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The Member of Parliament (MP) for Awutu Senya East and Minister for Fisheries & Acquaculture Development, Honorable Mavis Hawa Koomson, is reported to have described the youth in Kasoa as lazy.

She made this unguarded comment on Friday, 12th August 2022, during an interview she granted to Adom TV on its morning flagship show, Badwam.

We in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) find this distasteful statement mindlessly reckless, disrespectful and a pompous display of power. We therefore condemn such conduct without reserve and call on the honourable MP and Minister to render an unqualified apology to the youth and people of Kasoa.

It is said that if you come to equity you must come with clean hands. As such, it is only proper to ask of the minister what the Akufo-Addo and Bawumia led government has done to ameliorate the dire living conditions of the youth of Kasoa? Kasoa is yet to have its share of the failed one-district-one-factory promise. Kasoa, like all constituencies nationwide, has nothing to show for the non-existent one-constituency-one-million-dollars scam; meanwhile the once supportive District Assembly Common Fund has become moribund. Electricity supply in Kasoa is erratic, water expansion is at an all-time slow pace and projects that were once steadily ongoing before this government won power have been halted. In fact, it will be a great service to the people of Kasoa if the Honorable MP can point to a single major government project that engages the youth of Kasoa in any meaningful job.

We can help her with a few of such examples under the leadership of His Excellency John Dramani Mahama.

In any case, what is the Honorable Mavis Hawa Koomson's personal contribution to the development of Kasoa as MP and Minister? Not only did she display shallow knowledge of her ministry during her vetting, she has also been clueless on how to leverage on the resources and knowledge at her ministry to bring development to Kasoa, talk less of any significant achievement nationwide. Sadly, she rather finds it befitting of her office to describe the people who gave her power as lazy.

Such recklessness can only fester under an inept regime. Madam Hawa Koomson is emboldened by the fact that she got away with brandishing a gun at her constituents and still went ahead to win the elections of 2020. That may be the voice of the people but it cannot be said to be the voice of God to be so disparaging of the very people who collectively gave her their power to act on their behalf. The MP must be reminded that she is merely a servant of the people of Kasoa and so such lousiness will not be condoned.

Ghana is currently in a crisis. All three reputable international rating agencies have downgraded our economy to junk status. The Ghana Statistical Service put July inflation at 31.7%, although some experts peg it beyond 60%. Unemployment is an existential threat. Government is defaulting on statutory payments and has woefully failed to honour its financial obligations for all its flagship programmes. We're once more at the IMF, this time with a very weak record and in urgent need of rescue. The free fall of the cedi against the dollar has indeed exposed the fundamentals of the economy. Prices of goods never cease to increase. And frighteningly, in fact, terribly frighteningly, a food crisis is said to be imminent in the coming year owing to lack of supply of farming inputs and the high cost of farming.

In the light of this appalling state, the least the youth of Kasoa and people of Ghana expect is arrogance from duty bearers . We demand respect, candour and compassion. We expect to see a government and its functionaries fully at work to steer us out of this abyss they've sunk us into. In fact, we demand an apology from the people in government for such crass incompetence never before seen in Ghana's history.

The Honorable Mavis Hawa Koomson is probably either dishonest or pathetically insensitive. How could she possibly be so audacious to cast such an insult at the youth of her constituency? Probably, the largesse of power has blinded her to the daily struggles of the people in her own backyard. Despite the harsh state of the economy, the teeming youth of Kasoa are those hawking on the streets, rendering barbering and hairdressing services, washing bowls in chop bars, riding Uber cars, with some joining in at the close of the 8 to 5 job, pulling handcarts, offloading goods from trucks, and doing just about anything, be it decent or demeaning, to make ends meet. Many are those who are still in dire need of opportunities to put their youthful energies to good use. The least such people deserve is opportunity not oppression.

Maybe, Madam Hawa Koomson is a classic example of the many needless ministers of President Akufo-Addo's government whose floppiness the president hails as 'outstanding'. Nothing can be more heartbreaking and insulting.

The president can choose to shut his ears to the cries for a reshuffle, to root out needless and demonstrably incompetent and arrogant ministers like Madam Hawa Koomson, but his intransegience will not stop us from calling out such uncouth conduct.

The 'lazy youth' of Kasoa shall wait to receive the 'hardworking' and 'competent' Honorable Mavis Hawa Koomson when she comes prostrating for their votes in 2024.