Papa Owusu Ankomah, Outgoing Minister of Education, Science and Sports on Wednesday asked students to invest in knowledge building activities which, he said was key to sustaining competitive advantage in global competition. "We will only succeed in positioning the country to be able to compete in the globalised competition for investment in human talent if we maintain vigilance around keeping our investment in our educational sector as high as we can." Paapa Owusu Ankomah was speaking at the first ever students' leadership conference organized by the National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS) to discuss diverse ways and areas where they could influence policy decisions through the various alumni. An alumnus of NUGS has been formed to assist the union in organizing leadership-training programmes for new executives in the area of risk, issues and crisis management as well as in conflict management prevention. The conference brought together student leaders' from various universities, polytechnics and professional institutions and former NUGS presidents to share their leadership experiences and discuss the way forward for the youth of the country. Challenging the students on their ability to lead the nation to attain her future goals, the outgoing Minister asked, "what kind of Ghana do we want to create and leave as our legacy?" He said the country could only achieve the desired economic aspirations if every citizen took the task as a great challenge and pursued it as a personal growth programme. "As a mentor let me say that the most valuable thing I can leave you with today is to summon you to a goal that will challenge you for the rest of your lives: the challenge of transforming ourselves to land on the right side of the knowledge gap," Papa Ankomah said. Dr. Emmanuel Akwetey, Director of the Institute of Democratic and Economic Governance (IDEG) said that NUGS was now in a leadership crisis though it used to be a force to reckon with in the past. He said NUGS now had leadership problems among its own members hence it could not define its role in governance, education or assess the impact of the government's decision on the youth. "There is the need to define a clear vision for the union to guide you in choosing your core objectives and values in this democratic era’" Dr. Akwetey said and urged the students' leadership to build a strong economic basis to sustain the union. Mr. William Yamoah, President of NUGS, noted that the formation of the alumni was an opportunity for current members to tap rich experiences from the old, while learning from their advisory services. Source: GNA