BUSUNU, Ghana \u2014\u00a0The viral video shows a group of young people from Busunu, Damongo Constituency, Savannah Region of northern Ghana reloading bags of rice onto three pickup trucks while shouting, \u201cwe need jobs, not rice\u201d, on July 18.<\/p>\n
It was two days to the Muslim festival of\u00a0Eid-al Adha<\/a>\u00a0or the \u201cFeast of Sacrifice\u201d. Per custom, the area member of parliament, Samuel Abu Jinapor, donated food to his constituents to celebrate the holiday.<\/p>\n The food was headed for storage at the chairman of the electoral commission in Busunu when the angry young men intercepted them.<\/p>\n \u201cWe realized they had packed some rice bags at the chairman\u2019s house, so we told him that we\u2019re the youths and you, the executives, know the challenges we\u2019re going through in terms of unemployment, so we\u2019re returning the gifts to our MP.\u201d<\/p>\n Sachibu said some of his friends got jobs in the security sector courtesy of the minister but said the lawmaker could do better.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s doing great for the constituency, but we need him to do more. We have some of our colleagues who got jobs in the public sector through his efforts. We rallied behind him during the elections, so he should give a slot [for a bigger post] to someone from Busunu. We don\u2019t care if the beneficiary supports the government or not.\u201d<\/p>\n Jinapor, 38, a lawyer by profession and son of\u00a0Mahama Abdulai, a\u00a0Buipewura<\/a>, or a traditional chief in Central Gonja district, Savannah Region, defended his development record.<\/p>\n \u201cAt a constituency level, we\u2019ve employed a good number of people from here. The government has also done well to create employment opportunities across the country. I won\u2019t quarrel with those who chose to express themselves in the manner they did.\u201d<\/p>\n He said he plans to establish a shea processing factory to support the women and construct a secondary school in Busunu, including \u201ca good number of other interventions we have rolled out.\u201d<\/p>\n Ghana is faced with 12 percent youth unemployment and more than 50 percent underemployment, both higher than overall unemployment rates in Sub-Saharan African countries, according to the\u00a0World Bank.<\/a><\/p>\n Ahead of the 2016 and 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, the ruling\u00a0New Patriotic Party<\/a>\u00a0led by\u00a0President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo<\/a>\u00a0promised to cut unemployment in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cYou heard the president say he\u2019s going to create a million jobs in the next three years, but the economy is taking a beating due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But we will still deliver on our promise to the youths,\u201d Jinapor told Zenger News.<\/p>\n