SHUN 'GET RICK QUICK' ATTITUDE (OCT 3, PAGE 14)

THE Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr Rashid Pelpuo, has called on the youth in the country to shun the get “rich quick” attitude and contribute positively towards national development.
He said the youth must desist from engaging in social vices such as armed robbery, cyber fraud, often referred to as “Sakawa”, drug trafficking and drug abuse, among others.
The minister made the call when he delivered a keynote address at the opening of a three-day delegates congress of the Young Men Christian Association (YMCA) at Prampram in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region.
He expressed satisfaction at the efforts being made by the youth in their quest to show commitment toward building a successful future.
The congress, which is the sixth edition of the association, is on the theme ‘building the civic competence of the youth, a prerequisite for societal transformation’.
The minister commended members of the YMCA for initiating programmes and projects that were aimed at equipping young people in the country to take up leadership positions.
He said his ministry would organise a forum where the youth would be given a platform to discuss new proposals concerning the youth policy which was being laid before Parliament.
He said a unique national youth policy that would be backed by law would be put before Cabinet by the end of 2009. This policy, according to the minister, would reflect the aspirations and thinking of all Ghanaians.
The General Secretary of the YMCA, Mr Prosper Hoeyi, said the association’s vision was to empower young people to achieve their vision.
“Strides are being taken to develop the youth as productive and useful citizens,” he stated.
“It is this quest to widen the knowledge of our beneficiaries that had seen our organisation constructing 18 day care centres across the country, out of which two are located in Mpreaso and Akim Oda, both in the Eastern Region”, Mr Hoeyi indicated.
He, however, expressed regret at the approach adopted towards technical education, which, according to him, had been relegated to the background as the nation’s economy begs for men and women to drive its production sector.
The Youth National President of the YMCA, Mr Augustine Sarkwah, noted that there was the need for the participation of the youth in development debates as they were the ones who would take up the mantle of leadership in future.
He said the study of Social Studies ought to be redefined to include the elements of civic education, which is often relegated to the fringes of school life, leaving reading and mathematics to occupy major instructional hours.
Mr Sarkwah appealed to the government to consider the implementation of separate instructions on civic education in the basic schools to ensure students get the rudiments of government’s operations.
The Greater Accra regional secretary, Mr Reginald Foulkes Crabbe, in his welcoming address, called on the youth to use the forum as a period of reflecting on how to contribute their quota to the nation’s development.
Nene Atsure Denta III, Manklalo of Prampram and the acting President of the traditional council, who chaired the function, appealed to the youth to do away with negativity as they prepared themselves to take up the mantle to become future managers of Ghana’s economy.