Ms Farida Ali-Musah, a lawyer, has pleaded with Muslim leaders to do more to encourage the youth in the Zongo communities to put value on education.
This, she said, is critical to the fight to bring down poverty, crime and social vices among them.
She described as awful, the present situation where more than 70 per cent of criminal cases that come before the law courts involve people in the Zongos.
This, she said has not been helpful to the image of the Zongos and called for stakeholders to work together to reverse the situation.
Ms Ali-Musah was speaking at a day’s seminar organised by a group of Zongo scholars for about 600 Muslim youth in Kumasi to highlight the importance of education.
It was on the theme: ‘Education, the key to Zongo development” and on hand to participate were students from Junior and Senior High Schools.
Ms Ali-Musah criticised what she said is the “extreme gender inequality” in education and said the situation needs to be tackled with seriousness and urgency.
Ms Ali-Musah noted that girls should not only be put in schools but retained to help empower them economically.
Emeritus Professor Lukeman Mohammed asked the youth to take their education seriously and work hard to achieve academic laurels.
He said they should do away with the “get-rich and at-all-cost mentality” that is fueling crime in the society.
Alhaji Yakubu Seidu Peligah, acting Dean, Faculty of Creative Arts and Technology, Kumasi Polytechnic, asked the youth to take responsibility for their future and refuse to ruin their lives through lawlessness.
GNA
