It is however sad today to find many young people turned to agents of ruin and destruction instead of being agents of peace and transformation. They freely engage in social vices ranging from drug abuse, alcoholism, smoking, pre-marital, indecent dressing, prostitution, cultism, examination malpractice, hooliganism, gambling, rape, sexual assaults and many other unhealthy lifestyles.
ALSO READ: Minimum Wage: FG to announce figure as Tripartite Committee completes assignment ― NLC
According to Robert F. Kennedy, the 84th United States Attorney General, “the world demands, not a time of life but a state of mind; a temper of will, a quality of imagination, a predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite for adventure over the life of ease.” Over time, peer pressure has become the major cause of youth involvement in social vices.
Poverty, mental illness, inherited traits, broken homes and complex interactions of psychological and biological forces that encourage individuals to rebel against social norms are some of the reasons why youths turn towards peer pressure.
These vices have contributed to an increase in the number of rudderless youths, hence making them to be stagnant in the areas of unproductiveness for too long. As a result, governments at all levels should see the need to accord extreme premium on youths. Parents are not left out in the fight against social vices. They must as a matter of responsibility inculcate cultural and religious values in their children.
- Oduronbi Pelumi, Edo
and then