Akwasi Afrifa-Mensa
The Board Chair of the National Youth Authority (NYA), and Member of Parliament for Amasaman, Akwasi Afrifa-Mensa, has called on Ghanaians to ensure their actions inure to the development of the country.
According to him, the call by a cross-section of the citizenry to fix the country begins with those who are pointing accusing fingers.
“We all need attitudinal change! We need to fix our mindset. We need to fix the way we do our things; Nobody, I mean nobody, will fix our country for us if we individually don’t fix ourselves,” he said, adding that the collective actions and inactions of citizens determine the state of the country at any given time.
Afrifa-Mensa was speaking at the opening of the 2022 International Youth Day, which also marked the first Annual National Youth Conference, in the Akwapim North Municipality of the Eastern Region over the weekend.
The NYA Board Chair, cataloging activities militating against the development of the country, indicated for instance that “the destruction of our water bodies is something that will affect generations to come and must be resisted by all.”
He indicated that no one appears to hold himself accountable for anything bad in the country, stressing “we tend to blame each other for our misfortunes.”
“Everyone seems to blame each other for our bad behaviours. The lecturer who insists on sex from a student to pass is complaining about the rot in Ghana. The rich man who pays his driver GH₵300 a month, while he is paying high fees for his children who are schooling abroad is complaining about the hopelessness in Ghana, and the trader who removes two bowls of rice from the bag, re-bags, and sells them as a ‘full’ bag is complaining about the wickedness in Ghana.”
The Amasaman MP continued: “The provisions store owner who changes the expiry dates on his products and sells the same products to innocent customers is complaining, the civil servant who comes to work late without even being productive or adding value but rather shows up at the end of the month to receive salary is complaining about low salaries.
“The student who spends the weekend partying only to start posting Instagram pictures on Monday and is always after “apor” to pass exams, is complaining that Ghana is stealing his/her dreams.”
Afrifa-Mensah insisted that until the youth appreciate that the value of Ghana today is the average of our value, “we will keep messing ourselves forever. We are all architects of our economic developmental woes.”
BY Daniel Bampoe