Ghana’s peace and stability are under serious threat due to the growing rate of unemployment among young people, Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli, has observed.
He said that the current stage of hardship and poverty in the country testified to the fact that abundant natural resources alone do not guarantee wealth.
“It takes quality human resources to harness the resources into fortunes,” TogbeAfede added.
The Agbogbomefia made the remarks when the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, paid a courtesy call on him at the Asogli Palace at Ho-Bankoe on Saturday, prior to a budget review workshop by Members of Parliament, in the regional capital on Saturday.
He said that despite the vast natural resources in Africa, wealth eluded the majority of the people and the young were without jobs, largely due to the mismanagement of the resources.
The Agbogbomefia sought to know what the colossal amounts of money borrowed by the Government from creditor nations in recent times were used for, while the country’s roads were in awful shapes.
He cited the Atimpoku-Ho, Aflao-Ho and northern part of the Eastern Corridor roads which he said were in dreadful conditions, and said that it was worrying how some viable infrastructural projects initiated sometimes ago were abandoned.
“So much money is sunk into the projects and then the projects are abandoned for political reasons and this is not good for the nation,” TogbeAfede stated.
He touched on the crusade to encourage young people to venture into entrepreneurship and said that the high and “atrocious” interest rates on loans from the banks were disastrous to private sector business initiatives.
Togbe Afede renewed his call for an equitable allocation of the country’s resources, insisting voting patterns must not determine the pattern of their allocation.
On his part, Mr Bagbin commended Togbe Afede for the forthrightness and concern for the welfare of not only the people of Asogli, but the entire citizenry as well.
The Speaker re-affirmed his stance to uphold the cause for honesty, integrity and transparency in all national matters, at all times.
FROM ALBERTO MARIO NORETTI, HO-BANKOE
