General News of Monday, 14 January 2002

Source: .

Create Separate Youth Ministry - Agbesi

Mr. Alfred Kwame Agbesi, legal practitioner and aspiring MP for the Ashaiman Constituency of the NDC, has called on the NPP government to create a separate ministry for the youth because the present Ministry of Youth and Sports addresses only the problems of sports and not youth leadership.

According to Agbesi, if a proper Ministry of Youth was created it will redefine its development programmes at national level so that programmes directed to develop the youth are implemented to make them responsible and accountable to the state.

He made these suggestions at a breakfast forum held at the Royal Gate Hotel in Ashaiman last Sunday, which was organised by the Coalition of Ashaiman Youth.

He stated that successive governments failed to draw a line between youth development programmes and sports, adding "it will be positive waste in the system if the NPP fails to change the direction of the youth."

Speaking on "Impact of democracy, good governance and development of the youth," Mr. Agbesi described good governance, as all things being done according to law, saying that is why it is good to tell the youth what is happening at Parliament by their representatives.

He noted with concern that there is no youth programme being implemented at the national level, though power is in the hands of the youth.

Mr. Amos Kevin-Annan, Youth Kids Training Consult, stated that the youth should have the sense of communal responsibility because whatever they do affects society.

He entreated the youth to go back to their culture so that they learn to respect and obey orders.

He told the youth not to swallow hook, line and sinker foreign cultures "because it makes them look like rebels."