Tema-Ghana, Aug. 23, CDA Consult – Alhaji Khuzaima Mohammed Osman, the Executive Secretary of the Tijjianiya Muslims Movement of Ghana (TMMG), has commended former President John Dramani Mahama for venturing into large-scale cattle and agriculture businesses in the Savannah Region.
The movement also commended Dr. Osei Kwame Despite and Dr. Ernest Ofori Sarpong, both business entrepreneurs and philanthropists, for their joint effort to build one of the biggest poultry farms in Ghana.
Alhaji Khuzaima said such acts were great for the farming community of Ghana and the nation at large, noting that with their huge followers and admirers, many of them would consider trying their hands at farming because of them.
Speaking to the media in Tema, monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult); Alhaji Khuzaima called on the government to empower local poultry and rice producers to increase their capacity to produce more and provide jobs for the youth.
He noted that strengthening the capacity of rice and poultry farmers and others producing locally would put them in a better position to solve the increasing unemployment rate facing the country.
Alhaji Khuzaima further urged the government to, as a matter of urgency, work with Parliament to pass the needed trade bills that would make the importation of frozen chicken to Ghana very costly as one of the measures to empower the local producers.
He said when the youth see that jobs are available for them in the various sectors, including agriculture, they will stay in Ghana and do something productive with their lives instead of sojourning to other countries to go and suffer.
According to him, if the youth saw or smelled hope and could see people achieving their aspirations in farming and other areas of business in Ghana, they would also aspire to such heights.
He noted that, as a poultry farmer himself, he was aware that Ghana was capable of achieving food sufficiency by now if successive governments had taken the right direction in agriculture.
He also called for the government to negotiate with partners to add value to the country’s raw materials instead of exporting minerals in their natural forms.
The Executive Secretary of TMMG said it was about time political leaders in West Africa relooked at some of their decisions, which have resorted to driving away the youth from their countries in search of a better life elsewhere.
“Political leaders in West Africa are failing to realise that African youth are getting fed up with hopelessness in their own countries; that is why they are leaving, but the majority want to stay, work, and live in Africa.”
He expressed worry that the most perilous and unfortunate itinerary of the hopeless African youth was through the deserts of Tunisia, Algeria, or the seas of Libya or Morocco, an indication of looking for any means to leave Africa.
He added that seeing African youth perish on the seas of North Africa and beyond angers the new generation of African youth who seem daring and ambitious, and therefore work opportunities must be created for them in their own countries.
“Whatever policies the governments of West Africa took in the past or presently to help the youth must now go back to the drawing board because the youth are leaving their countries in numbers, and there is a reason: a lack of hope for the future.”
