Arthur K on May Day: Let’s salute honest labour
This is May Day.
Spare a prayer for the youth of Africa-- they have the highest unemployment and underemployment rate in the world-despite Africa having 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies in the world over the last decade.
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Africa graduates 10 million students from our universities and half of them are unemployed.
Seventy percent of workers in sub-saharan Africa still are poor. About 4 in 10 of our youth desire migration.
Despite having 46% of the world's arable land, we spent 35 billion USD importing food last year while thousands of young Africans seeking greener pastures perished in the sands of the Sahara, in North Africa or in the waters of the Mediterranean.
Those who find work have little protection; from abuse from their employers or disabilities and illness resulting from their work.
I remember my Taxi driver friend in Cape Coast who works 14-hour days six days a week. He has a child in a private school and rents a room. By the end of the month, he has hardly anything left. Despite working so hard, he lives on the very edge of poverty. There are also farmers with hardened palms who hardly see any money the whole year round.
Then there is the market woman who leaves her house at dawn and does not return home till it gets dark.
Unfortunately, we celebrate those who have dishonest wealth more than those who toil in poverty honestly.
Let our institutions of higher learning produce graduates who have the skills our nations need.
Let our senior high schools provide career guidance to students that steer them away from non-productive courses in our tertiary institutions.
Let us put the youth who need and want work on our continent to work in farms and factories that pay livable wages so they will stop dying on their way to other continents in search of jobs and opportunities.
Let our governments simplify regulations and build business-related infrastructure so that entrepreneurs can create jobs.
Finally, this May Day, let us all salute those who do an honest days work and support their quest for a living wage.
Arthur Kobina Kennedy
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