May Day Good Tidings

The highlight of yesterday's May Day was of course the launching of the National Builders Corps the most pragmatic response yet to the graduate unemployment malaise in the country.

Cynics who thought the response was too restrictive to deserve commendation had to beat a retreat when the President announced that the Youth Employment Agency (YEA) has readied itself to absorb 80,000 non-degree holders. For sure these are great days in the recent history of our country as benefits from the fruits of good governance.

We have observed heartwarmingly the President's gradual fulfillment of his campaign promises in spite of the myriad bottlenecks created by the long period of bad governance of the previous political order in the country.

What is being unfolded now as response to the graduate unemployment challenge might not be able to absorb the large sway of unemployed youth in the country, it is nonetheless a major step towards reducing the number. Indeed no government has accorded such a head-on attention to the unemployment debacle as the incumbent administration.

The other efforts being made in the private sector through the creation of a congenial environment such as reduced taxes, stable electricity, rule of law, among others, are intended to encourage this segment of the economy to employ more graduates and non-graduates alike. Foreign investors would only look in our direction when the foregone are discernible here.

Others did not have a clue as to how to tackle the challenges of governance in a country which has suffered many years of corruption and near rudderless administration – the result being a disincentive to invest, the effect of which is the appalling state of Ghana when the last government exited.

Looking at the structure of the builders' corps, it is not difficult to see the pains those who engineered it went through to come out with an initiative which would be replicated by other countries in our development bracket who seek effective response to graduate unemployment.

Our word for those who have something to do with the programme is that, they must consider it as a national assignment of an unparalleled importance requiring diligence and a sense of patriotism.

As the programme absorbs a large chunk of our teeming graduates, let them be honest with themselves and eschew those tendencies which have killed many an initiative rolled out to achieve critical development objectives.

Like other initiatives rolled out by our President who is in a hurry to reverse the negativities the country has endured under others, this one is a national baby freshly minted for a special mission. It must succeed because it embodies a national destiny.

Those who because of its potential to address a national malaise would seek to throw spanners into its works should be ready for the consequences.

The good people of Ghana would leave no stone unturned in their bid to stop such detractors in their strides.

The President has not rested on his oars since assuming the mantle of leadership of this country: his initiatives sometimes subjects of scorn by his adversaries. Now that he is making good his promises it is left to be seen what they would say other than tuck their tails like mongrels behind their hind legs.

We wish the National Builders Corps Godspeed.