Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Youth Authority (NYA), Nelson Owusu Ansah has urged the Ghanaian populace and stakeholders to focus on promoting the well-being of the youth instead of criticising them for their ills.

With issues of the youth being a headache of the NYA, the authority believes the youth need to be engaged in a dialogue to deal with the many social pressures they (youth) face.

The NYA boss who revealed he first saw and used a computer in the university says same is not the case today.

Commenting on the recent murder of an 10-year-old boy by two teenagers in Kasoa, he said, “The youth of today now have a tough life because of what they are exposed to. Through their phones, they can learn how to commit murder and other social vices. Their phones are now computers and the stuff they are exposed to constantly have negative effects on them.

And if they don’t get any help, then we experience what happened in Kasoa over the weekend. This is why we need to address the real issues faced by the youth, engage in a dialogue with them and understand why they act in such a manner”, he stated.

According to the NYA boss, robbery, drug usage, its abuse and the many social vices the youth suffer are as a result of the unlimited exposure and social influences they (youth) deal with on a daily. “If we don’t address these, we might forget about their problems after the Kasoa incident dies out”.

In an interview on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show, Nelson disclosed that the NYA is set to roll out a new policy where it will engage with stakeholders on how to deal with the vulnerability of the youth.

This is a broader discussion we need to have with Ghanaians and it needs to be an inter-generational conversation, he reiterated.