The teeming youth of Aflao in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region have threatened to boycott the upcoming general elections if government does not expedite action on averting the negative impact of the operations of Dangote Cement.
According to the Chairman of the Aflao Youth Association (AYA), Christian Yevunya, the influx of Dangote Cement (from Nigeria) into the country was seriously costing the youth their jobs with the main Diamond Cement factory located in Aflao.
His complaint was a further clarification he gave to DAILY GUIDE with regards to a press release issued by the Association recently.
“The influx of cheap inferior cement imports into this country has so badly affected the operations of Diamond Cement to the extent that a factory that has production capacity of 150,000m.t. per month is now producing below 75,000m.t. per month, which is less than half of its production capacity. It is obvious if this trend continues and nothing is done about it in the next 12 to 18 months, Diamond Cement Aflao will be in serious trouble” he said.
He said without any jobs to do, the youth have no source of income to cater for themselves let alone their dependents. Not to talk of wasting their time and resources to go and join long queues to vote in the Presidential and Parliamentary elections which could be held on November 7th should parliament approve it.
More so, they will also not be able to assist the elderly and other handicapped voters in the Municipality who gave the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) over 80,000 votes in the 2012 elections. The NDC describes the Volta Region as its ‘World Bank’ and the Ketu South as its ‘Central Volt’ as far as accruing votes is concerned. The party hopes to increase its votes in the area to 120,000 in the upcoming elections.
From Fred Duodu and Sumaiya Salifu Saeed (freduoo@gmail.com)