Future Of Youth Worrying - Herbert Mensah

The future of the Ghanaian youth is worrying and policy makers are to be blamed for the anomaly, former Football administrator, Mr Herbert Mensah, has stated.

He observed that as the world celebrated the international day for the youth, the challenges facing the youth could lead to social unrest if immediate measures were not taken to formulate plans that addressed their concerns.

Speaking to the media, Mr. Mensah, who is also a business man, said the situation where over 70 per cent of Ghana’s population was under the age of 30 made them the engine of growth and development.

However, he said successive governments had failed to realise this. “I think we need to examine the policy makers and those who are charged with the responsibility to make those policies deliverable, and how we as a nation are ready to incorporate the youthful population who are technologically advanced but at present are so divorced from the policy formulation in terms of their aspirations,” he added.

He indicated that the fact that government was silent on that day clearly suggested their lack of interest in listening and addressing the challenges facing the Ghanaian youth.

According to Mr Mensah, who is the Chief Executive of XFM, the station conducted a survey among its listening youth numbering over 10 million and they suggested a feeling of neglect by the older population.

“There is a sense among them that older people do not care about them, there is a sense among them that older people only talk down on them, there is a sense among them that they can study all they can but there would be no job for them to do,” he stated.

He warned that the situation would worsen unless government took a serious look at the economic development to address growth rate and employment opportunities for the teeming youth.

Mr. Mensah called for redevelopment of the tertiary schools curriculum to make teaching and learning more practical so that students could be exposed to the outside world.

He was hopeful a careful rollout of the initiative would make graduates acquire skills that would enhance their employment opportunities.