Over the weekend, Mr. Bright Mumuni Aziz, a Youth activist and Headmaster of AMASS gave an outstanding speech at the just ended Ghana Talents Award last Saturday 11th December 2021 at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Osu, which left audience on their feet.
The Speech delivered at the night reads;
Distinguished ladies & gentlemen, it’s a rare privilege to be part of an auspicious occasion such as this…
I left Bawku yesterday to be here to witness this event and to share some few but very important thoughts with you…
Permit me to convey warm regards from the five regions of the north to the organisers of this all important event, Events Plus Ghana and Halal Ghana Foundation for putting up a youth centred program like this, all the nominees in the various categories, the invited guests, media partners, sponsors and everybody present…
It’s equally refreshing to have His Excellency Dr. Hassan Ayariga ~ Leader cum Founder of APC and Presidential
Candidate in the 2020 elections amidst us, the most talented Famiyeh, Black Sherrif, Shatta Ranking and other musicians present, I salute you all…
Distinguished young ladies and men, may I proceed by firstly reminding all of us seated here that, no matter who you are, how you see yourself or where you come from, God has gifted every single one of us some talent of a sort!…
If you have identified your God~given capability or talent, thumbs-up to you…if you haven’t identified your talent yet, then the onus of burden lies on you to do a solemn introspection or soul searching to be able to identify, develop and utilise your talent to the good of yourself and humanity…
Need I remind you ladies and gentlemen
that everything in this hall was made to solve a particular problem and in like-fashion, you were also created by God to solve a particular problem; this you can do by identifying, developing and putting your talent into good use…
Ladies and gentlemen, looking around here, we find out that almost all of us fall within the youth bracket of 15 to 35 years according to the Ghana National Youth Policy document ~ 2010…in the next 50 years, Ghana’s population is projected to be a whopping 60+ million…
Undoubtedly, Ghanaian youth are among the most talented you could find anywhere in Africa…
We are enormously talented by God in the areas of sports, music and other performing arts, leadership, academia,
technological innovation, crafts, among several others…
It’s on this premis I humbly seek answers to the underlisted nagging questions;
1. What effort is government making to ensure talents of young persons are unearthed and utilised?…
It is crystal clear that, the youth of any nation and for that matter Ghana, are supposed to be a major source of human capital and key agents for socio-
cultural, economic, and political transformation as well as technological
innovation. If this is true, then the powers that be should tell us what plans and programmes they have instituted towards this end.
2. How come we live in a country where over 80% of those in leadership positions
are very old when over 80% of the population is made up of young people?…
Why do we pride ourselves in choosing the older folks as leaders who in turn choose their colleague older folks as ministers and heads of institutions?…
3. The older folks keep singing to us “The youth are the future leaders”…How are they grooming the youth to be able to play effective and efficient leadership roles in future?…In Namibia, a lady as young as 23 years by name Ms. Emma Theofelus is already a Cabinet Minister…Mr. Jean D. Jalo at age 30 is Rwanda’s Transport Minister and a member of cabinet…Finland had a 34 Sanna Marin as Prime Minister…H.E Vanessa D’Ambrosio at age 30 was San Marino’s President…Sadly in Ghana, its a different story…
4. Why is so little being said and heard about the Ghana National Youth Policy?…
5. I am a Headmaster of a private SHS in Bawku…How come in over 5 years, the Free SHS Policy has not been extended to private schools?…is it the case that students in private SHSs are Togolese, Ivorians, Burkinabes or Nigerians?…if we can have NHIS extended to private health facilities, why can’t we have free SHS also extended to private schools?…
6. Why do our leaders keep borrowing monies they may not live long enough to pay back?…Currently with Ghana’s public debt stock of GHC334 billion, it means each and every Ghanaian owes over GHC11,100…(That’s over one hundred and eleven million old cedis)! This breaks my heart and am sure it does yours too…
7. What is Ghana’s National Development Plan?…If our leaders have beautiful visions for their private businesses, why are they not interested in calving a vision (National Development Plan) for Ghana?…
8. What is happening to our educational system?…Young ladies and men, from where I sit, our educational system is headed for doom if something is not done about it soonest!…
9. Why is everything in this country build around “chewing and pouring” to pass exams?…
10. What funding or support systems are in place for young people who are into carpentry, mechanics, fashion, music, entrepreneurship, hairstyling, technological
innovation, among others?…
Ladies and gentlemen, as we wait for answers to the afore-asked questions, I want to advocate for a brigade of young persons devoid of political, religious, ethnic and geographic affiliations, that will champion the interest of young persons in this country…Our tentative name shall be Because Of Our Tomorrow (BOOT)…I have come to the painful realisation that, if we want to solely depend on the older folks and the powers that be to chart a course for us, we would be left behind?…
Ladies and gentlemen, by this; we will be taking contacts of you guys here and this brigade of young persons (BOOT) starts right away!…
With effective and efficient mobilisation and unity of purpose, I bet you we shall be
a very formidable pressure group that no one and nothing can break!…
My brothers and sisters, I do not seek to bore you with a long speech, I will like to end here by wishing us all a rewarding and fulfilling program tonight.
The event had several distinguished guests and speakers and also awarded outstanding ladies and gentlemen doing so well in their respective fields. Event plus Ghana CEO, Abugri Mumuni Abdul Rauf ended the night with a vote of thanks and appreciation to all sponsors and stakeholders who contributed their quota in making Ghana Teens Award successful.
