Host of the Good Evening Ghana show on Metro TV says Executive Director of Jonah Capital, Sam Jonah K.B.E, is welcome to engage publicly in efforts at protecting the interests of the young Ghanaian but that he must be ready to open up on his past.
“Where is your record, show us your record,” are perhaps the most used phrases that Adom-Otchere employed in his editorial throughout the April 29, 2021, edition of his programme as monitored by GhanaWeb.
“Where is your record, show us the evidence, your fidelity to the youth is demanded. You cannot come and give a beautiful speech at Rotary and we clap for you. What are we clapping for?
“Jesus Christ said that when you begin a messianic epistle, you have to show us your record. Ghana has dramatically changed. All the sleeping dogs are not lying anymore. The sleeping dogs have risen. Show fidelity to the people by telling us your record,” he stressed.
He continued: “Sam Jonah says he is thinking about the future of the youth, has he been thinking about the future of the youth for that long?
“We are going to demand these answers of him because what he is talking about we already know, we are already doing it. We do not need his help at this time.
“We are doing it, if he wants to join, we are delighted to have important people like him to join the train, to make our country better. Sam Jonah cannot talk about the future without answering questions about his past,” he added.
Adom-Otchere cited how successive presidents under the Fourth Republic had shown what track record they had in their public lives and demanded that Jonah do the same if he really meant what he said of the youth and their future.
President Rawlings whiles out of office boasted of a clean slate relative to corruption, President Mills had a fine record as a lecturer and a tax administrator and incumbent Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo was a human rights activist.
The host also intimated for Sam Jonah to come clean on his involvement in gold mining merger talks between the then state-owned Ashanti and South Africa’s Anglogold; which merger led to the birth of AngloGold Ashanti.
What did Sam Jonah say about the youth?
The last but not least, we must completely overhaul our educational system. I am not talking about the duration of school. I am talking about the quality of education and the prioritisation of what our children are taught.
A useful educational system must be able to groom young people to believe in themselves and to have the necessary skills and attitudes to form an effective, efficient labour force. As the legendary Dr. Kwegyir Aggrey opined, our education must train the heads, hands and heart of our youth.
This calls for not only Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, but also vocational and technical education. Our inordinate obsession with degrees and certificates has turned most of our graduates into “certificated unemployables” hardly suited to the needs of industry.
Are we preparing our graduates for the new skills sets needed for the future? This is why I have never understood the kind of logic that informed the conversion of polytechnics into universities.
Technical and vocational education have been crucial in Germany’s development. Let us relook at our priorities and reform the educational system, shifting away from grades and certificates to technical know-how, values and attitude building; an educational system which inculcates into our young people flexibility and adaptability; communication and emotional intelligence; creativity and innovation as well as ethical leadership skills.
This is the only way we can compete in the 21st century, and from my perspective, we do not lack the human and material resources to create that kind of system. We must shape the future we desire for our country today!
