Some years ago, while growing up in my community, there was an elderly man that was loved by virtually all and sundry within my relatively peaceful locality. Pa Samson Anuoluwapo who was then 67 years old, was the most respected, the richest and the oldest of all elders in the community. He died two years ago at the ripe age of 102 having been survived by his beloved wife, Madam Eunice Anuoluwapo, 85, as well as five morally upright and highly educated children who are currently gainfully engaged in various sectors of the economy within and outside Nigeria.
During his lifetime, being the community head who appreciated the importance of quality education to the development of children and national growth, he volunteered to meet once in a month, with community leaders at the village square where he advised them to send their children to school so that they could be useful to themselves, their community, as well as their country. He said the greatest legacy wise parents could hand down to their children, was quality education and not even millions of stolen funds are looted properties that could be seized by government. As a distinguished retired educationist whose wife also owns a famous educational institution in the community, Pa Anuoluwapo warned parents not to deny their children education as, according to him, uneducated children would not only squander monies and sell properties their parents have accumulated rightly or illicitly after their demise, such children would also go into various forms of criminality capable of threatening stability of society.
Unfortunately, Pa Anuoluwapo had since proudly left the stage of life having paid his dues by stressing the need for parents to educate their children for them to become responsible and successful citizens, so that they would not end-up transferring their angers, failures, frustrations and disappointments to innocent members of society through unruly behaviours. I wish we could have more Pa. Anuoluwapos at this obviously trying period in the life of our dear country, Nigeria in view of the frightening dangers posed by increasing number of uneducated and out-of-school children now metamorphosing into huge population of criminally-inclined youths, engaging in criminal activities such as armed robbery, cultism, kidnapping, internet fraud, rape, ritual killings and other forms of criminality. Many were shocked when they learnt last week that a gang of kidnappers, ably led by a lady, reportedly killed two policemen escorting kidnapped Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital, Professor Sylvanus Okogbeni, to his office. According to DSP Chidi Nwabuzor of Edo State Police Command, the deceased policemen – Sergeant Odion Jonathan and Sergeant Etinosa Irhuegbae of Irrua Police Division, were gunned down by hoodlums reported to have operated with two vehicles – a Lexus Jeep and Toyota Voltron. The jeep was reported to have been driven by a young lady, described as leader of the deadly gang that conducted the dastardly act that later led to stray bullets hitting two passers-by while the hoodlums were fleeing scene of the incident.
This is just an example of the rising wave of criminality occurring almost daily across the country in which criminally-minded youths are deeply involved. How do we explain what could make a young lady to be so emboldened and daring to lead a gang of blood-thirsty young rascals armed with sophisticated lethal weapons that kidnapped eminent personality such as professor of medicine who could be their father? This clearly indicates that the insecurity situation in the country in which youths are unrepentant frontline criminals, has assumed worrisome dimension and, therefore, requires urgent attention of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
One of the cardinal causes of mounting involvement of criminally-inclined Nigerian youths in untoward activities is indiscipline or which neither government nor teachers should be blamed. Rather, the blame should be placed mostly at the doorsteps of parents and guardians who have flagrantly abandoned their traditional primary responsibilities to their children and wards. Since by virtue of their God-given strategic positions, obligations to instil undiluted moral values, unalloyed discipline and patriotism in their children and wards need to be discharged unfailingly by them and not government, teachers, nannies or other care givers.
The family unit is key foundation for proper upbringing of children before they grow to become youths and adults. Failure to provide children essential behavioural ingredients at home under the umbrella of the family before they start socialising with their peers in schools and other external groupings, the wrong foundation has inevitably been laid for such children to be potential criminals in future. A flawed family background is fertile soil for breeding young criminals that would make life unbearable for other members of the society, including the rich and the powerful. This is what we are witnessing across the country largely due to failure of family units, clueless leadership, and dereliction of duties by political class and morally decadent society.
A country’s worth will be determined by not necessarily number of its population but essentially, quality of education, discipline and moral values of its family units, youths, as well as their contributions to national growth and development. It is not surprising, therefore, that in spite of Nigeria’s huge population of about 200 million, many citizens lack modern technical, technological and entrepreneurial skills, jobless youth population is colossal, number of out-of-school children is 13.5 million while numbers of the poor, the hungry and those committing suicide, are increasing. Failure of parents, especially the impoverished, to control number of children they could conveniently cater for, as well as acquisition of large numbers of wives and children by greedy elements, have led to alarming increase in number of criminally-inclined youths. Recent reported cases of devilish characters authorities of NYSC arrested for attempting to register for service with fake university certificates, further attest to worsening level of criminality among Nigerian youths who boastfully claim they are ready to wrestle mantle of leadership from recycled, corrupt and visionless political leaders that have led Nigeria to its present precarious position. Sadly, these are some of the bad eggs tarnishing the image of Nigerian youths aspiring to be future leaders.
Since the rich now experience discomfort due to deadly activities of young criminals, those in authority and other relevant stakeholders, including parents, will be forced to be alive to their responsibilities by prioritising education of children and engaging youths in gainful employment so as to make Nigeria safe and peaceful for everybody.
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