Professor and former Chief Economist for the Bank of Ghana (BoG) under the Prime Minister K.A. Busia administration, Dr Assibi O. Abudu, has stated that the government of President Akufo-Addo cannot pretend to be blind and deaf to the demands of the youth calling on the government to fix the country.
He said, for the government to act blind and deaf to the plight of the youth, especially fixing the employment deficit in the country could result in instabilities and crimes the government is not ready for.
Dr Abudu, who is the author of the popular book ‘Fixing Ghana: Removing The Breaks To Progress’ posited that the reason why the youth are protesting and demonstrating against the government is because there are no proper communication channels between the government and the youth of the country to make their grievances heard.
He said the youth are filled with energy but no proper ventures such as jobs to channel their energy.
Dr Abudu said a good government will meet the leaders of these youth who want to demonstrate to dialogue with them in order to ascertain what their grievances are and try to come to terms with what their demands are.
He warned that if the government doesn’t grant the youth the audience they are seeking and they converge to protest as they are seeking to do across the country, the police service and the military will not have enough personnel to police and control them in the country.
Dr Abudu in an exclusive interview with 3news.com pointed out that if the government allows the unfortunate to happen it will spell doom for the country.
He was speaking on the back of the disillusionment the youth have expressed on social media in the form of the #FixTheCountry campaign that they are seeking to protest but facing resistance from the police and the recent upheaval in Ejura where a member of the #FixTheCountry in that enclave known as Mohammed Kaaka was mobbed to death. This resulted in the youth of the area embarking on a protest leading to the death of two who were shot by the joint forces of the police and military killing and injuring four others in the process.
“So in order to get this country moving smoothly, you need to let people know that they have a stake in the country called Ghana. If I am a shareholder of a company called Ghana limited, I will provide my quota to the wellbeing of the company. But if you make me an outsider, you are not going to succeed because democracy is not a spectator sport, it is a participatory enterprise. We all participate, it’s not a spectator sport where we sit down and watch others perform, it doesn’t work that way” he posited.
He added “now if for any reason you have a government that is intransigent, either because it is stubborn or it has nothing to communicate, these protestors will make life uncomfortable for everybody, even themselves but they don’t care because they have nothing to lose. So if the youth are unemployed and they are the most innovative, energetic and unconventional in the country they will seek change, they would want things to be better”.
By Barima Kwabena Yeboah|3news.com|
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