Upsurge in cases of indiscipline in Ghana and its implications

For much of the talk about the need for obedience, courtesy and respect for the elderly in our society, nothing seems to have changed among the youths of today. Virtues have been corrupted, good manners have run ill, discipline as we knew it has been relegated to the dogs and everyone seems to have abandoned their basic courtesies.

These forms of indiscipline appear to have transcended large sections of the social sphere so much so that the youths and even adults – to a certain extent are culprits of acts of indiscipline.

Gone are the days when young people extended a hand of assistance to the elderly under the circumstances. Growing up in the past, I could remember our mothers and grandmothers especially advising us to help the elderly with the loads off their heads, allow them take our seats when they are standing and then ran errands for them, no matter who they may be.

During that same period, you hardly would find people indiscriminately littering the environment owing in part to the fact that the use of plastics and other materials at the time was limited – if not non-existent.

It is apt to add that even the act of buying was measured – that’s some personal fiscal discipline there; you buy when you needed and not for the sake of buying or showoff.

This used to be the guiding principles we had been living by, until a certain time they call the “21^st century”.

On our way to school, one could not help but lend a helping hand to the tired, aged and frail-looking woman returning from the market with a heavy load on head, neither could one afford to get past an elderly man, pushing a yam-loaded wheelbarrow all by himself from his farm, as slow and tiring as it may be en route to his home.

Kwame’s grandmother returning from the stream with a bucket of water on head does not get past us in her obvious struggles in containing the bucketful.

Similarly, Akuna’s widowered father, in his late seventies is able to get his clothes washed, his compound swept and water to bath and drink, not by wishful-thinking or by the touch from the magic wand of a fairy, but by the courtesies afforded him by a few young men and women in the neighborhood.

Even in the cities, in public places or on commercial vehicles, sitting young people naturally vacate their seats to allow for stranded elderly persons’ occupation at their expense.

Additionally, young people in queues to purchase a commodity or anything-say “Hausa koko or waakye or beans”, allowed the elderly ‘jump’ the queues and get served because of their age and plight and it took nothing whatsoever away from them who extended these acts of courtesies to these elderly persons.

Greetings and exchange of pleasantries which existed between those who were young and then the elderly in our society has taken a very minimal tilt or worse of it all are non-existent almost like a taboo.

 Myself and some of my mates glide past these elderly people in recent times on a very consistent bases as if they were not present. Then again I make reference to what it looked like in the past, the complete opposite.

Inadvertently or not, we are all caught in this web – instances of indiscipline, one or another.

Unlike in those days, a lot has changed.

Disappointing as it appears, one cannot help but sit and think deeply about how all these good times seem to have simply eluded us.

I am unable to tell if this seemingly “unhealthy way of living” has anything to do with the consequences of our “modern age”. There has been rapid increase in youthful indiscipline - as I would want to call it, during our supposed modern age.

Everything has almost over-turned. A myriad of such undisciplined acts I have witnessed, points absolutely to this assertion of the fallen virtues in our society today.

Indiscipline among the youth is a problem which all concerned citizens are expressing strong views about. One of the factors that promote the vice is peer group influence.

As young people move about with their friends, and social classes, they influence one another positively or negatively.

A group of five young men are likely to influence positively or negatively their timid counterpart, especially if he is not strong-willed.

Gradually he begins to learn from them, their ways of life, and their mannerisms, among others.

Chances to get negatively influenced are greater than chances to get the positive end of the impact.

Indiscipline among the youth, some experts in child and youth development have argued is as a result of the adoption of some western cultures – and to attempt to debunk this will amount to being untruthful in my opinion.

The youth, learn from their homes to receive education from the primary source of information from the family – that’s their parents. 

But when parenting goes wrong, then a massive issue of breeding miscreants arises. Especially in the case where the marriage breaks and the children are torn between both parents, it becomes an arduous task to regulate behaviours of these children, and that is where it starts.

They enjoy freedom from family control and behave the way they think is right, but this is a silent destroyer if you comprehensively analyze the times these children have all to themselves and what they are potentially seen doing within these periods.

A desperately serious consequence of this is drug abuse. The use of drugs like cocaine, marijuana and heroin causes the youth to be undisciplined due to the adverse effects of such hard drugs on their physical and mental make-up.

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), the second most popular drugs of abuse in the U.S. are psychotherapeutics including painkillers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives but this is not a phenomenon restricted only to the US but is mainstay in lots of other countries even in Ghana.

This involves the nonmedical use of prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs and drugs that may be manufactured illegally, such as methamphetamine and ecstasy.

One of the myths floating around about drug abuse is if it can be or usually is used as a medication, it's not harmful.

However, contrary to what some ill-informed believe, the abuse or nonmedical use of any drug can have long-lasting effects on our health same as the hard drugs or even worse.

The truth is even the "safest" drugs can have negative effects on your health and well-being if they are used too often or over too long a period of time. 

Besides alcohol (which has its own set of health effects), the above are the most commonly abused drugs even in Ghana, in order of popularity, and how they can affect the health of those who consumed.

Several studies have revealed a correlation between the upsurge in cases of indiscipline among the youth in Ghana and their affinity to taking drugs – what is however unclear is whether or not these drugs are necessarily banned substances, or ordinary analgesics or other.

The result – we see on our streets, the increasing numbers of society’s derelicts, who have been reduced to squatters and paupers have been described as effects of an addiction of a sort to hard drug or liquor. Once they take in these drugs, they begin to react hyperactively and in the process commit severe acts of indiscipline.

Approximately 2.1 million people in the U.S. use cocaine, making it the third most abused category of drug. 

Cocaine can be snorted, injected and even smoked in some forms of the drug. 

In all cases, cocaine is a strong central nervous system stimulant which affects the brain.

A recent survey implicated Ghana as one of the leading consumers of marijuana – and that has been described by watchers as a bad image for the West African nation struggling to deal with a multiplicity of issues confronting it.

Once many people are believed to be in the act of consuming hard drugs, the likelihood of breeding miscreants who are mostly culpable when acts of indiscipline are referred to, is twice as much as would have been without parental guidance.

Misconduct of the various forms that exist has their peculiar causes, and no discipline strategy should ignore the causes while trying to ameliorate the undesirable symptoms.

In the queue the other day to get aboard a bus at the terminal on my way home, I witnessed the worst incident yet, in this regard.

It was sunny and the queue was long and winding, then an old man appeared, I suspect could be in his late seventies and wanted to get aboard the bus.

He did not join the queue, he simply walked to the head end of the queue and appealed to the two young men leading the queue, to allow him “jump” it and get onto the bus”, which otherwise back in the day would have been easily done even without the old man uttering a word. From where I stood around the tail-end of the queue, I realized there erupted a near-brawl up top.

Apparently, the two young men would not allow the frail-looking old man “jump” the queue and board the bus unless he joined the queue at the end of it.

The distraught old man was as well determined by whichever means possible to get aboard the bus, so words were exchanged, the two young men spilt some very terrible invectives at him, just because he sought some preferential favors from them and insisted he be granted this wish because of age, state of health and all.

Amidst all of the brouhaha, a bus arrived and those in the queues began jumping in, and no sooner had the elderly man attempted jumping into the bus than he fell onto the ground, via a push by these young men.

I felt very terrible from where I stood and thought to myself, why this should happen in our modern day.

The man could easily pass for my grandfather and theirs too. And so I ask the questions: where and why have we as young men and women abandoned our courtesies, discipline and virtues?

Implications of these sickening levels of indiscipline permeate every fiber of society - industry, education, health, sports, economy, and environment among others.

Imagine one or all of these;

-That the health aid worker reports to the health facility an hour later than they are expected to

-That a fruit juice manufacturing company’s employees are rude to clients

-That students at the nation’s premier university absent themselves from lectures and party all their stay on campus – they fail to do assignments and course works

-That footballers for the national team refuse to attend team training at major tournaments and subsequently beat up officials 

-Or that residents in a settler community indiscriminately defecate about the area and litter everywhere

These scenarios have one underlying theme- that’s indiscipline. However their implications first of all on the individuals and of the institutions they work for, can be particularly terrifying.

Productivity is reduced; lives may be lost at the health facilities, sportsmen may lose their spots in the team to other disciplined fellows, and the community gets polluted with all forms of human waste.

All these have a net effect, which is stunted growth in the country’s economic fortunes – and this in the short to medium terms has injurious consequences for Ghana and our forward-march to attaining global recognition as a beacon of everything a developing country should have.

Human resources required by the various industries in Ghana to remain productive may also become extinct – owing to drug abuses, laziness, lateness, incompetence, and other forms of indiscipline.

Then another phenomenon may arise, many companies may not be willing to employ people from the jurisdiction, and this will leave thousands of youths and graduates churned out from the universities annually, unemployed.

If the trend in the increase in cases of indiscipline should be reduced and the fight against the vice should be won, then it requires an all-encompassing change in attitudes of the citizens.

If people will take their jobs very seriously like it’s their own, and the average Ghanaian will vow not to litter and indiscriminately pollute the environment, the health worker will be professional in his dealings, the school teacher will not charge illegal fees from students, the students themselves will take their lessons very seriously, the footballers and other sportsmen will learn to play for their nation for patriotic reason - with the nation at heart, the public sector worker will shun the apathetic attitude towards work, the driver will obey all road traffic regulations, and the politician will learn to be honest, life generally will be as tasty as it gets – with milk and honey flowing for all to enjoy.

(Kingsley Komla Adom)