Rawlings: Use youthful exuberance to fight what is right

Former President Jerry Rawlings has admonished students of the University of Ghana to use their youthful exuberance to tackle and find ways to curb the influx of robbery incidents on campus.

According to him, “students must not let thieves harass them on campus since they can solve and deal with the situation permanently without expecting help from the police or university authorities or government.

“In order for the robbery incidents to stop drastically, you must take advantage of your youthful age to think proactively and act on them since they are the rightful people to put a stop to it and for that to be achieved, students must also think like thieves to know how to salvage the situation,” former President Rawlings advised.

Speaking at the 3rd Revolutionary lecture series on the theme, ‘Developing a national character for sustainable good governance’, the former president stressed that, “I’ve engaged in so many actions since I was quite small but until then right from school if I had any reason to believe someone was doing the wrong thing, I would fight my way, the average age around here will be about 23, 22, 24? In terms of energy and tenacity nothing beats that age.

Using his life as an example, former President Rawlings noted that he always fought for what was right at his youthful age because he had the strength to do so and is shocked the youth of today are inactive hence making people take advantage of their vulnerability.

“You sit down and allow cowardly thieves to come and harass you? You feel uncomfortable? No, you can deal with it, don’t expect the police to come and do it for you, you can deal with it, just think like a thief too, you’re young men, they should never dream of coming to do it on campus like this, you can do it,” he bemoaned.

Students of the University of Ghana in recent times get attacked by robbers on their way to their hostels from lectures or the library, the stretch from the Pentagon-James Topp Nelson Yankah hall has become notorious hideout for criminals who often inflict wounds on students, rob them of their personal effects and sometimes attempt to rape female victims. –ghanaweb.com