The Northern Regional Minister, Salifu Saeed, has mounted a strong defence for the youth of the region, and fiercely kicked against the century-long negative perception held by many Ghanaians that portray the youth in the area as violent.
Even though the youth have, over the years, been used by some unscrupulous politicians and other influential persons to foment troubles, and have been deeply involved in almost all the chieftaincy, land and political disputes ever recorded in the region, the Regional Minister insisted that they were just victims of circumstances.
The Northern Region has several youth groups, mostly sponsored by politicians and political parties, who have built pavilions and other structures, painted with political party colours and are serving as vigilante groups for those parties.
According to him, the youth of Northern Region were only being influenced to take arms for their own destruction, simply because they had no jobs to do.
"To be sincere with you; Northern youth are not violent. All the youth groups, if managed well, can be used or turned into productive groups. If you go into some of the activities of some of the youth groups in the region, you will realise that they do a lot of peace mediations, community protection, support community development; they drain gutters, weed and patch or fill potholes on roads among others. The only thing driving most of the youth to engage in certain vices is the lack of jobs. The youth need jobs, but because there are no jobs, some unscrupulous persons take advantage of them and use them for violence," Mr. Saeed explained.
The Regional Minister observed that "If you profile a lot of the youth on an individual basis, you will realise that majority of them are well educated and are responsible people with wives and children, or are from good homes."
He indicated that some of the youth had completed universities, polytechnics and senior high schools, but they were being misled, because they had no jobs. Mr. Salifu Saeed further indicated that majority of them had also travelled to the southern part of Ghana to learn trade and had come back without any job, hence their involvement in violent acts.
"I'm not trying to justify the bad behaviour of some of the youth, but I have every conviction that with availability of jobs and other opportunities for the youth to further their education, they will forever remain peaceful, law-abiding and productive to the region," he maintained, emphasising that, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
The Minister, who is also a development practitioner, outlined plans by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to employ majority of the youth of the region, and Ghana as a whole, to become useful to the nation.
According to him, the government was going to repackage, restructure, and expand the operations of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) to provide financial and other supports to most of the youth groups to go into their own businesses. "The NPP, under former President John Agyekum Kufuor, saw the need to introduce the MASLOC in 2006 to support the small scales businesses that needed financial support, but did not have curatorial to access monies from the formal banks, but because NPP left power, the MASLOC has not been well managed to serve its purpose. Now that we are back, we, in NPP, will ensure that MASLOC works again."
Aside that, he said that the government was also going to employ several thousands of youth, under the Youth Employment Authority (YEA) and the Planting for Foods and Jobs programme, to prevent them from causing violence in society.
He disclosed that his administration was lobbying for companies that have the capacities to develop water harvesting irrigation dams, to store the excess waters from the Bagre Dam in Burkina Faso to promote dry season farming across the region, especially, vegetable and flower production.
Mr. Salifu Saeed said that one of his visions was to advocate for the government to develop the cargo unit of the Tamale Internal Airport to facilitate the exportation of fresh vegetables and flowers to Europe and other international markets.
"If we are able to do massive vegetables and flower production for export, I tell you that the Northern Region will generate more revenue to the state than the oil regions."
He, therefore, called for lasting peace and unity amongst the people in the region, to enhance the development and implementation of the policies and programmes of the government.
The Minister also cautioned unscrupulous politicians and other influential persons using the youth for violence, to desist from such acts and allow them to become responsible citizens.
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'Gays will rule Ghana one day, if Christians relax'
From Richard Owusu-Akyaw, Kumasi
The President of the Ashanti Regional Christian Council of Ghana Youth Ministry, Mr. Lawrence Senyo, has warned that if Christian youth do not wake up from their slumber, gays would be handling the day-to-day administration of the country in future.
According to him, God has given Christians dominion, authority and control, yet Christians are taking things for granted. Mr. Senyo stated that the laxity of Christians to be in mainstream politics will see those who belong to same sex marriage being voted into power to enact laws for Ghanaians to adhered to, which is abhorrent to Christendom.
He was of the view that if gays find their way to the reins of government in Ghana and hijack Christianity, they will decide who to worship for the rest of the populace.
The Youth Ministry President charged the youth: "Let us rise and build the church and Ghana. It is our prayer, as a Council, that God Almighty directs the executives of the Methodist youth, or the executives to the right direction and right task ahead."
He warned: "Time is coming that homosexuals and gays will be leaders of Ghana, because we (Christians) are shying away from dominion."
In a fraternal message at the 15 Biennial Conference of the Kumasi Methodist Youth Fellowship Conference, held at the Independent Hall of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr. Senyo, who is not happy about the alacrity of Ghanaian Christian youth, said a time is coming when we will not find churches in Ghana, because signboards of churches are now competing with that of fetish priests.
He bemoaned: "Instead of signposts of Methodist Church Ghana and the likes, animals such as goats and snakes are seen on these sign posts, vomiting monies from their followers."
The President of the Ashanti Regional Christian Council of Ghana Youth Ministry called on member churches of the youth of the Christian Council not to be influenced by money and warned against breaking away from the Methodist Church, but stay and use their God-given talents to grow the Methodist Church.
He urged the Christian Council to mobilise the youth for a common goal. "We want to create a platform for the fellowship to build the capacity of the youth."
He continued that: "If this is done, Christians will have leaders of vision; leaders who are ready to continue the good work of his or her predecessor if not.
Dr. Christopher Ekow Larbi, who chaired the function, explained that the Methodist youth is blessed with two things: Charisma and Character.
"Unfortunately, there is a Methodist youth that say there is no charisma and character in the church. There is no place where you can find Charismatism than the Methodist Church."
Dr. Larbi told the conference that, "I have come to believe that no matter how charismatic you are, if you do not have character, it ends nowhere. Using the biblical Samson as a case study, he said, because Samson did not have a character of controlling himself, he revealed all his secrets, stressing that one of his convictions in life is not to get too excited, because when one is happy, you make 'silly mistakes'.
Dr. Larbi urged the Kumasi Methodist Diocese Methodist Youth Fellowship to be guided by their motto: 'We work, witness and worship,' emphasising that the church does not need to pay and recognise the youth for working, which, he said, is the character and charisma of the youth.
In a message read on behalf of the Kumasi Methodist Diocesan Bishop, Right Rev Christopher Nyarko Andam, under the theme, "Rekindling the Methodist Evangelical Heritage: The youth in perspective," he characterised the activities of the youth as being both positive and negative.
He outlined that youth are into political activism, community work and church work. The Prelate noted that lawlessness, drunkenness, greediness, alcoholism, occultism, sexual promiscuity, homosexuality, drug addiction, internet fraud, examination malpractice, armed robbery, get rich quick attitude, among others, are on the other side of the coin.
He also reminded the Ghanaian youth that, "those who love and cherish instructions, love knowledge, and that he that hated rebuke are stupid."
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