The Youth of Ghana must wake up

I believe that this hour is an opportunity for me as a patriotic citizen and a youth for that matter to share some few observations I made on my way from Sunyani to Accra concerning a nasty incident that nearly took away the lives of the passengers that were traveling with me in my vehicle.

The issue to discuss basically centers on the security issues connected to the serial killings in the Eastern Region. People around the area including the youth were complaining about the fact that about eight of their neighbors had been brutally murdered without any just reason or cause.

In their anger, the youth took to the streets and decided to burn tires across the Suhum-Nkawkaw roundabout in order to disrupt all motorists plying that route to Sunyani, Kumasi and the Tamale route.

As a youth myself, who actually witnessed some aspects of the scene, I totally condemned the actions of my fellow youth. What they did resulted in police personnel and its re-enforcement team to arrest and used their pistols to dispel them.

In spite of the police interventions they were still bent on creating motor traffic and destroying properties at the expense of the nation. As a result of their behaviour, I was held in traffic for more than three hours, this was wasted time that I could have used for something productive as a youth.

The policemen who were mandated to protect the people as well as properties in the area also ended up causing injury and arrested innocent citizens including one Selorm Abladzi who was undergoing his national service duties in Suhum. The unfortunate incident that nearly caused loss of lives and properties was really unnecessary.

As a matter of urgency, the youth including all of us, should eschew from violence which does not augur well for the development of the entire nation. We must rather allow hard work, perseverance, dedication and most of all, commitment to be our hallmark especially as we celebrate our golden jubilee anniversary. This will at the end, make this nation of ours very prosperous and besides reduce the level of brain drain

Inasmuch as I sympathize with the victims and detest the manner in which the youth displayed their anger, my prayer is that, a more civilized way to solve disagreements should be exhausted to bring peace and harmony. I therefore encourage the youth not to take the law into their hands no matter the extreme provocations but instead allow dialogue to the only solution.

Views expressed by the author(s) do not necessarily reflect those of GhanaHomePage.