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09.05.2017 Feature Article

Engendering A Sense Of Nationalism And Civic Responsibility In A Political Polarised Society: A Challenge To The Youth Of Ghana

Engendering A Sense Of Nationalism And Civic Responsibility In A Political Polarised Society: A Challenge To The Youth Of Ghana
09.05.2017 LISTEN

What is meant by Nationalism?

Nationalism is a sense of belonging to an entity, territorial or otherwise. It means we are together and of one people with a common identity. Nationalism is as old as when humans started settling into communities. As hunters and gatherers of food, human beings moved from place to place. However, when people settled in communities, cultivated their food and domesticated animals they had a sense of belonging to that territorial place that they settled and that became by definition territory. They devised several ways of staying in communities and by settling in communities they gave up certain rights in order to gain others, for example protection from a perceived enemy and common defense. Because of the sociability of human beings they were able to work together and overcame disadvantage and hostility and capture the environment. Our brethren like the Neanderthals got extinct and it is claimed that they did not cooperate. Human beings formed governments. It is not within the orbit of this discussion to talk about how human societies evolved to these present ones. And of course it is important to note that not all societies evolved along the same mode of production.

In general, societies started as communalistic ones or primitive communism. This means people stayed together, supported each other and what accrued from their labour belonged to the general society. There were no strict division of classes, and no member of society appropriated the labour of others for their own benefit. If you produce something and you had surplus left, you exchange it for another product that you could or did not produce. There was not so much antagonism between people. But this system was not productive enough to create surplus value and create wealth. It did not evolve enough to released people from the drudgery of daily struggles to concentrate on ideas and instruments to improve in general society as a whole. Then there emerged the period of Slavery, where some people were powerful enough to dominate others and made others slaves. That meant that the slaves belong to them and they appropriated their labour for the benefit of themselves. Just like any commodity, slaves were sold and exchanged. This was more advance form of development of society in the sense that it enabled accumulation of capital/wealth and enhanced the development of society. The wealth created by the slaves, made it possible for groups of artisans and society in general to become better developed. Then slavery reached it pinnacle and due to struggles of slaves for freedom, there emerged Feudalism. Serfs were independent, but having no lands of their own, they still were bounded to sell their labour to feudal lords. That means they lived by tethering the fields of their feudal lords and were paid a portion of their labour power and enough to keep them alive and reproduce serfs to continue to work for their lords. This mode of production also became decadent with the rise of industrial capitalism, feudal serfs were liberated. Having no capital or assets themselves they had nothing but the sale of their labour power. The great industrialists accrued the surplus labour of workers and accumulated lot of resources and hence the advancement of society. We are currently in the epoch of capitalism with its varied forms of liberalism, laizzer faire economy, Keynesian, neo-liberalism, etc. Time will not enable me to go into details about these varied forms of capitalism and how capitalism has been able to readjust itself and remain the domain mode of production today.

Colonialization

As outlined above, these movements of society were invariably within the domain of the nation state. We have the United Kingdom, France, the US (that developed based first and foremost on the extraction of the surplus value of slaves from the African continent), Germany, etc. In fact these nations competed among themselves. They waged wars against each other. When they found out that it was expensive colonizing themselves, they moved to places such as Africa and curved the great African continent into spheres of influence for the extraction of human and natural resources for the development of the mother countries. In West Africa and other parts of Africa, the colonies became colonies of exploitation. Others, such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, became colonies of settlement and also of exploitation. In other countries such as the United States and the Americans, the natives’ populations were exterminated in order for white people to populate them.

We must note that in terms of nationalism, these countries of Western Europe were highly nationalistic. They were invariably capitalistic with feudal kings and lords. As much as they exploited the colonies, they also exploited the labour of their own people and created wealth and its concentration in very few people. These led to revolutions such as the French and English revolutions and the Great October 1917 Revolution in Russian against feudalism. However the success of these revolutions, some partly successful did not extend to the colonies and therefore they remained spheres of exploitation by the colonizers.

The current Africa borders were drawn by the big powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884. The great powers of Western Europe at this Conference curved out Africa for themselves. The main purpose of the Conference was to avoid wars among European powers over Africa. King Leopold II of Belgium was allowed to own the vast area of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo in Central Africa. The acquisition of territories was to enhance trade and also to extract natural resources of the African continent. And the apologists of colonialism will say it was to bring civilization to Africa through Christianity.

That is why we have Africa states today. Invariably and apart from few conflicts most African countries have come to terms with the borders drawn by the colonial masters. And I do not think that there is nothing much we can do about the present borders. To ask for redrawn borders will create lot of conflict and confusion across the African continent.

The colonial states had their inherit contradictions and therefore led to the struggles for independence in these Africa countries. Here I will briefly outline the process of the Ghanaian state.

The Ghanaian State

In present day Ghana, we had what was termed as the Colony made up of the coastal areas, the Asante Kingdom and what was termed as the Northern protectorate. We should not also forget of Tran Volta. These four entities were administered by the British. The Northern Protectorate being less endowed in mineral resources became a reservoir of labour. That is the North supplied the manpower for the mines, the army, the police, the cocoa farms, etc. to the South for the British to extract the maximum resources for mother Britain.

By this design of the colonizers we became one entity with the common identity of being present day Ghana.

Of course nobody wants to be dominated. It is important to note that colonialism was not undertaken on a silver platter. Our people fiercely resisted colonialism and fought them with the might they had. But the sophisticated weapons, the gun power and the divide and rule tactics prevailed over our crude instruments of bows and arrows. And that is why we were colonised. Having colonized us, the colonializes set about making the colonized in their own image. The educational system was geared to ensuring that we recognized the colonizer culture as superior.

Well after we were colonized, the resistance against our dominance continued. It took several forms and as our people got exposed to the outside world it became incessant.

The United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) and the Convention Peoples Party (CPP)

There were a number of movements in the Colony such as the Aborigines Rights Protection Society (ARPS), which more or less wanted stake in the administration of the colony. The most noted one being the formation of the United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) on 4th August 1947 that sought for independence in the shortest possible time. The group was made of the educated elites, especially lawyers, timber merchants and from the feudal aristocracy. They did not want a rupture with the colonial system but wanted a say in the running of the country. They were against the dominance of the Legislative Assembly by chiefs instead of educated elites and wanted to be in the forefront of the struggle for independence. This was happening at the time shortly after the Second World War, when the world was awakening and with the United States supporting self-governments in the colonies. Not having the time to devote to the running of the organization, they recruited Kwame Nkrumah who was then in the United Kingdom to run the organization for them. Nkrumah had studied in United States and had been actively involved in the liberation struggles and anti-racists movements. Nkrumah agreed and took over as the General Secretary of the UGCC. Soon problems emerged within the UGCC who were uncomfortable with Nkrumah radical stands. They were unhappy that he had formed the Committee on Youth Organisation (CYO).The schism was not containable and Nkrumah was forced by his followers to resign from the UGCC and formed the Convention Peoples’ Party (CPP) on 12th June 1949. The CPP called for Position Action Campaigns in early 1950 led to widespread strikes and rebellion and Nkrumah and others were arrested and imprisoned.

Independence NOW and Independence in the Shortest Possible Time

The main difference between the UGCC and the CPP, were differences in approach to politics in Ghana. While the UGCC wanted a say in the administration of the country and independence in the shortest possible time, the CPP wanted self-government and independence now. While the UGCC was a party of the privileged and gentlemen and ladies and the educated elites, the CPP was a mass party of market women, workers and what was generally termed the verandah boys. The UGCC scorned the CPP for its mass following. The UGCC failed to recognize that after the Second World War, politics could not be undertaken in the usual way, and that the colonized people were awakened and wanted to rule themselves. The returning soldiers, who had fought so hard during the Second World War (The Gold Coast Regiment) and were promised jobs and pensions to their cynic found out that this was not to be so. They marched to the Castle, and three of them were gunned down and killed. There followed 5 days of rioting and unrest in Accra. The model colony of the Gold Coast where the British was so proud of went berserk.

UGCC, CPP and the National Liberation Movement (NLM)

And thus begun the schism, the polarization of the country mainly along two main political traditions. We had the UGCC, the privileged and elitist group with some amount of support from Asante and rich privileged classes as against the CPP, the mass party. There was the Northern Peoples Party of Chief Simon Diedong Dombo, whose philosophy was nearer to the UGCC. As a mass party, the CPP won the elections of 1951, 1954 and 1956 and led the country to independence in 1957. Of all these three elections the CPP won up to two-thirds of the Legislative Assembly. However the UGCC and later National Liberation Movement (NLM) formed after the elections of 1954 and the Northern People’s Party (NPP) had substantial following in Asante and in the North. The NLC could not respond to the mass following of the CPP, but were equally determined that upstarts like Nkrumah should not lead the country. They advocated for a federal form of government, where they would rule Asante, the rich part of Ghana. The NLM worked in alliance with regional parties such as the Northern People’s Party (NPP), Muslim Association Party and the Anlo Youth Organisation. These parties together could not match the organization skills and the mass following of the CPP and however advocated for federal form of government. These parties including the Ga Shifimo Kpee party formed in 1954 to agitate for Ga interest together with other parties formed the United Party in 1957 forced on them by the CPP that passed the Avoidance of Discrimination Act (no party to be formed on regional, religious or tribal basis) carried out violence against the CPP. Following independence in 1957 in 1958 the CPP passed the Preventive Detention Act (PDA), where the mass of the leaders were imprisoned.

Progressive nationalism

The CPP under Nkrumah engaged in progressive nationalism. Progressive nationalism is about building a just society. It is about a society without glaring inequalities. Ghana is a nation state. It was curved out by the British in their empire building. Therefore it brought several nationalities or tribes together and formed the present Ghana nation state. It was an arbitrary curving out of states that did not take into account different nationalities and where tribes were cut across to other nation states. For instance in Ghana, you have Dagaabas, Kotokolis the Frafras, Akan speaking, Ewes, etc. across nation states in West Africa. These have created a lot of tensions, with some nationalities wanting to come together.

In Ghana we were extremely lucky to have Kwame Nkrumah who saw beyond ethnicities and tried to build a society for the interest of all.

When I talk about nationalism, I want to distinguish it from other forms of nationalism, for example the cultural nationalism or nationalism for its sake. I am talking about progressive nationalism, the nationalism that recognizes that we are in a nation state and we are in all this together and therefore we must find ways to improve the material conditions of the people. We must accept that we are different but have advantages in our diversity. We must understand that as a national entity, there are certain resources for example natural resources that are exhaustible and therefore we must judiciously use these resources for the interest of our people and future generations. We should protect our nation and national resources not the present way that our natural resources are given for peanuts. It is in this light that the natural resources of Ghana through the Constitution are invested in the President. By so doing, it is expected that the President through sound counsel will attract foreign investment that ultimately benefit the Ghanaian people.

What do we understand by a Political Polarised Society

There is no doubt that we have a polarized political situation. Modern Ghana had its origin with the formation of the UGCC and the CPP. The struggle for independence furthered polarized the situation and we had the CPP and the NLM and later the Unity Party that came together when parties based on regions/tribes were banned. The advantage with the struggle for independence and post-independence era in Ghana was that we had Nkrumah and the CPP. The CPP was a nationalist or progressive party, and Nkrumah believed in building a progressive state and Pan-Africanism. We were lucky that in this struggle the mass of the people went with him, even though the NLM visited mayhem on Ghana, with almost civil war in Asante. However, the CPP transcended beyond that and Ghana remained a progressive nation state under Nkrumah.

Polarization and what this meant for the development of Ghana

Despite the fact that we had Nkrumah and the CPP that averted the obvious tribalistic and polarized society, it does not mean that the country was not polarized. Though the CPP won all the elections prior to independence and after independence, the society was polarized. They were the elements of the UP and who would not understand how upstarts like Nkrumah could be the leader of modern Ghana. They engaged in campaigns of bombings and civil strife. These were some of the factors that led to acts such as the PDA.

Youth and Polarization

It is important to note that young or the youth are part of society. The polarization in the society also mirrored along youth lines. The United Party had it base in Asante. And of course young people in Asante most invariably will identify with their parents. For example some of the current leaders of the NPP, like Sir John (Kwadwo Owusu Afriyir) were students of Legon when I was also a student. They belong to Asante Youth Association. Some of us from the Northern part of Ghana belonged to the Northern Students Union (NSU). It is important to note that it is not belonging to ethnic groups like the Asante Youth or NSU that is divisive in itself, but when not properly handled and with chauvinistic leaders can lead to negative political positions that may not benefit the country.

You may ask yourself, why is the society politically polarized? I am just thinking aloud and do join me in this thinking aloud.

Again let us look at our history. The British came to Ghana not because they wanted to develop an uncivilized people us as they claimed, but came because they wanted our natural resources. They used our human labour to extract the natural resources to develop the United Kingdom. It is important to note that it was not only through conquests that the British prevailed over us and turned the Gold Coast into a colony, but also used other means like introducing the indirect rule, the rule through the chiefs. Since the entity that is now Ghana had to be controlled and be peaceful so that they could extract the maximum benefit, they had to create structures and institutions to have harmony in the society. That is why the educational system was designed in their own image. To be able to dominate a people you have to inculcate to them that they are inferior. You have to have personnel who are prepared to administer the system that was put in place to enable maximum extraction of our resources. That is why our educational system was mirrored along that of the United Kingdom.

It was not an educational system that benefited the mass of the people. It was an educational system that was meant to produce the personnel to manage the country or to support the colonialists to manage the country. And that is why there was the emphasise of getting sons of chiefs to be educated. The colonial system knew very well, that to dominate a people you have to make them not only feel inferior but part of you and also different from the mass of the people.

It was a selective process of getting certain sections of the society to be part of the establishment. And that is why invariably they succeeded. The people who attended those schools of the colonialists were the youth of their day.

Yesterday and in Legon, when we were involved in the struggles to bring social justice to Ghana and we were called those SMALL BOYS. Today I am called the OLD MAN. So you can see how society creates itself. It is not every day that you get Nkrumah. Otherwise we would not have a solid state that we have in Ghana today.

The CPP and Nkrumah apart, we have had political movements, parties and military regimes in Ghana. The youth have invariably identified with these movements. After Nkrumah, we had the Progress Party of Dr. Kofi Busia and the National Alliance of Liberals (NAL) and all those parties of the era. The CPP was banned. And the youth were equally divided along these parties. Then we had the National Redemption Council (NRC) and later the Supreme Military Council Mark 1 and 2 of General I. K. Acheampong and General W. K. Akuffo. I remember the early days of the NRC and how young people were determined to develop Ghana. We have Operation Feed Yourself and Operation Feed Your Industry and well as other popular policies, but the mass enthusiasm soon fizzled away when the people realized that the SMC had negated on its promise to bring social justice. Young people played an instrumental role in the support of the early Acheampong regime, but soon got disenchanted, when the attempts to develop the country turned to the sordid state of looting and plunder. In those days we had what was called the Gulf Girls. Cars given to young women by the regime operators.

The failure of the SMC to improve the living conditions of the people coupled with their reluctance to give up power and their advocacy for Union Government led to the mass uprising on 4th June 1979 that brought Ft. Lt J. J. Rawlings and the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) on 4th June 1979 into power. The AFRC undertook what they termed as house cleaning exercise before they handed over the Dr. Hilla Limann Peoples’ National Party (PNP) government in 1979.

What Economy Did the Colonialists leave us

It is important to point out that the colonial economy was that of a dependent capitalist one. It was mainly primary producing economy. We produce agricultural products for the United Kingdom. And our natural resources were extracted. This was the economy that the colonizers left us with. And it was the economy that Nkrumah tried to change with his Seven Years Development Plan, with his import substitution industries. These were not pleasing to the ex-colonial world. And with Nkrumah Pan Africanism and Non-Aligned Movement and all these talks of independence in economic sense, led to the US and other imperialist countries planning and plotting his overthrow. Declassified CIA documents have shown the role of CIA in the overthrown of Nkrumah. Of course there were internal collaborators. This led to the February 24th 1966 coup d’état and the setting up of the National Liberation Council (NLC) of Akwasi Amankwa Afrifa and Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka. The NLC reversed all the progressive policies of Nkrumah, gave out on silver platter the nascent industries that Nkrumah to the cynic of the ex-colonialists. The ex-colonialists rewarded them by praising them to the sky as liberators and democrats. They implemented harsh Structural Adjustments Programme dictated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) that further impoverished the people.

Another avowedly pro-imperialist government took over with the Progress Party of Dr. Kofi Busia. After more than two years and half years it was overthrown and the NRC came to power. Subsequently we had the anti-Union Government struggles.

Progressive Movement and Youth Involvement

It was during this time that some of us entered the universities. When I arrived in Legon, there was growing student dissatisfaction with the Acheampong regime. It was also the era of the liberation movements struggles against Portuguese colonialism. In the Legon campus we had the Pan-Africanist Youth Movement (PANYMO) led by Kwame Afful. I quickly joined them. We engaged in the students struggles against the Acheampong regime. We struggle and fought for multiparty system. We fought against the Union Government concept. We formed youth organizations and movements, all advocating for social justice. As young people we were in the forefront of the struggles of our people against injustice and social equality. We set up magazines, the most major one being the ALUTA.

In Bolgatanga and in the Upper East Region, we formed the Frafra Youth Movement (FraYouMO). This was the organization that we used to struggle for the rights of our people for a share of major developments such as the Vea Dam. We campaigned against the way our lands were annexed without any compensation at all.

As young people we did this without taking into account where people came from. For example we accepted anybody in Bolga and who identified with our people to be a member of the Frafra Youth Movement.

We were young people or youth. We dearly wanted a change for us country.

Now let me get back to the topic. What is happening to the youth today? Can we say the youth are patriotic or have a sense of civic responsibility?

NPP and NDC

There is no doubt that our society today is polarized. Power since 2000 has alternated between the NPP and the NDC. All of them claim to be representing the interest of the people. However, a closer look of these two parties will show that they undertake the same policies that have not uplighted the lives of our people.

And what are those policies that they all undertake. The two parties run the neo-colonial economy and follow the current dominate view of neo-liberalism and the free enterprise system. In short they follow capitalism in its most decadent form. It is not the capitalism that ensured that countries in Europe developed, but the capitalism that ensures that our economy is operated for the interest of foreign capitalist interest.

Let me take an example to show why I say the two parties undertake the same policies. Professor Aki Sawyer in his address to the National Academy of the Arts and Science had this chilling story to tell. According to him the NPP during John Kufuor time, that is in 2003, gave out our gold mines to Newmount literally for free. Despite protestations from the National Mineral Commission (NMC) that our exhaustible mines were handed over on a silver platter to Newmount, the government under Kufour did not negotiate a fair deal for minerals. We are all witnesses to what happened during the Vodafone deal, where ex-President Kufuor singly handled the deal and gave up Ghana Telecom and its backbone, the fibre optic to Vodafone despite the fact that there was a better deal from South Africa Telecom. It is alleged that the British government played a role in ensuring that the deal went to a British company, with so-called sweeter of additional foreign aid for the National Health. It is further stated that once the government had signed the deal it was passed by Parliament within a day. So much for our independence of the legislative. The outcry in the Newmount deal led to a revision of the deal during the Atta Mills government in what was termed a s Newmount 2, where royalties and taxes coming to the state were improved. Despite having the improved deal as Newmount 2, in 2014, and under Mahama, an agreement with Gold Fields handed over Tarkwa and Damang mines without much coming to the state. Aki argues, that minerals are exhaustible and therefore, it is incumbent of governments that negotiate with foreign companies to obtain better deals that take into account international standards and the interest of the state, so that the income or rent that comes from such deals will be used to develop the country. One can see that in these two deals, our governments have served the interest of foreign companies without caring a hoot about Ghanaian interest. The limp argument that the mines provides employment for the people cannot be justified as natural resources are taken out for almost free with environmental consequences for our people.

One can then see that when it comes to the economic management of the country, the two parties are the same. They all operate and follow the instructions of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These institutions were created by the advanced countries after the Second World War to support the economy development of advanced countries. They were not created to support the economy development of undeveloped countries. It is not in the interest of advanced countries for third world countries to develop their economies so as to compete with them. Also these countries operate the free enterprise system and therefore recommends it to our countries and even when we refuse to implement these policies, they sabotage our economy, as they did to Nkrumah.

The Ghanaian economy is nothing else than an economy that is managed for the interest of foreign capital. Foreign investors are not interested in creating jobs or undertaking industrialization for our countries. Foreign capital is interested in areas where they can make quick profit. That is why they are interested in areas such as our mineral resources and oil. They use us as damping grounds and give us unfair prices for our agricultural goods. They do not support us to process our goods.

And if this is the case what should the youth be doing? The youth are the future of this country. The youth should go beyond the political divide between the NPP and the NDC. Unemployment, terrible run down health service and poor educational service does terribly affect young people. It is they who suffer. When people are given responsibilities to manage the state sector and they use their positions to plunder it. When people are given the responsibility to work for us all, and they use their positions to give themselves extreme high salaries. When people are ask to manage the economy and they plunder and loot it. All these affect our people and the Ghanaian youth in general.

What is the Ghana state?

The Ghanaian state has become nothing more than a plunderous state where the various elites compete to take the state over for their interest. And that is why the society is so polarized. Despite what is taken by foreign interest, there is a lot that is left and this is what the two parties are fighting for. The state has to be managed and in the management process, there is wealth and the two competing parties compete for the control of the state to use it for their interest. Once they take control of the state, they will loot what is left and share it among themselves.

Then they turn round and blame the public sector. They say state industries are not profitable and inefficient and yet they are the same people that manage the state sector. The state sector in neo-colonial Ghana has become nothing but a machine by the two competing parties of the NPP and NDC to use to oil the machinery of their parties and also their main backers. In the process, it is Ghanaian people as a whole who suffer and the entire country.

What should Young People be doing?

As youth you should see beyond just me, and what benefits me and instead look at the national interest. It should not be about this is my party and therefore support the party blindly. It should be about what is the party doing that is in the interest of the Ghanaian people and the nation as a whole. What are the policies of my government? Is my party interested in the future, or is it that of a grab party. As usual and sharing of resources among party operatives. As young people you are the inheritors of the country.

Ghana is riddled with corruption and young people should be in the forefront of the exposure of such corrupts deals even if it is coming out against one’s own party. It is our duty and in the interest of the nation to ensure that the resources of the country are used for the benefit of the people and not for one group of people or those who have won power.

When there are misdeeds young people should be the first to expose it, instead of complaining. Complaints never bring about changes. It is action that ensures that society is run for the benefit of us all. The highest sense of patriotism is to speak your mind. It is the love of Ghana when you see wrong and address it.

We should chart up a better future for ourselves and society in general. The youth should see beyond the polarized political system that we have.

Young people should create avenues such as debating societies, youth organizations, social organisations etc. that they can use to debate issues of national importance. Young people should not rush into supporting political parties blindly because they are members. Young people should see beyond that and support policies and issues that are in the interest of the nation.

Young people have nothing to lose but should engender a sense of patriotism. Young people are in a position to do this because they do not have responsibilities like for example looking after families. Young people tend to be more forward thinking and not outwork and less tribalistic. Young people should build on unity.

Now let us look at practical things that young people can do to support their communities. As young people you also belong to the community that you are in.

For example you can run literacy classes for disadvantaged people. Through this you are enabling them to read and write and therefore participate in the national discourse.

You can undertake other voluntary activities. In the Frafra Youth Movement, we undertook clean up campaigns in the Bolga area. We also took up cases of people who were cheated and ensured that we obtained justice for them.

Young people must vote. Young people should not shy away from voting. Vote the party that you think meets your aspirations and interest. Encourage people to register and exercise the right to vote.

Young people should get involve in local government. Local government is at the centre of development of the districts and therefore young people should ensure that they participate and vote and support development objectives of the districts.

Conclusions

It is important to note that young people have a role to play in society. Young people despite their political affiliation should struggle for social justice. It is young people who benefit from social justice policies. Therefore young people should struggle for Education as a right and not a privileged. It is education that that improves the livelihood of people and develops the skills for better tomorrow. It is therefore in the long term interest of the national state to invest in free education at least up to University level.

Young people should struggle and fight for the right to work. The state on its own and in collaboration with the businesses can create the necessary conditions to provide employment for the mass of our young people. It is very destructive to see how our young people are unemployed and roaming the streets. It is a waste and national disaster that our young people are not in work. It is not right to blame young people that they are not in work because they are lazy. The necessary conditions must be created for those who wish to work to do so. People must be paid living wage and provision must be made for fair pensions. These will help to lessen the graft in our society.

And health is paramount of all. How healthy a nation is dependent on the health provision to its citizens. Young people must campaign and advocate for free health delivery from cradle to the grave.

People must have decent accommodation. It is in the interest of young people to advocate for decent accommodation across the country. After all it is young people who are going into work and therefore need a place of their own. Young people must campaign for affordable accommodation.

Yes the society is polarized, but our polarization should not prevent us from working together. For example all people came together during the Mahama era to demonstrate against the poor state of our roads or non-roads in a regional capital in Bolgatanga.

Young people must work and campaign in the interest of the nation for themselves and the future generations to come.

In return young people have a role to give back to society. To engage in voluntarism, civic responsibilities like voting and engaging in government. Fighting against injustice irrespective of where they belong.

Delivered on Friday, 3rd March 2017

Organised by Restorative Seed Society (RSS)

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