Government officials must not demonize the Fix the country movement because it is not an issue of just the New Patriotic Party (NPP) but all parties in Ghana, Former President John Dramani Mahama has said.
He said this when he was speaking to the chiefs and people of the Upper West Region on Tuesday August 17 as part of his thank you tour after the 2020 elections.
Mr Mahama who was the presidential candidate of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in last year’s polls noted that the youth need employment to enable them keep body and soul together hence their call for the system to be fixed.
“Our youth are getting disappointed in our democratic governance, they don’t see any future for themselves. One of the major tragedies of this administration which is intangible is the fact that our institutions are being bastardised. As the institutions are bastardised people don’t see any future in terms of what opportunities are available for them.
“Youth unemployment has been a problem for governments all over the world but is particularly a problem for governments in Africa. We have twelve million graduates coming out of universities and tertiary institutions all across the African continent yet we are producing six and seven million jobs a year and so what happens to the other five million graduates who cannot find employment.
“It is beginning to show, in Nigeria they have the SARS movement, it was like a rebellion against police oppression but who are those who took part in the SARS movement ? It was the unemployed youth .
“Let us not think if you are enriching yourselves you are safe. When the youth rise up they think that everybody who is living a good life is one of the people oppressing him that is why he cannot get a job.
“We must not allow that situation to happen in Ghana .
“What we should be doing as leaders is to listen to them because these are our children.
“Fix it is not a problem of only NPP, it is a problem of only NPP, it is a problem of Ghana, all of us and so when people in government think that these young people we must demonize them , it is not because of NPP, it is all of us, we have expressed disappointments in our collective leadership.”
