Ghana’s lazy youth Vs Unemployment Vs The Police: Who is winning?

Ghana’s lazy youth Vs Unemployment Vs The Police: Who is winning and who is making things difficult for young men and women in the country?

But, while others are looking for jobs, some are looking for opportunities to engage in any criminal activity that would help them make some money.

Ghana’s lazy youth Vs Unemployment Vs The Police: Who is winning?

It is really sad seeing many youths lazing around, all because they have no job to do. Not even jobs that will require them to use their brawn instead of their brains. There are also those lazy ones who do not want to work but engage in extortion practices on the road to make underserved money from drives and mates.

One observation that makes me wonder if our youth are being provided opportunities is what happens at bus stops in and around the Madina market and the Zongo junction overheard on the Legon Madina road.

Is it that, there are no jobs in Madina or the youth in this part of Accra are just lazy? The Member of Parliament of the constituency Hon. Sosu has opened a job centre. A lot of noise has been made about this job centre yet the youth in the area seem not interested. To what extent is this job centre providing the youth of the area with the needed jobs and skills training to win them off the road.

How determined are the youth to find jobs using the job centre and how much do jobs gotten from here pay the youth?

The Police  Officers in Madina have managed to ensure pedestrians are using the walk above the road but the same police are aiding indiscipline on that same stretch of the road in many ways. While pedestrians cannot cross the road but use the walkway above the road, the police have allowed hawkers to sell at the same location.

Although the Ghana police officers are visible here, a high level of youth indiscipline, crime, lawlessness, and extortion of money from drivers and mates goes on with the police playing their own role in the collection of illegal monies from drivers.

There are young able body men who charge drivers for parking passengers at bus stops and you wonder if these guys brought the passengers to come and board the Trotro in the first place.  The moment a driver loads or offload passengers, these guys will come and charge the drivers as if they brought the passengers to the lorry station and bus stops. The police in the area are aware of these happenings.

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The moment a driver parks his car and picks a passenger, they come to the bus conductor (mate) and ask for money. If you refuse to pay the money they requested, they will hit your car with a stick, fight your mate, attack the driver and mate physically, verbally and sometimes this leads to fights between mates and these guys who want to find easy ways to make money on the streets.

When did we get here… Ask me what the police do about it. They do nothing. They are friends of these crooks. Furthermore, they work with them. If a police officer arrests a driver for a road offense, they sometimes use these same guys to collect money from these drivers. Extortion of drivers and mates is a common scene between the Masalachi to Riis junction stretch of the road.

Ghana’s lazy youth Vs Unemployment Vs The Police: Who is winning? In the face of this normalized criminality perpetrated by officers of the law and the lazy strong able-bodied men, who are winning the battle? Is it Ghana’s lazy youth or Unemployment?

No one is winning. The youth are losing, the police administration is losing, Ghana is losing and we are watching on unconcerned.

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It is not uncommon to see two of these guys fighting over Ghs1  at the Madina Masalachi to the Riis junction stretch of the road. These fights are fought by these young guys who use force to collect money they do not deserve from drivers and their mates.  Sadly, many of these guys smoke weed and are addicted to tramadol.

Just visit the Madina Masalachi to the Riis junction stretch of the road any day and observe the police activities and that of these young men, and you would appreciate the shared indiscipline of law enforcement officers at post, collection of money from drivers, and the brisk illegal work of lazy young men who have taken over the bus stops.

Ghana’s lazy youth Vs Unemployment Vs The Police: Who is winning?

Source: Concerned Citizen and Critical Observer