The Bongo District Communication Officer for the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Edward Asekere is convinced that the Unemployed Graduate Association was the brainchild of the New Patriotic Party (NPP). The group was the NPP’s sinister idea to give the NDC and the former President John Dramani Mahama a bad name.
“The NPP, that group, is a hoax. You remember when John Mahama was president, they [the NPP], planned, which they are very good at, and brought people on the streets to say they were unemployed graduate groupings. These people we know. They planned [to do this],” Mr. Asekere said when he spoke on A1 Radio’s Day Break Upper East Show.
His comments were in relation to the current government’s attempts at reducing unemployment within the country.
Mr. Asekere explained that the NABCO scheme, implemented by this government was only an extension of the previously known Youth Employment Scheme. The challenges the government faced during the challenges, was because of its inability to plan properly.
“As a government, you have no plans on how to pay them. You would realise when they launched NABCO, they wanted to provide temporary jobs for unemployed graduates. Did they tell us the source of funding? We were not told. Was there a definite source of funding for the programme?” he quizzed.
The disruption in the disbursement of stipends, and the lack of planning from the government led to the incessant calls for payment by the trainees.
Mr. Asekere went on to suggest that all 100,000 trainees engaged under the schemes were all members of the NPP.
“They did it just because they wanted political capital. They just deceived the public. They throw dust into people’s eyes. I am told that they were able to list the people who laid their lives down for the party and for Akufo Addo to become president. Those were the people that were recruited. All 100,000 people sacrificed for the then candidate to become President,” he said.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
