You are here: HomeNews2017 03 07Article 516339

Opinions of Tuesday, 7 March 2017

Columnist: Abdul-Basit, Mohammed

Social vices in Wa in the Upper West should be checked

File photo File photo

By Mohammed Abdul-Basit

Since the beginning of January, Wa the Upper West Regional capital has been trending on social media for the wrong reason.

A sex tape involving a supposedly married lady and her ex-boyfriend went viral in town and was eventually published by several online newspapers and websites.

A few years ago, it would have been easier for cocoa to grow in Wa than for a sex tape to emerge from the town.

Today some wayward youths in Wa find pornography fashionable. They see nothing wrong with filming their sexual encounters and storing the clips in their phones and laptops.

Some of these clips and pictures are widely circulated on whatsapp platforms and other social media. The fact that sex tapes keep leaking is surprisingly not deterring people from the sickening act.


Besides pornography, other social vices that appear to be gaining a foothold among these unscrupulous youths are drug abuse, armed robbery, burglary and gang fights.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a collective inertia that is preventing opinion leaders and the society in general from taking stringent measures to curb these social vices.

This inexplicable passivity of the Waala society is emboldening its wayward youths to become more daring in their practice of these social vices. To make matters worse, those who should be taking a principled stand against these bad practices are usually the very people who move heaven and earth to enlist the help of anybody that matters in Wa to prevail upon the police and the Attorney General’s Department to set recalcitrant criminals free.

It is about time the people of Wa realized the immense harm these unchecked social vices are causing the town. The police and the Attorney General’s Department should also be allowed to do their work.


By Mohammed Abdul-Basit
Limanyiri Vuori
Post Office Box 267,
Wa, Upper West Region.