From Joyce Addae
The National Youth Authority (NYA) has held a Youth Dialogue at Tepa for five schools in the Ahafo Ano North District.
It was aimed at presenting one platform to the identifiable youth groups to exchange ideas on the attempts to develop polices and interventions that are geared towards addressing their problems.
The forum formed part of this year’s African Day, under the theme: “Harnessing the potentials in the Youth for Total Development.”
The Ashanti Regional Director of the National Youth Authority, Mr. Opoku Fofie Apraku, noted that Africa was rich with vast resources, yet the Africa states wallow in dire poverty, which he explained in the fact that Africa was inflicted with disease, conflict-prone, low industrialisation, hunger in the midst of plenty, and loose neighborhood relationships (divided by artificial boundaries that favoured colonisation and manipulation).
He noted that member states of the Africa Union (AU) and ECOWAS lack commitment, as they are bonded more to their former colonial masters.
“It is common fact that in Africa today, some government fiscal policies like the budget remain mere paper work if it is not scrutinised and sanctioned by the Western powers. Our over-dependency on foreign inputs to all our critical and major programmes stare us in the face,” he said, adding that “under this circumstance, Africa cannot afford to move forward if its youth is ignorant and unaware of the happenings around him.”
He explained that African Youth Day, therefore, seeks to re-awaken the youth to re-discover and assert themselves as Africans, and rise up for the freedom, independence, total liberation and unity of Africa.
The Ahafo Ano North District Officer of National Youth Authority, Mr. Orwell Amponsah, said a significant number of Ghana’s youth population lived in rural and disadvantaged areas, with poor access to basic social amenities and services, including access to quality and affordable education and healthcare.
Mr. Amponsah hoped that African Youth Day would be one giant step in engaging and equipping the youth on various social topics that confront them.
On her part, the District Director of Education for Ahafo Ano North, Mrs. Victoria Achiaah Osei, used the occasion to asked school children to study hard to enable them become very useful citizens of the country.
She cautioned school children against attending wake-keepings, concerts and video shows, or face drastic sanctions.