{"id":40757,"date":"2026-07-27T13:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=40757"},"modified":"2026-07-27T13:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T11:16:10","slug":"liberia-must-give-youth-policy-power-not-just-jobs","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/liberia-must-give-youth-policy-power-not-just-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Liberia must give youth policy power, not just jobs&#8217; \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberia cannot solve its youth crisis simply by handing out jobs; it must give young people a seat at the decision-making table, according to Shardrick Bloyue, Senior National Assistant Secretary General for Press, Propaganda and Publicity of the National Patriotic Party in Liberia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Speaking as the nation marks 179 years of independence, Bloyue argued that while youth make up over 65% of the population, fewer than 3% hold public sector jobs, and even fewer have a say in how the country is run.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>He pointed to a history of short-sighted resource concessions that export raw materials rather than building local manufacturing, leaving young Liberians locked out of real economic and political influence.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While acknowledging recent government investments in rural road infrastructure, Bloyue warned that persistent political patronage, drug abuse, and a lack of genuine cross-party reconciliation continue to sideline the nation&#8217;s largest demographic.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":36706,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-40757","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Liberia youth crisis requires policy power over public jobs: NPP Official","published_date":"2026-07-27 13:14:54","news_description":"Liberia youth crisis requires policy power over public jobs: NPP Official","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40759,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/40757\/revisions\/40759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=40757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}