Editorial: John Mahama’s decision is good on paper but…

Former President John Dramani, who is also the flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), is promising to split the Ministry of Youth and Sports, with the former having its own ministry to be called the Ministry for Youth Development, when he is elected as president in the December 2024 polls.

Speaking at the outdooring of his party’s youth wing in Accra recently, the NDC flagbearer said something had to change in the way the Ministry was being run. “We are going to separate Youth and Sports. Over the years what we do is that, the concentration is on sports and even on sports, the concentration is on Black Stars at the expense of other sports events. So I am going to set up a service for Youth Development,” he said.

The Chronicle agrees with Mr Mahama that the ‘Youth’ have been relegated to the background when it comes to decision making at the Youth and Sports Ministry. Even with sports, as the former President himself admitted that the focus is only on the Back Stars, which is obviously the cash cow, whilst the lesser known sports that should have been developed are ignored.

Mahama’s pledge to establish a dedicated Ministry for Youth Development, therefore, signifies his recognition of the distinct challenges facing the youth in Ghana. Youth unemployment as we speak has hit the roof top, as thousands of students who have completed tertiary education have no permanent jobs to do.

This is a serious national security threat because some of them, and may God perish out thought, could resort to armed robbery in order to eke out a living. Ghana is a small country, yet we have hundreds of universities churning out graduates each passing year. We have, however, not sat down to find out how these graduates are going to be employed after successful completion of their courses.

It is upon this basis that we think a separate ministry for the Youth will help address some of these challenges. We do not, however, think the mere creation of the ministry will be the game changer. The government must make conscious efforts to expand the economy so that these numerous youth can be employed at the end of the day.

But, while we applaud this initiative, it is essential to also emphasise the importance of fiscal responsibility and efficient governance. The separation of ministries should not serve as an excuse to create more ministries and expand the government unnecessarily.

Ghana is a small country, but at a point in time, we were having over hundred ministers who were all drawing salaries from the consolidated fund. Some of these policies obviously put pressure on our scarce resources and we, as a country, should avoid its repetition in future.

The Chronicle is happy that all the presidential candidates are promising to set up lean a government. Whilst John Mahama is promising to appoint sixty ministers, his main opponent, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has also told Ghanaians that he would work with only fifty ministers. Mr Alan Kyerematen has even reduced the figure to 40 ministers.

It is our hope that these presidential candidates will live by their own words and appoint small number of ministers when they are given the mandate to rule the country. As we speak, the new Senegalese president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, has appointed only 25 ministers and five junior ministers.

Though someone may argue that Senegal’s population of 18 million is nowhere near ours, which is 30 million and still counting, we still think that as a country, we should learn from our French speaking counterpart and reduce the size of our ministers, especially looking at our current economic situation.

 

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