Stop paper talk and create jobs - Awuku tells government
The Youth Organiser of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Samuel Awuku, has charged the government to, as a matter of urgency, quicken the pace of solving the unemployment situation in the country.
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Mr Awuku said the teeming unemployed youth were losing their patience, thus the government must move beyond the “paper talk and create jobs”.
The NPP youth leader was speaking at this year’s National Youth Authority’s (NYA) International Youth Day seminar.
He said, “I am convinced that if many of the youth are employed, there will be less agitation as the devil always finds work for idle hands.”
Sammy Awuku said some of the big challenges the country was facing was as a result of the growing anxiety and uncertainty among the youth.
He urged the government to lead the way in hastening the plans to fulfil one of the party’s major campaign promises -creating employment for the youth.
“We have nowhere to go. That is why we are running to government to provide jobs for us,” he said.
“I want the NPP government to know that the youth voted massively for us, so we must also move beyond just the paper talk when we are solving youth unemployment. I say this because, under the previous administration, it was always a fanfare when it was International Youth Day. At least today, we are in the open, so we’ve moved from the air-conditioned room at the conference centre as it used to be to face the reality under the sun. Today, we are faced with big challenges across in terms of our youth. You have growing anxiety and growing uncertainty. And that is why at the least provocation, the youth will either seize something or misbehave,” he said.
However, Mr Awuku condemned some violent actions and demonstrations of the youth across the country at the least provocation.
“It does not make the fight for youth employment and recognition any better; it weakens our front when we engage in these activities,” he counselled the youth.
He pleaded with the youth authority to create a formidable platform for regular engagement with the youth.
In attendance were the Senior Minister, Yaw Osafo-Maafo, who delivered the keynote address, Youth and Sports Minister, Isaac Asiamah, the Chief Executive of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Emmanuel Asigri, and Madam Erika Goldson, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) acting Country Representative.