Open Letter To Sammy Awuku

Dear Sammy,
Congratulations on your investiture as the board chairman of the Youth Employment Agency. Your cementitious effort in politics and youth development, particularly in the NPP is highly commendable. You have succeeded in attaining and setting altitudinous standards for your successors.

Sammy, you are to chair an organisation which has been effectively politicised; what this means is that, you also have to be political. Your position as the board chairman does not require you to perform any twin duty. Your concern should be how to reward your supporters just as you have been rewarded.

My party had the opportunity and we abruptly blew it away. The standard we established under the law was too high for our people at the grassroot. I can tell you without a shred of equivocation that you would never have chaired any board if you were a member of the NDC. People of your calibre in the NDC were not qualified to be Metro Directors under the law we promulgated. We were too much in love with certificates than love and passion for work.

In NDC today, first degree means nothing to us. That is why most appointees, neglected their jobs and were busily upgrading themselves. The NDC all of a sudden became an elitist organisation such that, people who were academically disadvantaged were marginalised. Vitrine of academic credentials became a fancy in the NDC. We had no plan for our base who are largely uneducated.

Luckily for you, you have the NDC as a case study. I will be shocked if you repeat the mistakes of my party. Your success will put us on our toes. We must pay for our stupidity. Next time when we get power, we will be mindful of the down trodden and the people who brought us to power.

I am not sure you also want to go around begging when you lose power and, subject yourself to ridicule and humiliation in the name of a healing tour. Employ your party people. They are Ghanaians, they wanted jobs, that is why they voted for you. They believed the NPP will better serve their interest that is why they sacrificed and voted for you.

I am told you are on record to have said you would take only NPP supporters to Russia (i.e. if the Black Stars had qualified). In the aftermath of the team’s inability to qualify for the World Cup, I hope you do not regret making such a statement. In fact, whenever a similar opportunity avails itself, make sure you do everything possible to assist them to make it to the games wherever it will be held, be it India or Qatar.

Also, please take note that most of the modules are for people who cannot read and write. They do not need any online application nonsense. Remember those who cannot read nor write also campaigned for you, so establish a module that will suit them. Give them the modules and remunerations they merit.

You must also be concerned with the allowances they receive. For instance, the Youth in Internship module/program should at least receive more than the National Service Personnel, such that even after service (and still without job), will be motivated to join the program.

Remember also, Sammy, to be modest, principled but flexible, that is what will do the magic for you. Your educational qualification is enough for you. Forget about my NDC friends, you don't need symbols signifying distinction or a laurel wreath to chair the YEA board. You are in politics not in some corporate organisation. Education is good, but it is not the sine-qua-non to a successful and exemplary political leadership. Hon Fiifi Kwartey has only a first degree to his name, but he is far brainy than most PhD holders in this country. He is an epitome of ideal tertiary education. Don't be distracted.

The position by some of my party members is rather interesting. Even, the corporate world, in recent times, do not necessarily, depend on intelligence quotient(IQ). Human resource practitioners and organisational psychologists today, prefer persons who possess high level of emotional intelligence(EQ) to intelligence quotient(IQ). Therefore, it is effectively pallid for anyone to think that those with the highest education are more qualified than any other person.

As our elders say in Akan, “aszm pa yz tia”, so I wouldn’t go on and bore you with further reading, but your 10 months experience in power should tell you how it feels like when you are in government. I am not the one to tell you. If you want to give it away easily, that is your own business.

I wish you well
Abdulai Seidu
[email protected]