He recalled in years past when national student leadership subjected topical matters to critical discussion at congress and provided alternative solutions for the advancement of the country.

Prof. Yankah, who was delivering the keynote address at the 23rd Annual National Delegates Congress of the Graduate Students Association of Ghana (GRASAG) in Kumasi, explained that the current student leaders resort to dubious means in their quest for power has resulted in corruption at the national and governmental level.

He expressed disgust at student leaders for their role in the orchestration of corruption, saying: “The mere process by which power is attained drives students to dubious alternatives.”

NUGS conflict

Prof. Yankah said currently those who offered themselves for elections at the student level did so for their own selfish interests and these, have culminated in splinter groups springing up within the student front.

He cited as an example the current National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) which has two groups, with both claiming to represent the interest of students.

Theme

The celebration was on the theme: “60 years of sustaining a national character of research and innovation for job creation and industrial transformation.”

Touching on the theme, Prof. Yankah explained that although research was necessary and needed for innovation, there was the need to balance technology and unemployment, which was a huge problem for Ghana and Africa.

He said there was the need to delicately navigate the balance between innovation and employment.

According to him, whenever a company introduced technology into its operations, some people were rendered redundant, thus increasing the unemployment level.

While admitting that there was a high rate of unemployment in the country, he said graduates needed to go beyond the academic acquisition of knowledge to put those skills to practice and add value to whatever knowledge they had acquired in school to put them in good stead to be relevant to the job market.

Regional minister

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei Mensah, in a speech read for him by the Deputy Regional Coordinating Director, Mr Francis Dwina Darko, encouraged the graduates to be abreast of government policy initiatives in order to take advantage of them to create jobs.

He said most of the initiatives were demand-driven as such would require some commitment from the private sector or the beneficiaries.

He thus encouraged them to take the initiative so that government would support them.