By Alex Ababio
In the long and winding journey of nations, there comes a moment when conscience must rise higher than comfort, and integrity must stand taller than politics. Today, Malik Basintale, Acting Chief Executive Officer of the Youth Employment Agency (YEA), has sounded such a clarion call — a call that echoes from the lips of the ordinary youth in Suame, from the tired market women of Agbogbloshie, and from the weary street cleaners of Accra.
Since 2006, when the National Youth Employment Programme was first launched to offer hope to the growing number of unemployed youth in Ghana, this contract has remained in operation to this day.
For 7 years and 9 months, the youth workers of Ghana under the Zoomlion contract were subjected to an appalling injustice — earning a mere Ghc250 monthly, an amount so meager that even a day’s survival in Accra could hardly be sustained. The New Patriotic Party (NPP) government under former President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo repeatedly renewed this contract without serious efforts at restructuring it to uplift the dignity of these young workers. Records from the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament and findings from Auditor-General’s reports between 2017 and 2023 show that Zoomlion alone received over Ghc1 billion in contract payments across various assemblies, yet the field workers, particularly women — the lifeblood of sanitation and environmental maintenance — received crumbs.
As the Akan proverb goes, “When the drum beats, it is the drummer who feels the pain in his hands.”
The elite, comfortably removed from the dusty streets and refuse heaps, continued to enjoy fat salaries and privileges, while the youth and old women they employed lived from hand to mouth. In the same Ghana, top executives at state agencies such as COCOBOD and GNPC were reportedly earning salaries upwards of Ghc60,000–Ghc90,000 monthly, according to leaked documents presented to Parliament in 2022. How then can the same nation justify paying a sanitation worker Ghc250 — a pay that cannot even buy a pair of decent shoes?
The economy, under the previous administration, reflected a house divided against itself — a garden where the flowers of privilege blossomed wildly while the seeds of youth employment withered in dry soil. Youth unemployment officially rose to 19.7% in 2023 (GSS report), and yet those who struggled to find work were locked in contracts that virtually enslaved them under pitiful conditions.
It is against this grim background that Malik Basintale’s solemn pledge to reform the Zoomlion contract system gleams like a star of new beginnings
Standing by the grave of his late father, he invoked not just personal honor but the sacred weight of ancestral accountability.
“If the trees forget their roots, they shall wither under the sun,” says another Ghanaian proverb. Malik has shown that he has not forgotten — he remembers the roots of the people’s suffering, the silent cries of mothers who can’t afford school fees, the fathers who can’t buy medicine for their children.
When he declared, “I shall not renew the contract in its current state or form. It is EVIL,” he spoke with the moral clarity that Ghana so desperately needs.
Indeed, a contract that binds the hands of the hardworking youth while others feast at the banquet of the state is not merely bad policy — it is a betrayal of national trust.
It is time, therefore, for a systemic change — not cosmetic revisions or public relations gimmicks. We must fundamentally rethink how we value labor in this country. Every sanitation worker is not just a cleaner; he is the unsung guardian of public health. Every youth employed under a government program is not just a number; she is a beating heart carrying the hopes of a family, a community, a generation.
As the elders say, “A man who carries a basket of water must hurry before it leaks.” Ghana must hurry. The window to restore dignity to work is narrow but still open.
Malik Basintale’s leadership must be supported, not only by political actors but by all of civil society, traditional authorities, faith-based organizations, and ordinary citizens. Let us rise in chorus behind this call for justice. Let us remember that nation-building is not merely building skyscrapers but building the lives of the least among us.
In the words of an old wisdom: “If the foot is crushed, the head cannot smile.” If we continue to neglect the youth — the feet of our nation — no amount of external glamour will make Ghana’s future bright.
On December 7, 2024, the winds of change blew. Now, in 2025, we must not merely talk about change — we must live it, breathe it, enact it.
The spirit of renewal is upon us. The river that once dried can flood again, and the tree that once wilted can blossom again.
Let us, together, lift the youth from the dust.
Let us, together, dignify labor.
Let us, together, build a Ghana where no worker is left behind.
May God bless Malik Basintale, and may God bless the laborers of Ghana.
Alex Ababio
The Executive Director of African Liberators Economic Institute & Managing Editor for Ghanaian Watch