Tolon: Unemployment among the youth poses significant security threat in Ghana- UDS Lecturer bemoans
A lecturer with the Faculty of Engineering at the University for Development Studies (UDS), Dr. Osei Richard Agyemang, has advised young people in the Tolon District to value the country they live in. He explained that young people having trust in the country can make it attractive to foreigners to also migrate to Ghana, which can boost Ghana’s economy.
Dr. Agyemang, while advising the youth, also calls for effective leadership. According to him, people in charge of state institutions and even the president must be proactive, honest, and show leadership to earn the trust of the people they lead. Presetting a topical peace mechanism and national cohesion day National Commission for Civic Education (NNCE) engagement with young people in the Tolon district on Preventing and Combating Violence Extremism, Dr. Agyemang stated that one of the biggest security threats in Ghana may not be external but rather internal, explaining the unavailability of jobs for young people and urging the state to show serious commitment and be concerned about addressing it.
The extremist groups he noted can entice young people with juicy offers and money because they are jobless. He further stated that the biggest problem in Africa is food for the people because many families still cannot afford three square meals a day. On the impact of social media, the lecturer called on the state to sanitize social media because millions of young people are hooked on it daily. He pleaded with security agencies to try their best to sanitize some aspects of society to minimize the abuse and potential danger posed to the country, bearing in mind the constitutional rights of the youth to express themselves. He observed that the spread of false information is growing largely due to ignorance. People’s perceptions and prejudices, Dr. Agyemang added, contribute to most conflicts in the country.
Young people, he said, are also reacting to a lot of things on social media without taking their time to understand. “I’m pleading that the policy will be innovative to at least develop policies that can enable young people across the country to get something done,” Dr. Agyemang suggested.
According to him, the youth feel like they are not getting jobs, and as a result of that lack of incentive to lure them, they wholeheartedly accept it. Dr. Agyemang, who has stayed in Burkina Faso for several years, said though the country has not witnessed any tourist attacks, there is a need for Ghana’s security agencies to think ahead of time to be able to prevent possible attacks or infiltration by extremists. Ghana, he warned, needed to be on guard and study their case to see what they were not doing right and the loopholes in their security setup that had degenerated their situation. “If Burkina Faso breaks down totally, then it is coming to Ghana, especially the northern part of Ghana”, Dr. Agyemang stated.
Tolon District Director of NCCE, Mr. Abdul-Rahaman Hawawu, said the engagement was to educate young people about extremist activities. She said the youth were also trained to be aware that so they could approach any suspicious characters.
The District Police Commander, DSP Glastone Kumeko, emphasized the need for Community Surveillance and Neighborhood Watch Committee patrols to educate the people to be alert and also questioned things they did not understand. The neighborhood watch committee, as DSP Glastone explained, is expected to collaborate with the police with timely information.
Source: Mohammed Ibrahim; ZaaNews.com