When they were in government, for good EIGHT years, they did very little to better the lot of the nation’s unemployed youth particularly graduates whose numbers were running in hundreds of thousand, if not in millions. Meanwhile, it was during their reign that the menace of graduate unemployment reached an all-time crescendo, becoming a national malaise and a blot on the very conscience of the nation. The narrative of the Ghanaian graduate was only becoming worse at each passing moment.
After all the University hustles; after spending some four years of their lives at the University having already gone through basic and secondary education hustles; after paying all the astronomical fees; after studying very hard to pass their exams and graduating successfully, this was what they had to show. All they could give back to their families that had spent so much on their education, is joblessness and hopelessness. Their expectation of securing jobs in the country had become a complete mirage. These graduates had become a burdensome load on their families again.
Some of them had to defy the odds and went into menial jobs. Others, who could not withstand the economic hardship occasioned by government’s manifest incompetence at the time, had to leave the shores of Ghana either as stowaways or preferred to join terrorist organizations like ISIS. At least, we have undisputed evidence that about ten of these young graduates of our country including Nazir Alema, Abubakar Mohammed, Abdul Rafik, Shakira Mohammed and six others were widely reported to have been recruited into ISIS. They just couldn’t withstand the untold hardship visited on them by the governing political elite.
This was how bad the story of the Ghanaian graduates had become. And in their quest to make their voice heard, they came together, and formed an Association of Unemployed Graduates (AUG), the first of its kind, not only in the history of Ghana but also in Africa and indeed the World. It still didn’t help matters. They had no one to look up to, except, of course, the State, acting through the NDC government at the time. Unfortunately, the then Ghanaian leader, President John Dramani Mahama, said he had become a “dead goat” playing Daddy Lumba’s “yen tie obiaa’s song” everywhere he went to.
And as if his government hadn’t done enough, they again placed a complete EMBARGO on public sector recruitment following a bailout agreement they entered into with the IMF as a result of their mismanagement of the Ghanaian economy. In the words of President Mahama, this move was necessary for policy credibility; essentially confirming the suspicion of Ghanaians that his government had lost anything credible.
Since the public sector had become a “no go area”, the only option left for these graduates was the private sector. But unfortunately for them, the private sector was perhaps, even more problem-ridden and had virtually collapsed due to government’s inability to arrest the 4-year debilitating dumsor crisis compelling many businesses to lay off more and more workers. That was the story of Ghanaian graduates under the John Mahama-led NDC government. How sad and pathetic!!
But the good news is that we now have a listening government that has shown demonstrable commitment to changing this sad narrative to give hope to these graduates. Indeed, one of the many initiatives of this Nana Addo-Bawumia administration to better the lot of graduates is the much talked about Nation Builders Corps (NABCO) which has just taken off providing job opportunities to some 100,000 graduates. It is the first time in the history of this country that a government is rolling out such a comprehensive and masterful job-creation package targeted at none other but the nation’s graduates, a lot of whom have been sitting idle for years.
What is even more refreshing is that NABCO is not only providing employment avenues to these graduates but also a fine opportunity for them to get skill-training, job experience and build their capacity in order to enhance their employability in the labour market and also make them self-enterprising post NABCO. I doff my hat for all the persons in government that played instrumental role to make this NABCO Project a reality, particularly Dr. Ibrahim Anyass, the CEO of NABCO, whom I describe as the greatest revelation of this NPP government in recent times. You just can’t help but admire this fine gentleman for all the good reasons. I am not surprised he is coming from the Office of the Vice President, where COMPETENCE gets its true and real meaning.
On what is in stock for our brother and sisters who have subscribed to NABCO, it is worth acknowledging that while the monthly stipend of GH¢700 for each beneficiary may not be enough, they, themselves, have been quick to admit that it is much better than sitting at home and getting “rotten”. Certainly, it is better than living a jobless life for years and not having an opportunity to own a payslip at the end of every month. In any case, beyond the GH¢700, is the issue of building their capacity and increasing their employable skills to help enhance the dignity and self-esteem of the country’s graduates. What more can a government do?
Again, following the ban on public sector employment as a direct result of the IMF deal with the previous John Mahama government, which deal is still subsisting, government’s hands are tied and cannot do any mass recruitment into the sector. Under the circumstances, it would only take a competent government to think outside the box and come out with a bold intervention like NABCO.
This is what the NDC does not and CANNOT understand. But, I am not sure it is their fault and so, I entreat the nation’s graduates who had suffered so much social injustice under the NDC’s reign to forgive them. I entreat the 100,000 NABCO beneficiaries as well as their families and indeed the rest of the nation to forgive our NDC friends; for it is not their fault. A political party that cannot think beyond incompetence and create-loot-share schemes like the Woyomes, the bus branding, the SADAs, and the GYEEDAs can certainly NOT understand a novelty like NABCO. But their manifest deficiency should not prevent us from being CITIZENS for the love of our Motherland.
Assalamu alaikum!
By Iddi Muhayu-Deen