Jennifer Anaale Apingu worked as a head porter (Kayayo) at the Ejisu market to support her education at the Navrongo Senior High School. When she completed her Science programme with 5As, 2Bs and a C, she had no support to continue so she worked as a waiter at a drinking spot in Navrongo for a monthly wage of GH¢400 cedis until someone brought her to my attention.

On my birthday in July 2023, I appealed for support for her using my social media handles. Pecan Energies offered to fund her university education fully. She's now studying for a Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Health and Allied Science (UHAS) in Ho. (In the picture below, the Vice Chancellor of UHAS acknowledged her during the matriculation early this year.)

Like Jennifer, many of the head porters are supremely gifted, highly motivated and inspired to excel. Given the opportunities, we can get aircraft pilots and NASA scientists from among the unfortunate ones who have been turned into beasts of burden by circumstances they did not create.

Each year, NGOs train and set up hundreds of the kayayei, but thousands more, mostly from northern Ghana, flock to market centres in big cities across Ghana.

We hardly hear about any serious government interventions for them until election years when politicians and governments parade them with tokenism as achievements that should be celebrated and rewarded with votes.

I recently incurred the wrath of many NPP followers when I questioned the overall impact of one of such supposed achievements by the NPP and its candidate. Those who disagreed with me but were civilised enough to engage and not insult argued that if a kayayo becomes a bus driver, it will serve as a motivation to the rest.

And my question was: a motivation to do what?

Those young women and girls are sufficiently inspired and motivated. They are among the hardest-working Ghanaians. What they need is meaningful opportunity. And the government should not compete with NGOs by providing support to a handful of them and parading them before television cameras for votes.

It is said that the most efficient way to starve a river is to cripple its source. The government's responsibility is to provide opportunities that would keep them from coming to the market centres or opportunities that would entice them to leave the market centres in their tens of thousands. If we have $58 million dollars to waste on digging a hole for the national cathedral and over one billion cedis paid to SML in shady deals, then we have enough resources to help the young people of Ghana.

Those who mauled John Mahama for transporting a supposed LEAP beneficiary turned-pig-rearer to the State of the Nation Address must not demand to be celebrated because they trained young women to drive buses. NGOs are already doing that.

In fact, the young woman who drove Vice President Bawumia and was falsely claimed to be one of the kayayei trained through the vice president's initiative had actually been trained by an NGO.

We must hold our governments to high standards. The most meaningful initiative created in recent times by the government to empower persons like the head porters began in 2006 when the Kufuor administration started the National Youth Employment Programme (NYEP).

Unfortunately, however, the government used that programme to rather create shady companies, such as Zoomlion. Zoomlion's first contract was through the NYEP and has remained to date.

When the NDC won power, it added its own cronies, such as rLG, Asongtaba, and Zeera, and expanded Zoomlion's unconscionable deals. In 2024, sweepers under the Youth Employment Programme are paid 850 cedis per month through Zoomlion, but the contract says Zoomlion should take 600 cedis and pay the sweepers only 250 cedis a month. Any presidential candidate who truly cares about the youth should address these anomalies and give them genuine opportunities.

The district assemblies do not have funds to undertake projects and employ the rural youth because our presidents have president over fraudulent contracts that are awarded in Accra on behalf of the assemblies, and a greater portion of the assemblies' share of the Common Fund is used to pay for such contracts in Accra. Even the contracts to sweep markets in all the assemblies in Ghana are awarded in Accra and the payment is made in Accra.

The youth, especially those from the parts of Ghana with little rainfall for year-round farming, troop to the cities for a living. Some migrate temporarily, and others migrate permanently. Our leaders know this, and we should not help them to shirk responsibility.

Both Bawumia and John Mahama hail from northern Ghana. They know the high levels of poverty there. They know the youth have nothing to do during the long spell of the dry season.

The youth are not lazy. They don't lack motivation or inspiration. They lack opportunities that should keep them in their communities. And the unfortunate ones, such as the kayayei, should not only make the news when it's time to vote.

If their votes matter, their lives must matter more.