Currently, Sierra Leone youth are facing many problems ranging from being used as pawns in the promotion of tribalism, political violence, armed robbery, drug addiction and alcohol abuse.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him or her to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently" - Friedrich Nietzsche. The APC's manifesto made a clear commitment to steer Sierra Leone towards a better nation by focusing on youth care, development and employment. Four Years in government their manifesto continues to remain mere words, empty slogans and wishful thinking.
Lack of employment and other opportunities are the main cause, as is usually the case under an APC government.
The economic and social problems faced by the youth are compounded by the absence of structural programmes that could improve their prosperity. A large number of our youths are roaming the streets of our cities and towns with nothing to do.
APC deceptively made the youth of our country believe and buy into their so called "new APC" agenda, which has turned out to be nothing but constant feeding of cock and bull stories to us all.
The new Minister of Youth and Sports, instead of working with development agencies in finding solutions to our youth problems, is busy teaching the Sierra Leone Football Association how to run football, when he himself cannot even run his home.
The Labour ministry has been sending out bogus messages that they have created thousands of jobs for the youth, but they cannot tell us where these jobs are and how they were created. I want to duff my heart to African Minerals and London Mining for helping the youths get jobs in the country.
The vast majority of the youths in Sierra Leone are feeling dejected. They are without hope and a sense of direction.
Four years of APC government have reduced our youths to shamefully scrambling – sometimes using violence, to gain ownership and control of market stalls and dilapidated buildings. Far too many are resorting to pick pocketing and 'get rich quick' schemes at any cost, or adopting a 'die trying' attitude in order to make ends meet.
But we should not be surprised at the APC's lack of policies to help our youths. This is because historically, the party has never been committed to the management of youth problems.
In the past, the party has used young people in society as thugs to enforce APC's rule by beating and killing anyone who stood up against Siaka Stevens; feeding them with booze, drugs and weapons to carry out the heartless instructions from above.
We thought we had seen the end of this strategy, but we were in for a surprise when in 2007 and 2008 politically motivated violence was unleashed by a new breed of thugs on people of different political views, which saw widespread looting and burning of property, and the raping of our sisters and mothers.
Whilst the president, ministers and other APC officials keep their children safe at home, or send them abroad for education, they are quite happy to use young people from poor and uneducated backgrounds to do their dirty work - intimidating and beating up innocent people and members of opposing views.
President Koroma's APC government continues to struggle in meeting the expectations of the hundreds of thousands of registered unemployed youths across the country. They were promised job opportunities and prosperity during the election campaign of 2007.
It is now clear that this government has abandoned its election commitment to the youth of the country. They have failed to develop major youth policies and programs initiated by civil society groups and the united nations.
It is very worrying that some of these youth oriented programs started had either been grossly neglected or mismanaged, to the detriment of the youths.
It is also sad to note that the National Youth Commission, which ironically was initiated by the former government, is yet to create an impact on the lives of our youth. Instead the government is planning to feed our young people with lies and drugs, and prepare them to take to the streets during the 2012 elections.
I believe it is time for the Youth Commission to be depoliticized and positioned as a major mobilization tool for youth development and nation building.
The youths in Sierra Leone should be put at the heart of steering the country to a better future. There must be a review of the National Youth Policy from its current partisan bias, to a truly national strategy for economic and social development.
A new national youth strategy should focus on leadership development, education and skills training, entrepreneurship, a can do attitude and healthy living.
The government must lift its freeze on public sector employment, so that our young graduates, who are roaming the streets aimlessly, can be employed to utlise the wealth of knowledge and skills acquired at college and university for the benefit of the nation.
There are thousands of young people sitting at home president Koroma. What in God's name are you doing to their future? Please stop the sermons and start working on the creation of jobs for our young people.
Four years have already been wasted, yet in the coming months and in preparation for the 2012 elections, APC will want to mobilize them in pursuit of their political objectives. But be rest assured that the days of hooliganism is over and this strategy will never again succeed in Sierra Leone. Sierra Leoneans are now conscious of the political game plan.
Dave Barry once who said: "I care about our young people, and I wish them great success, because they are our Hope for the Future, and some day, when my generation retires, they will have to pay us trillions of dollars in social security."
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