We’ve always had youth unemployment, but 2020/2021 seems to be the tipping point. Just take a look at the number of people who lined up to be screened for entry into the Ghana Armed Forces and the number of people currently buying forms for the other security services. How many people will even get recruited? How many people are buying forms?
I will hazard a guess. The number of people buying forms will number in the millions, but the number eventually recruited for training will number in the thousands.
Where does the rest of the money go? Why are we making corruption a culture in Ghana, institutionalizing it? Have we always been this corrupt? The best thing to do is to make applications free and then take the application fees from only those who get recruited for training or pass the screening test.
To sell 5 million forms when you are going to recruit only 5000 is fraudulent. There are people who have to borrow money to buy application forms, and their helplessness is a sign of the times and what we are. Ghana is among the most corrupt countries in Africa, and we have the most corrupt leaders and our state institutions and security services are corrupt as well.
Did you see Donald Trump’s supporters storming the Capitol? Do you think Obama supporters under an Obama presidency could have done such a thing? Absolutely not.
Society generally reflects its leadership and a corrupt society with corrupt institutions, corrupt gate keepers, corrupt state officials, and a corrupt system will naturally elect corrupt presidents and parliamentarians who in turn employ corrupt appointees. Every developed (or truly developing) society takes care of its weakest and most vulnerable, but not Ghana.
Being poor in Ghana is an extreme sport and a ticket to hopelessness and it can leave you open to exploitation by institutions, the political class, and individuals. It is even what kills some people! If you are a young person reading this, looking for a job, doing a job that is not paying enough, having a decent income but spending more and more every day due to incompetent economic management and unprecedented inflation, this is the time to wake up.
Voting for a better class of politicians is the only thing that can get you a better Ghana with equal opportunity for all, and I can absolutely tell you that the better class of politicians we need cannot be found in the NPP or NDC. They are incompetent and very corrupt. Have always been. Break the duopoly to get the better Ghana you deserve, a Ghana that does not fraud and exploit it’s weakest and most vulnerable.
Let’s do this.
By Stan Dugah
StantheStoryTeller
03/09/2021
