By Isaac K. Nyamekye

The era of thievery, the era of incompetence, the era of corruption, the era of insecurity, the era of youth unemployment, the era of misappropriation of state funds, the era of political tyranny, the era of seemingly perpetual rising cost of living, the era of dubious bus branding, the era of GYEEDA, the era of SADA, the era of subba info solutions, the era of isofoton, the era of NSS scandals, the era of DVLA rot, the era of contract padding, the era of Brazil looting and a host of other gargantuan ills that has engulfed this country in the last few years shall soon be over, should young men and women of our country shun mediocre and duplicitous leadership and embrace truthful and visionary leadership, in no time our woes shall soon be over.

It has been fifty-nine (59) years of relentless melee to wean ourselves off the strategic western sponsored collaborative economic deprivation and colonial imperialism, after that joyful political independence in 1957.

In-between this virtually wasted precious years, various leaders have since transited our economic struggle, including the so called liberator who crushed our maiden plan of building a world class industrial African state, as envisioned by Dr. Nkrumah.

Today our elite crooks are still struggling fruitlessly to build what they call constitutional democracy, enacting and amending bogus laws here and there whilst most Ghanaians wallow in the bottomless pit of abject poverty without any hope of it getting better soon.

It?s clear that the tie and suits meek type of leaders are not relevant in our today?s Ghana. We need strong, fearful and responsible leadership like John Magufuli of Tanzania and Paul kagame of Rwanda to whip the academic thieves in line..

We have public officials who raise their arms to the square and solemnly pledge to uphold the laws and dignity of the institutions the work for, but what happens? It seems all black men are cursed from the womb to be a thieves. But I tell you they are smart people, they've coined nice jargons like financial malfeasance, monies not accounted for, financial indiscipline to explain their criminal deeds, they are thieves!

They act dishonestly and selfishly to the detriment of our collective goals. One may ask, are these curses? Destiny? Or a general problem across Nations as the current government wants us to believe. The answer is a big NO. Its bad leadership, mismanagement, incompetence, corruption and some villain attitude of the Ghanaian citizens that has landed us where we are today.

But it is not their fault, the general governance structure is in such a corrupting state that needs urgent reforms to save the situation.

It is good to have majority of our citizens so poised to succeed in various ventures but greed is an insidious trap that has the power to defeat those aspirations if we do not follow ethical laid down procedures that will land us in our best dreams.

The epidemic of corruption rages in our today than ever before, no month passes without a hint of corrupt scandal in our MDAs, churches, private companies and quite recently the chieftaincy institution is being dragged by our politicians into the arena of thievery and sycophancy which further jeopardizes our already polarized and corrupt political society.

We have a responsibility as young people, to question decisions of our political class without fear or favour.The era of political intimidation, lies,vendetta and propaganda is long spent. Arise young people! for your economic freedom is at stake! Our future is in limbo! The time is now! For we know our country is not poor its bad management coupled unseandn foreign hands and corruption that has led us here.

The tawdry politics that places selfish interest and pursuits above the common good of the society is the singular hindrance to building an independent world class corrupt free modern society. Integrity, honesty and selflessness has been consigned to the dustbin. The mantra nowadays is who is richer than who in the political circles.

The general suffering is not their headach at all. Whenever young men of our country wants to make a futune with less effort politics and the civil service is their first point of call because our leaders long lost the script on honesty and integrity and ought to be be described for who they are.

"Political Sycophantic Syndrome"(PSS) has become the order of the day, they call it 'who you know' and that if occupants of top jobs are not corrupt to the extent of sharing state resources among their friends and cronies he or she is deemed as not being smart, this cancer is depriving the ordinary citizens of their fair share of the national cake.

Youth unemployment is reaching a crescendo in the last 7 year of governance under the current government. The continuous lies about government creating unprecedented jobs opportunities coupled with corrupt schemes like YEA and YES are the reasons why 48% of youth in Ghana are unemployed according to a world bank report.

As I mention all these problems one may think the situation is hopeless but there is a great reason to have hope, for there is a remedy, our sickness is not difficult to diagnose, nor is the remedy so complicated to prescribe.

The solution is leadership, a leadership of conviction,an incorruptible leadership that is firm and has the capacity to deal with acts of corruption without fear or favour, a leadership that understands our current problems and their root cause, a leadership with the zeal to put measures in place that will forever change our attitude for the better, and more importantly leadership that places national interest above personal parochial interest.

The opportunity exist here on our land, all we need is a decisive leader who will turn our plans into prosperity by first overhauling our constitution to suit current trends as well as introduction of more biting clauses to curb the menance of corruption. Also vigorously pursue policies that would modernize agriculture to feed industries. This would create millions of jobs for our young energetic teaming youth who desperately yearn for jobs.

Young people also have a duty in this difficult times in the which we find ourselves. The time has come for us to reorient our thought in terms of what the future holds for us and act accordingly. Young men pride themselves of being the future leaders of this country but our actions are in sharp contrasts of these aspirations. Hedonism has been largely responsible for the terrible social ills now running rampant in our county today.

The love for pleasure is gradually eating away our core objectives and aspirations in life, young men and women enjoy clubbing, partying, watching movies and sporting activities than contributing to national policy discussions, raising critical issues that affect societies and spending time to gain knowledge in a particular field of study that will in turn help better our lives.

In conclusion, I want to bring to your notice that freedom will never be earned, we have to fight for it.

The era of cheap ordinary pedestrian politicking coupled with corruption will soon give way for the few hyperopic leadership to salvage us from this long standing mess.

The ball is in your court!

You have the power!

To make or unmake your future!

The choice is yours!

Be part of this eminent change!

Long live TESCON UPSA!

Long live mother Ghana!

God bless you.!