way.” Nana Addo was speaking at the 15th anniversary of the NPP’s Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) at the Mensah Sarbah Hall of the University of Ghana.
Nana Addo called on the youth to repose their confidence in the party ahead of the 2016 elections, because of its solid track record in delivering on its promises, as seen from 2001 to 2009. He recalled how at the inauguration of Tescon in May 2000 he made three commitments to be fulfilled when the NPP won the 2000 elections. “I said that if we won, we would repeal the infamous Criminal Libel Law; we would abolish the notorious cash and carry policy in our healthcare system; and we would in the next decade take Ghana from a poor to a middle income status. The NPP in power realised each one of these promises. We repealed the Criminal Libel Law. We abolished cash and carry and introduced the National Health Insurance Scheme. And by 2009, when we left office, Ghana was a middle income country,” he said. “We keep our promises,” he added.
The two-time presidential candidate charged the NPP youth wing of its responsibility to ensure that the party’s message of hope is carried from house to house, college dorm to college dorm until victory is won. This, he explained, can be realised through sending the party’s message of hope to every household, as the goal of an Akufo-Addo government will be “to build a free and prosperous society of opportunities where every Ghanaian child, no matter the circumstances of his or her birth, has an equal chance to strive to build a happy and dignified life.”
Among several policy initiatives which will be implemented under his government to address the concerns of the youth, Akufo-Addo said, his party will be investing in the nation’s institutions of learning to acquire new technology to provide skills and education to the nation of young people who are being left out of the job market.“No nation can afford to marginalise the youth, the very group that makes up the chunk of its labor force. This is something we expected leaders to know. We will be learning from Germany, which has a relatively low level of youth unemployment, to prioritize high-quality vocational courses, apprenticeships and links with industry,” he said.
He added, “Your next NPP government will be a government that promotes policies that add value, because that is the only way we can create a large pool of sustainable good jobs with good pay.”
“On the back of an expanding and diversified agriculture, we will set Ghana on a solid platform for industrialization, which will see economic growth matched by job creation. You know we can do it,” he added.
Nana Addo referred to the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) program as another vehicle for diverting Ghana’s resources. “We have seen this in bodies like GYEEDA and SADA, which were ostensibly set up to stimulate growth and to provide jobs for young people…They became vehicles of corruption. So, too, it appears is the latest body, YES (Youth Enterprise Support), in which high ranking officials are already engulfed in allegations of corruption,” he alleged.
The Mahama administration has “created an unrelenting social crisis in Ghana.” They have no jobs and this situation, the NPP flag bearer is afraid could destroy the future prospects of the youth.

Posted by on Nov 15 2015. Filed under top stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Leave a Reply

Amandlanews.com