Deputy Regional Minister calls for moral upbringing among youth to reduce crime

The Deputy Upper West Regional Minister Amidu Chinnia Ishahaku has called for a moral upbringing of the Ghanaian youth as a way of reducing crime instead of attributing crime to unemployment.

According to the Minister, there are people who have good Jobs but have developed the habit to be criminals as a result of poor moral upbringing.

The Minister was addressing some youth of Upper West Region at the occasion of the African Youth Day celebration in Wa under the theme "Harnessing the Demographic Dividend through Investment in Youth".

In a presentation by the Executive director of Community Development Alliance (CDA) Salifu Issifu Kanton said, the challenge of unemployment among the youth is the biggest challenge that confronts African governments today which they must answer and find solutions too, and that challenge he said is anchored on the disproportionate unemployment.

"In 2014, around 73 million working-age young people around the world were unemployed- out of the overall 200 million estimated to be unemployed".

"In many places, Youth lack access to the quality and affordable education and skills training which would help them get jobs or create livelihoods and improved their lives".

But in an address by the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister Amidu Chinnia Ishahaku though agreed with the presentation, he has called for a religious and moral upbringing of the youth to make them fit well into the society.

He said there are people who have good Jobs but have developed the habit to be criminals as a result of poor moral upbringing.

" there are people who are employed yet they get themselves into crime, that one too is it because there's unemployment?, You often hear armed robbery and police personnel are involved, is that not true?, Are those police personnel unemployed? You often get armed robbers and some of them are responsible people in society, they have good Jobs but they have developed a habit to be criminals and that starts from the society, so we need to look at the moral fiber of the society, we need to look at our upbringing, we bring up people that develop the attitude of being criminals and when it happens like that , when such people even get good employment but they will still get back to their bad doings, so on top of all the challenges that confronts Ghana, the upbringing of our children is very key that we developed our people very religiously, academically, so that they fit into the society ,they become responsible people and you can be sure that crime will reduce".

The Upper West Regional Director of the National Youth Authority Mumuni Sulemana urged the youth to take advantage of the skill training programme to enable them gain startups capital from Districts assemblies in the region.

Hundreds of young people from across the upper West region have been taken through liquid soap making, poultry and guinea fowl rearing , website designs, mobile apps designs , office suite and business plan drafting to enable them earn carriers.

"The business plan will be made available to your districts because the Honorable district chief executives are interested in this project and they've supported all of you to be here and I know where we make a meaningful case to them again ,they can support you with some initial capital that you can begin to do what ever you've come here to learn".