Whenever people argue that President Nana Akufo Addo has failed to create jobs in Ghana, I swell the argument with one statement.
“A greater number of Ghanaian young adults are unemployed because they have failed to give the president and his New Patriotic Party [NPP] government work to do” has always been my challenge.
Often than not, you hear these unemployed people going on street protests and pointing accusing fingers at the president and his government for failing to create employment in the country.
But how many of these young energetic jobless youth have acquired requisite knowledge and skills, have business ideas or passion of doing something that can create job[s] and subsequently generate income out of it?
The myth that the majority of these unemployed have to deal with is that only the president and his government have to create jobs for people to live responsible lives.
The majority of the people have failed to put out ideas for the president and his government to adopt and implement policies and programmes for the necessary jobs for them to earn their wages to live responsible lives.
Any president and his government create the enabling environment for people to create jobs for it to generate revenue out of taxes to provide social interventions to cushion the people.
Meaning, policy think tanks and ordinary citizens must come out with ideas, policies and programmes they believe if government implements will create jobs for the unemployed.
Although it is their fundamental human right to stage protests and ask the government to cushion them through job creation, most of the street protests have not served the purpose as protesters were hired by opposition party activists to destabilize the government.
Should the president meet the unemployed demonstrators at the picketing line and ask them, “What jobs would you like to be hired for?” Trust me majority of the protesters won’t be able to tell the president what requisite knowledge and skills they have acquired to qualify for any job hiring.
Meanwhile, they are always wearing red bands or claded in red hitting the picketing lines to accuse the president and his government of not creating jobs in the country.
First thing one needs to know is what passion he or she has in doing something and has gained an experience to demonstrate efficiency and quality.
After all, “Employment is acquisition of requisite knowledge and skills of doing what you are passionate about, earning a wage or salary for what you are doing.”
That means to get a call up for a job, one needs to be able to demonstrate requisite knowledge and skills which when hired could apply to increase production and maximize profit.
When one has this idea, the complaint of being jobless that develops into hating the government for not creating jobs for them to earn their wages and salaries to live responsible lives, will give way to skills training, self-employment and revolution of cottage industries, generation of income and revenue to develop the country.
Come to think of it, the number of hours we waste on street protests. Couldn’t we spend such hours for skills training for people to acquire requisite knowledge and skills in vocational and technical education to qualify them for technical and vocational job openings?
In the developed world, you see each and every one embarking on self-employment where they apply their acquired knowledge and skills in doing something they are passionate about thereby creating a job and income for themselves.
That is what is happening in developed countries where individuals acquire knowledge and skills in certain professions, apply for job placement, negotiate on wage or salary and apply the skills and get paid for it.
The government only creates the enabling environment by rolling out human resource training programmes to create the work force for the industries to hire and generate its revenue by collecting taxes to provide social services such as health insurance, scholarships, construction of roads and houses and provide security.
Whereas in Ghana, even people are not taking advantage of the various skills and apprenticeship programmes to acquire requisite knowledge and skills to be readily available for employment but rather keep accusing the government for lack of jobs in the country.
It is now time for the young and energetic youth of the motherland Ghana to change from street protests and rather acquire requisite knowledge and skills to make them readily available for the employment market to earn their wages and salaries to live responsible lives.
Writer: Stephen A. Quaye, Toronto-Canada