Mr Abdallah Abubakari, the Northern Regional Minister, has said parents must not shirk their responsibility to guide and protect their children against negative practices in society.
He said there was a great concern for the rising indiscipline, disrespect, criminality and apathy coupled with get-rich-quick attitude amongst the youth, a situation which was eroding the moral fabric of society and “rendering our culture of being our neighbour’s keeper alien to the current generation”.
Mr Abubakari was speaking at a luncheon in Tamale to mark the 56th Anniversary of the country’s Republican Status dubbed: “Senior Citizens Day”.
He said senior citizens bequeathed to the country lessons of hard work, sacrifice, commitment, dedication to duty, honesty and love for one’s country adding; “we must not allow such negative treads to erode the great heritage our senior citizens bequeathed to this nation”.
He, therefore, urged the senior citizens to continue to exert their influence in the communities and use their rich experience and wisdom to influence a change of attitude for the better.
Mr Abubakari acknowledged that the youth faced a daunting challenge of unemployment but added that “government has identified unemployment as a priority and has taken steps to address the situation with the Youth Employment Agency and infrastructural development, which were creating thousands of jobs.
He said the government had indicated its determination to enact and implement policies and programmes to cushion some of the difficulties senior citizens faced citing the launch of the “Eban Elderly Welfare Card,” which enabled the elderly to have priority access to banking, transport and hospital services.
He appealed to the senior citizens to work towards peace in this election year by urging the people to continue to use dialogue as the best way of resolving their differences.
Actionaid Ghana donated African prints which were presented to each of the senior citizens.
GNA
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