Former President John Dramani Mahama
Former President John Dramani Mahama has expressed worry over the soaring youth unemployment in Ghana, which, according to him, is causing a growth in insecurity in the country.
“There’s growing insecurity because young people don’t have jobs, many of the armed robbers they are arresting today are our children, they are Ghanaian youth who have dropped out of JHS and SHS or who have finished tertiary institutions and there are no opportunities to find work”, he bemoaned.
Mr. Mahama said this in a meeting with the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs, as part of his Thank You tour on Tuesday, 17 August 2021.
“Formerly, if there was an armed robbery, we said it was Nigerians [but] today, when you catch armed robbers, you’ll find our Ghanaian youth amongst them,” he noted.
“Right now, there’s insecurity in this part of the region. In the night, you must not risk traveling on our highways because your chances of running into highway robbery are very high and, so, these are all things we need to be mindful of,” the 2020 flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) stated.
According to Mr. Mahama, if he were president, he would have called a national strategy meeting on “how we can create youth employment, sustainable jobs because no one party has the answer.”
Mr. Mahama further noted that, as the biggest opposition party, the NDC is ready to play its role and will not obstruct the government but wants to hold the government accountable and to collaborate with the government where they are doing the right thing in order that life will be better for the Ghanaian people “because one day, however, long it takes, we’ll take the administration of this country again and the country must survive so that when we come into the office we’ll be able to continue from where whoever left of.”