Teenage boys committing murder: Consequences of neglecting the boychild

Many times when young girls are seen moving about neighbourhoods aimlessly, people would show concern and ask questions as to why they are not in school nor learning a trade.

But Unfortunately, we hardly find people showing concern and asking similar questions when young boys are seen loitering during school or working hours.

This is where we begin to fail as members of society.

We forget that neglecting these boys and not showing any concern about their welfare is the reason we are having an increasing number of criminals and various criminal activities in our society.

You do not care about that young boy playing cards, walking about aimlessly or going to the gaming/betting centre during school hours because he is neither your son, nephew, brother nor grandson; but he could become a criminal and rape, molest or abuse your well-trained daughter or sister, come to rob you of your hard-earned money/property or even kill you/your relative.

There have been a number of videos and stories circulating on social and traditional media about how various crimes in recent times are being perpetrated mostly by teenage boys, and it is pathetic.

These are some of the consequences of neglecting the boychild.

*Why and How is a 16year old a "mason labourer"?

*Why is he not in school?

*Who are their parents? Who is raising/training them?

*Have they been loitering about the neighbourhood without anyone showing concern and asking them questions?

*How is it possible for teenagers to, first of all, consider going for money rituals?

*How is it possible for two teenagers to have the audacity to even consider killing another human being?

Is it that they do not have any value for their own lives? Who trains them?

These and many more questions have been running through my head since I heard about the unfortunate incident of two teenage boys aged 16 and 18, allegedly killing a 10-year-old boy for money rituals.

*How did they get bold enough to be able to actually perpetrate such heinous crime?

It all boils down to how we have consistently neglected boys and focusing all our attention on girls only.

Now, they have allegedly killed someone's precious child and also put their own lives in danger. Their growth is going to be marred because they are going to be sentenced if a court of competent jurisdiction finds them guilty of the crime, and they may come out as hardened criminals and commit even more serious crimes later in life.

The nation may be losing 3 young boys in one criminal incident, which could have been prevented if we focused our attention on how we raise the boychild and show concern about his welfare the same way we do for the girlchild.

We must sit up as parents/guardians, neighbours and society as a whole.

The welfare of the boychild is as important as the girlchild.

All children need training, correction and show of love and concern to be able to grow and become responsible adults.

The Holy Bible states in Proverbs 22:15 KJV "Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."

We should not continue to NEGLECT THE BOYCHILD as the repercussions on society are enormous.

#BoysTooMatter
#RaiseBoysRight

Written by
Helena Adutwumwaa
Founder, Concern for the BoyChild Initiative Ghana