Arise Africa Youth international (AAYI) is a proactive youth Think-Tank and advocacy Non-governmental Organisation formed with the objective of empowering the youth for development. AAYI seeks to promote the ideals of the African Union charter on African Youth based on the 4 E’s namely Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship and Engagement. Through various youth intervention activities utilizing technological methods, AAYI aspires to support the efforts of government and youth agencies in creating a better and safe future for the African Child.
According to Mr David Akwasi Amofah the Founder and President of AAYI, as a development partner AAYI sees it as an obligation to encourage the youth in the country to desist from violent acts as we approach National and Presidential elections. As it’s been said time and time again by various leaders, ‘The youth are the future of a country’, if that is the case then matters of youth development must be of serious concern to all.
The youth can become a very powerful tool in driving development and
change if well resourced. Ghana and Africa as a whole, currently hold very worrying demographics on youth population. With over 70% of its populations being youth, and a majority of that percentage being uneducated or unemployed, Governments in African countries including Ghana are faced with a huge responsibility to overturn these statistics positively. Youth development should be the priority to all governments and development agencies. The government alone cannot carry this huge burden. Neglecting of the needs of the African Youth can lead to serious repercussions, typical examples being recent unfortunate incidents in Nigeria. Back home in Ghana, as we approach National Presidential and Parliamentary elections, we have seen various negative incidents of violence involving the youth such as clashes between the youth supporters of two pollical parties at Odododiodo constituency as well as the brutal killing of a member of parliament. The effects of the ‘end SARS’ protests involving the youth in Nigeria are all incidents worth noting. As a group, AAYI wishes to drum home
the peace message, advising the youth to desist from any acts of violence now, during and after the elections. To the youth, we say, ‘do not be deceived by any individual, or party to engage in any form of violence against your political opponents. It is important to safeguard the peace and security we have enjoyed over years, and we can only do so by avoiding violent acts. ‘We AAYI stand for Peace, now, During and After the
Elections’ and advise all other youth groups to do same.
On the second part of the briefing, I will be touching on youth Policies for this election.
As we enter Presidential and Parliamentary elections, top on the agenda for AAYI is the various youth policies presented by the various parties. As development partners, AAYI has researched into the youth policies of selected political parties based on the 4 E’s set out by the African Union on Youth development under the African Youth Charter, and based on the past performance of these parties. After some critical analysis, two parties came up tops, and our conclusions are that the Youth policies as laid out by the current government stands out. We see the free SHS policy, as a very credible, sustainable, and effective way of ensuring that the youth (especially vulnerable one’s access quality education for a better future. Having been tried and tested, we are hereby on this platform endorsing this policy. We also see the NABCO policy as a very good policy having helped to create over 100,000 jobs for the youth.
Our main objective as a group is to promote youth development through digital means, hence we endorse the digital interventions so far laid out by the government, namely ‘the Ghana digital address system, mobile phone interoperability, drone delivery system delivering essential medicines to rural areas, digitization of passport office, and various institutions just to mention a few. We believe that millions of jobs can be created through digitization and as such we fully support these policies.
In as much as we endorse these policies AAYI will be monitoring, to ensure government delivers on its promises on youth development. AAYI will be bringing its expertise in youth development, with our various interventions to bear, supporting government to deliver.
In conclusion AAYI wishes to drum home the peace message once again and say, ‘we stand for peace now, during and after the elections and advise the youth of Ghana to desist from any acts of violence in order to create a safe and better future for our youth’. Thank You.