Sunyani, March 25, GNA - Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, former first lady, on Thursday cautioned that 93the side-lining of the youth in active participation in national political development can lead to varied forms of rebellion, especially when the economic situation deteriorates".

She said events in the Middle East and other African countries as shown that the youth form the fulcrum of every societal endeavour She was speaking at the launch of the 34th Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) week celebration at the campus of Sunyani Polytechnic.

The celebration is under the theme, 93Deepening democracy in Africa: the role of the Ghanaian youth".

Nana Konadu stressed that in her estimation, the youth should be the first estate of the realm and national policy should first centre on youth development for a guaranteed constant supply of human resource. She stressed that experience in terms of age was not the only prerequisite for high office, dialogue and decision-making process and called on the nation to tap adequately the ideas of the youth for national development.

She emphasized the need for students at the tertiary level to adopt as part of their studies some of the quality reports of civil society in assisting to deepen democracy. "It will do our democracy a wealth of good if the authorities in tertiary institutions encourage students to analyze some of the reports by civil society as part of their studies", the former first lady added. Nana Konadu encouraged the youth to embrace agriculture and urged the government to put in place mechanisms that would encourage the youth to see sector as a viable business and a tool for national development.

She advised the student leadership to eschew disunity and political interference in their activities in order to hold government responsible for its refusal to implement policies beneficial to them. The former fist lady urged the youth to be more innovative and progressive and to shun the get-rich-quick schemes that circumvented laid down procedures and bordered on criminality. Mr. Eric Opoku, Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, reiterated the youth were the major human resource potentials who could contribute immensely to the development of the nation if their unique insight, innovative and creative ideas were facetted. He said tremendous benefit could be achieved from the youth for national development if enabling, supportive and informative environment was created for them.

The Deputy Regional Minister stressed the need to address the deficiencies that confronted the Ghanaian youth in order for their role in democracy and development to be pronounced. Mr. Kwaku Owusu, Vice Rector of Sunyani Polytechnic, expressed regret that polytechnic education 93is now regarded by many as endangered specie in the education sector". He explained this was due to the over liberalization of the education terrain for private and public universities to expand freely while restrictions were imposed on the polytechnics to run higher programmes that would provide progression for their students. The youth account for more than 60 per cent of the population in sub Saharan Africa and must be seen as the central focus responsible in ensuring democracy in their countries, the Vice Rector added. Mr. Owusu noted that empowering the youth entailed the initiation of sustainable programmes that would support both educational and economic ventures.

"If the young people who are the reservoir of the productive energy of society are economically and educationally empowered, those vices that threaten human security and durable democracy would be drastically reduced", he said.

The Vice Rector said to ensure employment security for all government and civil society should make concerted efforts to position educational institutions and supporting training agencies such that flexible education provided opportunity for all. 25 March 11