Govt urged to address unemployment to deter youth from joining terrorist groups

S ecurity expert Mustapha Abdallah has suggested that the high rate of unemployment in the country could force more youth to join terrorist groups.

The Research Associate at the Conflict Management Department at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), said the high rate of unemployment in the country makes it easy for the youth to be easily influenced with money by terrorist groups.

According to him, the spate of unemployment in Ghana poses a security threat to the country.

“Government must deal with the issue of poverty, unemployment, inequality to prevent the youth from engaging in such groups,” he stressed.

Dr. Mustapha Abdallah was contributing to a discussion on news that a 25 year-old graduate has joined jihadist group, Islamic State (IS).

Nazir Nortei Alema, a degree holder in Geography and Rural Development from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), is among ten suspected Muslim youth from Ghana who are believed to have been recruited into the terrorist organization.

Dr. Abdallah told host of “Burning Issues” on Adom FM that government must critically look at how to provide more jobs for graduates in the country.

He also called on Muslim scholars to educate Muslim youth about the concept of jihad because most people misinterpret it.

According to him, the Arabic word "jihad" is often translated as ‘holy war’, "but in a purely linguistic sense, the word ‘jihad’ means struggling or striving.”

Meanwhile, a Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Department of Religious Studies at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Yunus Dumbe, says unemployed graduates must motivate themselves despite the economic hardship in the country.

He also advised the students to be careful about the kind of friends they keep on campus.