Former President Jerry John 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.
He explained that in order for the robbery incidents to stop drastically, the students must take advantage of their 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, the students must also think like thieves to know how to salvage the situation.
Using his life as an example, Rawlings said 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.
Speaking at the 3rd Revolutionary Lecture Series at the University of Ghana Business School on the theme “Developing a National Character for Sustainable Good Governance”, Rawlings said “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 you being around here will be about 23, 22, 24? In terms of energy, tenacity etc, nothing beats that age”.
“And you sit down and allow cowardly thieves to come and harass you? And make you feel uncomfortable? No, no, you can deal with this. Don’t expect the police to come and do it for you. You can deal with this, just think like a thief too. You’re young men, they should never dream of coming to do this on campus like this. You can do it”.
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 a notorious hide-out for criminals who often inflict wounds on students, rob them of their personal effects and sometimes attempt to rape female victims.
Early this month, a final year psychology student of the university was attacked by robbers. The students in the campaign; #MakeUGaSafePlaceAgain mounted pressure on authorities of the university to take the necessary steps to immediately address the recent state of insecurity in the school.
Management however reiterated its commitment to ensuring that the institution is made safe for academic work and provided streetlights on the stretch for them.
But former President Rawlings is of the view that the students are the only ones capable of bringing an end to the robbery cases on campus.
