Nigerians quiver as youth involvement in crimes is rising

By Femi Oyelola

The heightening rate of youth involvement in crimes in Nigeria in recent times is worrisome and disturbing. This is evident in the police report of various crimes such as robbery, pilfering, burglary, car theft, rape, kidnapping, internet scam and other cyber crimes.

Unfortunately, youths who are more than half of Nigeria’s population as of the 2016 census, and the energetic class who should diversify their strengths to the development of the country, are often found culpable in the challenge of crimes confronting the country and this makes some observers to warn that the country is sitting on a time bomb if the ugly trend is not urgently checked.

Youth crime in Nigeria is among the leading threats to the fare and positive international recognition of the country as it has eaten so deeply into the fabric of the society.

Investigations by Weekend Peoples Daily revealed that the recent publicly paraded criminals by the Kaduna State Police Commissioner, CP Ibrahim Mohammed, were aged between 18 to 30 years.

CP Mohammed had paraded 580 suspects for kidnapping, armed robbery, and other related crimes, and they all fell within the age bracket of 17- 35 years.

Besides that, the case of the self-proclaimed Islamic cleric who was alleged to have murdered his girlfriend in Kwara State is still fresh in the mind. Similar cases abound across the country where youths’ involvement in crimes is becoming worrisome.

Muhammed Rabiu, a social worker based in Kaduna said when a crime is committed, the society bears the consequences.

He describes the nature of such crimes to include armed robbery, murder, rape, car theft, burglary, fraud, bribery and corruption, food and drug adulteration, gambling, smuggling, human trafficking, kidnapping, drug trafficking, money laundering, internet scam, advanced fee fraud (419) and other illegal activities.

He explained  that there are many reasons why Nigerian youths are increasingly involved in capital offense, most especially those between the ages of 17 and 35.

He surmised that the major reasons are poverty and unemployment, saying most families today cannot afford to feed their children; hence, the children tend to involve themselves in crimes as a means of survival.

According to him, most  Nigerian youths today are graduates, after passing through academic stress to become better people in the future, but end up with certificates but no employment. They, therefore, see crimes as available means.

He lamented that some parents sold family land, clothes, and other valuable to train the their children, but today, they have become a liability to the family and problems to the society.

Rabiu also opined that the youths tend to look for quick money when they see their friends who didn’t attend any secondary school or university riding flashy cars, building houses, and living in an extravagantly. As a result of this, they tend to get attracted to crimes.

“Most of the Youths of today are increasingly involved in crime because of poor family background and environment or community influences.

‘”Some families don’t take care of children properly. Ideally, in some developed countries, children aren’t allowed to be sold or used for hard labor but in some parts of Nigeria’s society most especially the northern part of the country, children were being used for different crimes such as Kidnapping, Banditry terrorism and occultism “

He observed that addressing all these issues requires a comprehensive approach that involves the government, civil society organisations, and a community-based initiative.

“Nigeria government must reform our justice system to ensure fair, equity and accountability.

“Community-based initiative or program. Implement a community-based program that will focus on youth empowerment, mentorship, and crime prevention.

“The government should provide mental health support services that will address underlying psychological issues. Why? Because most Nigerian youths cannot survive without taking all kinds of substances, and some are mentally sick.

“Creating job opportunities and supporting entrepreneurship to reduce unemployment and poverty

“Government should provide and Access to quality education and vocational training to equip young people with skills and knowledge so the those who are educated and those who are not educated can benefit, to fit in most of the Nigerian youths.” He said

Responding to these negative trends, the Deputy Executive Director of Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice (ANEEJ), Mr. Leo Atakpu lamented that the increasing involvement of Nigerian youths in crime especially capital offenses, is not just a negative development but an unfortunate situation in a country that is so blessed with both human and natural resources.

He stressed that the fact that people within the age brackets of 17 and 35, from available records, are the ones arrested as criminals across this Country is indicative of the total failure of the government, both past and present.

Mr. Atakpu added that since these young adults are in their prime and are considered the future of the Country, expectations are that government efforts, government policies, and programs should be focused on them.

“But, here we are in a country with a very high rate of unemployment of young persons. When people between the ages of 17-35 are largely unemployed, what you are telling them is to look for unemployment.

“The survival instincts of human nature will push them to do things, right or wrong, to survive, to stay alive.

“So, it is an indication of failure of our government, failure of our institutions, and total failure of all our systems. We expect that in a country like this, the government should focus on increasing production.”

The Activist Expressed dismay that in a country that is import-dependent  on everything, toothpick, rice, Buhari’s administration came up with, “Oh, let us do our rice, and ban the importation of rice.” But another government came and removed that ban and started importing rice, which scattered our policies.

“All kinds of policies are introduced, and another government comes, scatter it, and bring their policies, they re-brand it and give it their name. They scatter everything and want to start all afresh instead of building on what others left which is what other countries that are sustained do.

“America that is developed is currently reviewing their policies, Trump is changing policies to America First, “O you illegal immigrants, return to your country, go and develop your country, we are giving aid to people when we have poor Americans, cancel the aids we are giving out and focus on our people.”

“So, Nigeria should borrow a leaf from them;  stop the nonsense importation and let us start manufacturing our own.

“Nigeria should be a manufacturing country; ban all kinds of importation that is importing rubbish into this country.

“Textiles and everything we are importing, junk clothes that people have used elsewhere, you brand them and bring for our people to wear, all kind of nonsense is going on here.

“To those who claim to be in charge of government should do the needful, create jobs because labor in itself creates wealth. By the time you engage these young people positively, they will be the ones to create the wealth of this nation that you can tax, generate income, and begin to fix infrastructures that are not in place.

“But when you keep them idle, they will equip themselves with other things and be involved in crime which is unfortunate and sad.

“But I don’t blame them; I blame the evil government that we have had over the years that has failed to focus on young people in this country.

“The youths have potentials, they have energy, they have brains; we are talking of young persons that have graduated from different tertiary institutions.

“When an educated person goes into crime, it is dangerous for any Society and that is what we are experiencing in this country.

“A Country that has refused to create jobs for its young teeming population, then it should expect whatever we are seeing today.

“My advice to this government is that they should begin to establish industries, they should create an enabling environment. There is no electricity in Nigeria; Tinubu should make electricity work; if that is the only thing he can do in his administration, let him face electricity and provide electricity for us.

“We do not have electricity in Nigeria; we have all kinds of electric nonsense that they are supplying; there should be 24/7 electricity across the length and breadth of this country; that way, manufacturers will spend less on energy supply.”

He explained that one of the reasons why private industries don’t  thrive  in Nigeria is because owners  spend  money to power their generators.

“So by the time they deduct it from their cost of production, you find out the profit is very low. The government must fix electricity, and in the process, many youths lose their jobs and are now a menace to society.

“The next thing is for them to fix the roads and let water flow to business communities, business areas, and infrastructures, creating the necessary environment.

“The government is doing its best to tackle insecurity; they should up that game; they should ensure that terrorists and bandits are flushed out constantly from the shores of this country and sent to the abyss where they belong.

“Here, there is an international dimension to that criminality, but we expect the government to work with international partners to ensure that all those international people who are financing terrorism and banditry in this country are exposed and dealt with according to the laws.

“Our institutions should work; the Government, Tinubu, should make sure our institutions work. This idea of criminals in power, criminals in different locations that continue to shield themselves from crime, will not help any nation to grow.

“Anybody who violates the law should be made to face the law, whether you are Senate President or Chief Judge; once you violate the law, it should grab you and deal with you appropriately. But in Nigeria here, the big, the high, and the mighty all go scott-free after committing a crime. So all of those help to perpetrate this problem of youth involvement in crime.”

He warned that when leaders especially, those in the corridors of power, are involved in all kinds of criminality, they are not showing good examples, and the young people are copying them, “so where are we headed as a nation? All of these issues have to be looked into and properly dealt with to be sure that we positively engage our young people and take their minds away from crime.

“Another recommendation is the possibility of catching them young, the younger folks in nursery and primary schools, the government should begin free orientation, and recess intervention, teaching them that crime does not pay and should not be considered as a way of life and that anybody involved in crime will be apprehended and dealt with according to the laws of the land.

“The laws of the land forbid crime and criminality; they should be properly applied; there should be no sacred cow anywhere; whether you are in OR out of government, you should be subjected to the interpretation of the laws of the land.

“The judiciary is also a problem in this country, giving all kinds of judgment such that some persons easily get off the hook. In some parts of this country, terrorists are killed on the streets once they are caught, some without even making reports, while in another part of this country, repentant terrorists are taken undercover, given a uniform, and celebrated which they later turn and return to their crime.,

 “All those kinds of selective applications of the law do not even help the situation in this country, and unless we work with that common unity to address crime and criminality, we will find ourselves spinning round and round in that vicious cycle of crime,” he submitted.