Bring The Jobs You Promised …Minority Leader Chases Gov’t

President John Mahama’s major campaign promise to create jobs and employment avenues for Ghanaians has not been fulfilled, a whole year after he was voted back into power, prompting Minority Leader in Parliament, Osahen Alexander Afenyo-Markin to call out the government in demand of the promised jobs.

Speaking in Parliament yesterday, Osahen Afenyo-Markin accused government of deliberately causing job losses for no reason, instead of crating the jobs the National Democratic Congress (NDC) promised.

“If you look at their own flagship programme, they say 24-hour Economy which means one job for three people, sharing three shifts but we have not seen much in that area. We pray that we see a comprehensive policy direction that would lead to job real time economic growth where jobs would be created”, Afenyo-Markin noted when he addressed journalists at Parliament.

He explained further: “So far, we do not think we have seen that. Rather, we have seen more of the youth who have lost their jobs as a result of the Chief of Staff’s directive to the various Ministries and government agencies. They said they were going to deal with public sector workers recruited after the December 2024 elections but what we say was that people who were recruited as far back as 2017 were all sacked and our motion to get the mater investigated by Parliament is still hanging in the balance.

“We pray that we are able to get Mr. Speaker’s attention to fully hear us so that a body is set to look into that matter.”

Delivering his official welcome address on the Floor to welcome his colleagues back to the Parliament, the Minority Leader said the unemployment situation among in the country is a critical challenge which needs to resolved with a sense of urgency:

“On jobs, our young people are caught between unemployment at home and uncertainty abroad. Last November, a tragic stampede at the El-Wak Sports Stadium during a Ghana Armed Forces recruitment exercise claimed the lives of six young women and injured many more.

“These were not troublemakers—they were patriots queuing for a chance to serve. When a country turns a recruitment gate into a graveyard, it is not the youth who have failed the state. It is the government that has failed the country’s youth after promising them a bogus policy called 24-hour economy”, Afenyo-Markin added.

The Minority Leader accused the government of intentionally refusing to appoint substantive Ministers to take over some ministries that have become vacant.

He said: “It has been months since the tragic helicopter crash that took from us the Honourable Ministers for Defence and for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation. To this day, those vital ministries remain without substantive leadership.

“This is an unacceptable dereliction of duty. The Ministry of Defence oversees our national security at a time of regional instability. The Ministry of Environment is tasked with protecting our natural resources and navigating complex climate obligations. To leave them in a perpetual state of acting leadership is to treat our security and our future with contempt.

“This indifference must end forthwith. We demand that the President, without further delay, nominate competent, substantive Ministers to fill these vacancies. Ghana deserves a full government, not a hollow one.”