It’s undisputable to say that young people are the cream of the society. This sect of society counts for over fifty percent of the Gambian population. However, it’s sad to note that many young people nowadays are often involved in criminal activities that the society really doesn’t need.

It’s quite often that you see in the newspapers or on TV young people been arraigned before a court of law for crimes such as stealing, murder, rape, robbery just to name a few. As future leaders of this country, and leaders in the making, young people must engage themselves in productive ventures rather than criminal activities, consequences of which are high and severe. 

If the country is to be assured of a brighter future the youth must change their attitudes and reduce their crime rate.

This reminds me of the issue of laziness and idealness among youths, which sometimes push many young people to criminal activities. Young people are able and active and therefore should not sit and fold their hands complaining of being not employed. I truly believe that there are so many things that one can do to try and earn a living rather than stealing. As I always emphasise in this column there is the need for young people to be proactive in whatever they are doing. It’s ridiculous for a young man to beat a mother to death, kill a fellow human being or hurt someone with a knife or cutlass and also to rape an underaged girl. Young people should bear in mind that what goes around comes around. If you beat your mother or father today, there will be a day when your children will also beat you. So in a nutshell, youths must be behave well and desist from all forms of criminal activities.

In the same vein, parents must not also fail in their social and religious obligations to mould their children to be respectful and do away with all forms of crime so as to be peace loving citizens. It’s a fact that in our typical societies when a child is good everyone will admire him or her and will like to be associated with that child, but if he or she is disobedient and troublesome no one likes to be connected to him and the burden is only on the biological parents.