President Nana Akufo-Addo has urged the youth to avoid risky migration through the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and other parts of the world in search of greener pastures.
He said the government was in the process of creating decent job opportunities in the country and urged the youth to stay home and explore those opportunities to better their living conditions.
The President indicated that never again should a Ghanaian citizen feel the need to join the desperados that crossed the Sahara and drown in the Mediterranean Sea because their own country held no promise or hope.
“I know there will always be those among us who would want to try and seek their fortunes in foreign lands. We would wish them well and pray that they are treated with dignity wherever they go, but it should never be because there are no opportunities in Ghana,†he added.
President Akufo-Addo made this known on Monday when he delivered a speech on “Democracy and Development†at the Cambridge Union Society of the University of Cambridge, as part of his three-day visit to the United Kingdom.
He said Ghana’s infant democracy had put the country on the path to sustainable development, which would improve the way the natural and human resources of the country were managed.
“We are on the path to creating wealth and improving the lives of our people. We are determined to do that by transforming the structure of our economy. The neo-colonial economy, based on the production and export of raw materials, cannot form the basis of a new era of prosperity for our people,†he said.
The President continued, “We have to move, and we are moving towards an economy of processed agricultural and engineering goods and services. That is the way to job creation on a mass base, and an improvement in the incomes of ordinary Ghanaians.â€
With widespread unemployment prevalent amongst the youth, which, in his view, represents the greatest threat to Ghana’s democracy and stability, President Akufo-Addo noted that only a performing, rapidly expanding economy that generated jobs could provide an urgent solution.
 Read also: People for Sale: African men auctioned as slaves for $400 in Libya