Bawumia tells youth to make informed choices

The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has asked the youth to make an informed choice on December 7, 2024.

“It is a choice between the one who had his chance and blew it and the other one who is asking for a similar chance but to deliver, which is me.

“The decision is yours to make; not to bring back what was discarded in the past, but to vote for your future. If your priority is, as I suspect, about how to build strongly on the economic recovery that is before us, then I will plead with you to vote for me, because of the vision and solutions that I have for you and the country and the leadership, discipline and determination that I possess to see them through,” he stated.

Youth connect

Dr Bawumia, who was addressing the youth in a special televised event from Accra on Sunday night, said after extensive engagement, he had identified that prioritising education, skills training, and job creation will empower Ghana’s youth, and he is committed to achieving this as president.

"From what I gathered in my interactions with you, I can summarise the priorities of the majority of you into three main categories: Education, Skills, and Jobs," Dr Bawumia said.

He said his commitment was to transform Ghana, build on the economic recovery currently being witnessed by introducing bold business-friendly policy initiatives from January 2025, to stimulate significant economic activity.

“I am confident that these initiatives will create the large pool of diverse jobs that the young people of Ghana desire and deserve,” he added.  

Possibilities

Dr Bawumia said, “my-do attitude, my rejection of the tag of impossibility, my passion to unleash the creative energies of the youth, my compassion for the poor and vulnerable – all of these align perfectly with the hopes and dreams of the young people of our country, rich or poor, north or south, educated or not, skilled or unskilled, rural or urban.”

He said he was inspired by the ingenuity and the can-do spirit of the Ghanaian youth.

Inclusivity

He said in his quest for inclusivity, he would ensure that the specific needs of young people were sufficiently addressed by his government if given the mandate.  

“If you elect me as your next president, I promise to involve you, the young people of Ghana, in the formal political processes, for your voices to be heard and your ideas drafted into formulating policies of the government,” he stated.

He said his goal was to lead a government that made young people a positive force for the change that they themselves sought.

Dr Bawumia said his government would build on the achievements of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Education

In line with that, he said he would increase the stock of student accommodation in public universities and other public tertiary institutions to address the housing deficit on campuses, make them affordable and introduce a Free Tertiary Education Scholarship for PWDs, to remove financial barriers to pursuing educational goals.

“We will also set a quota for the recruitment of PWDs in all government recruitment and also provide incentives to the private sector to recruit PWDs,” stated.

On scholarships, he said his government would integrate scholarship databases across all the public sector institutions managing such schemes to ensure full visibility; expand eligibility for the Student Loan Scheme to include all post-secondary students, including certificate and diploma programmes, and also implement in full, the Centralised Applications Processing Service (CAPS) for tertiary institutions.

Dr Bawumia said he would also complete all Agenda 111 hospitals to ensure that every district got a district hospital.