Former President John Agyekum
Kufuor has warned of an imminent security crisis unless political leaders in
Africa and elsewhere in the world take the unemployment challenge seriously.
He said graduate unemployment,
especially, could result in the overthrow of constitutionally elected
governments unless steps are taken to resolve it.
“Every year these universities
and other tertiary institutions are putting out hundreds of thousands of
students – qualified, very intelligent – and in the age of IT, they read and
understand and see whatever is happening around the world.
“If such resourceful youths will
leave universities – and not counting their cousins who even have not gone in
there, but who are all smart – and they can’t hope for meaningful employment,
then I tell you there is a measure of intolerance that even regular good
governance may not be able to cope with,” he said.
President Kufuor also warned
against global population growth.
“The youth want aspirations and
they can’t get it where developments of economies are not keeping pace with
population explosion,” he said.
He said a lack of employment
opportunities, coupled with a population explosion, could be a dangerous
trigger of instability in any society.
“When you’ve got such trained
minds and healthy bodies not having hope around, then when you are not careful regular
systems get undermined,” he warned.
The former President made these
remarks when the leadership of the International Democratic Union (IDU) paid a
courtesy call on him at his office in Accra.
IDU is an international alliance
of centre-right political parties.
The IDU provides a forum in which political parties
holding similar beliefs can come together and exchange views on matters of
policy and organisational interest.
Headquartered in Oslo, Norway,
the Union comprises 71 full and associate members from 63 different countries.
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