Togbe Afede XIV, the Agbogbomefia of Asogli, has noted youth desperation in the country and called for quality leadership.
He said rising economic challenges drove the youth to the brink and should become a concern for stakeholders.
Togbe Afede was addressing an anti-corruption day celebration that forms part of the Asogli Yam Festival celebration, and said corruption remained the root cause of troubled youth.
‘Our economy is indeed in a mess, and the growing frustration and sense of helplessness and hopelessness among the youth is frightening. I know what suffering is like, so I share the pain of our youth.’
Togbe Afede would blame bad governance, which he said had bedeviled the country since the collapse of the independence regime, and that the growing corruption stockpiled unemployment and desperate survival among the youth.
‘Making matters worse for me, personally, is the frightening rate of unemployment. So, we see that frustration is leading our people to pursue hazardous journeys in search of greener pastures. We see misery in their faces, and of course the suicide rate has been on the increase,’ he said.
The Agbogbomefia said the long custody of corruption must be broken, as it remained the ‘main culprit’ in reinforcing the nation’s ‘chaotic economic situation.’
Togbe Afede, an avid anti-corruption champion, said that hope, however, lay in the fact that the nation had the resources to transform negative outlook, and would require leadership commitment.
‘We can turn her around through honesty, hard work, and genuine love for our nation. But it requires leadership. Leadership encourages us to work together and do things differently. Leadership that respects the truth, eschews divisiveness.
‘Leadership that works hard to make us all do away with greed inspired and violence-backed democratic dispensation that we are witnessing now. Leadership that has transparency and accountability. They are things that we need to sail through, turn the tide and restore Ghana to its place of respectability in Africa and the world.’
The anti-corruption event has become major feature of the popular yam festival of the people of the Volta Regional capital, and this year had Mr Daniel Yao Dormelevo, former Auditor General as guest speaker.
The top accounting official, who also is a favourite integrity icon, called for a ‘sound’ public financial management system, strict asset declaration regime, and fiscal decentralisation for end to established corruption.
He also called to ‘commercialise the prosecution of corruption,’ to allow individuals to own stakes in the fight against the canker.
Dr Nyaho Nyano-Tamakloe, a statesman who also was a guest speaker, said prominent in the country needed to speak up against raging corruption and abuse of power.
The event also had major anti-corruption champions such as Emmanuel Wilson Jr, Mensah Thompson, and Eric Ahianyo as speakers.
This Year’s Yam Festival also marks the 20th anniversary of the instalment of Togbe Afede.
Source: Ghana News Agency
