NIGERIA OF TODAY; WHOSE FAULT? PART 1 _Bello Habeebullah Opeyemi

Pick up your phone and surf through the Internet, you will notice that you hardly scroll through three content without reading news about kidnapping or stealing. Switch on your TV set, the next thing that pop up is the news about herdsmen killing people or the case of a young guy/lady that ran mad due to abuse of drugs. Recently, the news reported that the emir of Bungudu was kidnapped by bandit along Kaduna-Abuja highway.

 If you will also recall the case of Evans,the deadly kidnapper who terrorize Nigeria for many years before his arrest. These and many more atrocities are what we have been seeing almost everyday in these past years.

It is no longer a news that Nigeria as a Nation is in a very dicey situation regarding the state of her security. Many evil acts has been perpetrated right from drug abuse, corruption, cultism, armed robbery,kidnapping etc. For many years, the Nation has been in a never ending war with these agents of doom which has been eating deep into the heart of the nation thereby affecting the development of our economy. Several governments have come and gone with different promises to fight insecurity and corruption but end up giving us another version of or should I say upgraded version of insecurity . 

As witnessed from the era of late president Umaru Musa Yaradua where we have the Niger Delta Militants, to the era of the former president Goodluck Jonathan which present us with Boko haram and then the current era of President Muhammadu Buhari where we have herdsmen and bandits to battle with. Without forgetting the abuse of drugs by young individuals and many other crimes that are being committed by the youths.

Millions of Nigerians have lost their lives and thousands are without homes. In this precarious state of the Nation,one begin to wonder why the government is yet to overcome these problems? What exactly is the root of these problems and who should be blamed? Is it the government who has failed in their duty to protect lives and property of the citizens, further adding salt to injury by causing hikes in the price of goods and services or the high rates of unemployment or the parents who feels the school and religious institution should be saddled with the responsibility of teaching moral.

Probably, the school and religious institution or the society. While many people will point an accusing fingers at the government,few will mention the parents and other factors like the society and religious institution.

The role of the parent in the life of a child can never be overemphasized. They are the major share holder in the life of the child as the first moral to be received by a child is through the parents. It is their duty to not only provide education, feeding, shelter etc but also teach the child good mannerism on how to relate with people,how to greet and treat the elders. These morals and several others were taught by the parents before the schools and the religious institution plays their part. 

You will agree with me that those morals taught by the parents serve as the foundation a child takes to the school where building takes place. A parent who is too busy or doesn’t have time for the children thereby leaving the child in the care of the neighbors or friends whom they know little or nothing about is at a great risk of destroying the child’s future. 

These friends and neighbors introduce the child to some act which if not comfortable with, tends to ask questions about it and since the parents are hardly available or never listen to the child,he ends up finding solace in the hands of his friends or neighbor. 

This act can involve smoking,abusing drugs and watching illicit movies. At a stage where he become addicted to it,he started exhibiting some strange behaviors,become more withdrawn and more secretive. He then will be exposed to other bigger crimes which the child will embrace with open arms. Many parents hide under the facts that he/she is too young and doesn’t know anything which is a very wrong perception. Digressing a little bit into the field of linguistics, Noam Chomsky, the father of Generative and Universal grammar proposed a device called Language Acquisition Device LAD which is an innate device that is responsible for how a child acquire language right from childhood.

 It is however,not only language that was acquired from childhood but also characters and knowledge. Say for example, a child whose father smoke in front of him will have the visual image of his father saved in his brain and anytime he comes in contact with cigarettes, the pictures of his father appear right in front of him and he starts smoking just like his father.

The parents idolizing money and material things is another problem where the parents tell the child you must give it whatever it takes to have money. 

This act can push the child into engaging in crimes like robbery, kidnapping etc just to satisfy the parents or relieve the pressures put on him by the parents.

Another situation where parents cause problems to the society is when a child steals or comes home with other peoples property and the parents refuse to say anything, the child will feel encouraged to do more as he thinks such act is good because the parents are not scolding him. 

Let me take you back to the 1970s, an incident occur which involved a notorious armed robber who was caught and sentence to death by firing squad. Just before his execution,he requested that his mother be brought to him as he wants to whisper something to her ear. 

Presenting the ear to him, the deadly dacoit swiftly chopped off his mothers ear and when asked as to why he did that, his response was that he did that to teach her a lesson for abetting his crime at early stage.

Parents also need to check the kinds of friends the child is keeping and ensure they are of good behavior before allowing their children to move with them as it also plays a good role in the life of the child.