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The renowned businessman, founder and flag bearer of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has identified the system of governance which gives too much power to the central government as the bane of national development.

In his view, the enormous power invested into the Executive, particularly the President, by the Constitution did not make room for real checks and balances and that had resulted in the slow pace at which the country was developing.

Dr Nduom, therefore, challenged the Ghanaian youth to familiarise themselves with the 1992 Constitution, particularly the Directive Principles of State Policy and the National Development Planning Commission (NDPC), to become agents of change and development.

Time with Legon

“With proper knowledge of the 1992 Constitution, the youth can challenge and question the status quo with discipline to become agents of change,” he argued.

Dr Nduom said this when he took his turn to address political science students of the University of Ghana in a series of lectures dubbed: “Time with Legon,” in Accra last Friday.

The lecture series is being organised by the Students Representative Council (SRC) and the Political Science Students Association of Legon (POSSA).

Dr Nduom was speaking on the theme: “Youth Empowerment – A key to National Development.” 

He said the best way to empower the youth was to give them information with which they would make their own determination and decisions as to how to contribute to national development.

Dr Nduom said by virtue of the fact that the youth formed the majority of the Ghanaian population, they had the power to make choices that would determine their future and that of the country.

Being agents of change, he said, the youth would help to bring about meaningful transformation and development in their lives and in the country.

However, he said describing the youth as agents of change was easy  but they could only become agents of change if they were well-equipped with knowledge, applied the knowledge properly with discipline and had a sound, well-thought-out vision and a plan.

Development 

“Development is not and has never been an entitlement for any nation or people or does development just happen,” he said.

Dr Nduom said development needed to be earned with good vision, sound plan, competent leadership, sacrifice and a national focus on national priority.

He was of the view that development had to be worked for and it required involving citizens in decision making at both the local and national levels.

Entrepreneurship 

On entrepreneurship, Dr Nduom urged the youth to patronise made-in-Ghana goods to facilitate the creation of a local market for the locally manufactured goods and services.

“If there is no market for made-in-Ghana goods, there would be no point in investing in them,” he said.

According to him, if such a market was created, fresh graduates of the tertiary institutions would have the confidence to start their own businesses.

Enumerating some of the things he would do if he was elected as the President of Ghana, Mr Nduom said he would institute a team of independent prosecutors to probe all administrations in Ghana from 1993 to check for corruption, bribery and instances of wastage of public funds.

He said offenders would then be punished according to the law without any discrimination.