By Olatunji Disu
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| Youngsters arrested by RRS operatives for handbag snatching |
Being a policeman in Nigeria, especially Lagos State, is not a child’s play.
I have seen, battled and arrested many criminals. I have charged many to court for prosecution.
Indeed, in the course of my job, I had had to arrest many youngsters. Naturally, I have spoken with many of these youths and the stories of their lives appear to have similar patterns.
I have seen and learnt a lot of things while on my lawful duty. I have also come to realise that there are many factors that pull youths to crime.
Factors that pull youths into crime
There are a lot of reasons or factors that pull youths into crime. One of the contributing factors is a child’s upbringing.
Parental upbringing
Many parents do not pay attention to their children. They don’t even know what their children are up to or the kind of friends they keep. You don’t have to imprison your children at home, but you really need to watch and keep taps on them.
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| Disu on operation |
Most Nigerian youths don’t receive quality attention, let alone to give their children proper home training.
The father goes to work and only comes back to sleep, just like the mother. Most parents don’t have time.
Parents also need to begin instilling discipline into their children right from when they are toddlers. Don’t over pamper them and don’t give in to their every whims and caprices.
Right from their play group age/crèche age, ensure you make them to understand that you won’t tolerant or condone lies and stealing.
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| Centre, Disu, briefing Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumni Ambode on crime situation |
The foundation of a child is awfully important in the youth and adult he/she would later develop into.
It’s also from that foundational age that parents must start teaching them about the important values in life. Parents should start talking to them about youth crimes and how to avoid such crimes.
Parents should create a situation, where their children will trust them enough, to confide always in them.
Our dear parents please make your children your friends. Don’t allow them to be brought up by nannies, house helps, gatemen, drivers, television and now the internet.
If you do, you’re brewing a future disaster; don’t allow your child to become a society reject and nuisance.
Youths try hands-on crime for fun
Some youths go into crime because they want to see if they can get away with it. Some of their friends would even dare and egg them on.
As a youth, you don’t need to prove anything, to anybody. You need to be responsible and strong. You need to be strong for yourself and family.
When the axe of the law swings and falls on you, most of your friends that dared you into committing the crime, wouldn’t even be there.
Also, remember that your friend is not from the same home with you. Your friend’s upbringing might not be the same as yours. Your actions might break your parents’ hearts, but your friend’s parents might not even care about him.
Increasing cases of divorce, separation and broken homes
Today, we are witnessing a lot of broken homes, divorces and domestic violence in the Nigerian society. All these marital challenges at the end of the day trickle down and affect the children. It’s a chain reaction. A ripple effect. In the course of my job, I have discovered that most youths who go into crimes and are eventually arrested are from broken homes. You’ll discover that either father had left the marriage, or mother had left the union.
Most parents may not know this, but such separation sometimes affects the children.
Domestic violence
Domestic violence also affects children. The boy may grow up believing its right to hit a woman. The girl may grow up believing its right to receive beating from her husband.
Worse, a child that witnesses violence at home will take to fighting outside the home front. He could harm or maim somebody. He could even graduate to picking nearby instruments during fighting; he could kill. If he harms somebody, he would be charged and prosecuted. If he kills, he would also be charged and prosecuted. He could be jailed.
Parents should be careful about the way they behave in front of their children. Parents should think twice before walking out of other marriages. At least, they should work on the marriage if they are having issues. Leaving the marriage at the first sign of quarrel or trouble is not the best.
Every four in 10 couples are likely having marital issues, but the difference is that most work on these issues. No sense in running off at the first sign of turbulence. Most importantly, parents should never fight, curse or insult each other in the presence of their children.
Drugs and alcohol
A lot of youths are addicts now; seriously, and they will continue to look for money to get these drugs to satisfy their cravings. In order to satisfy the yearning for drugs, they need money. Most of them don’t have this money, thus they go into crime.
And even if they do work and have money, the money is quickly frittered away on drugs. They would automatically go into crime. Also, when they are under the influence of drug, they can do anything; commit all sorts of outrageous crimes.
Yes, alcoholism is another factor that contributes to youths going into crime. A youth that is an alcoholic will also do anything to get money to buy alcohol, including crime.
Unemployment
The situation where youths struggle to go to school, and after graduation, there is no work, doesn’t help matter at all. Some youths, after graduation, will be at home for more than five years, looking for a job.
They have to feed, wear clothes and shoes. Sickness could come. A lot of people are looking up to them. Their parents raised a lot of money to send them to school.
Now, it’s their time to meet some of the family needs. Frustration can set in. A graduate will be also be saddened and disheartened, if he finds that someone, who got third class lower, has landed a plum job because of his/her parents’ connection, while he, a second class upper graduate couldn’t get a job even after five years.
In such a situation, if a bad friend daggles crime in front of him, he could fall into temptation.
Peer group influence
Some youths want to be like their friends. They see their friends wearing designer clothes and shoes. Some of such friends even drive cars. They want to be like those friends. They don’t even want to know what those friends do for a living.
No, they just want to be like those friends. They want to live a fake life, even if’s its illegal.
Some of these youths can’t even think for themselves. Some of them are under the influence of their friends. Their friends think, control and influence them. Many are not strong willed. They are easily lured into crime, easily convinced to join crime.
Poverty
A lot of researches had been done and showed that youths who are poor, are more likely to go into crime, than those from rich homes.
In America today, it is believed that black poor people, are more into crime than the white, and thus in black communities, crimes are prevalent.
Even in Nigeria today, our ghettos; Ajegunle, Mushin, Agege and other areas, where we believe poor people reside, are where crimes are mostly committed.
Most times, when we arrest people and start interrogating them, we find out that they from those areas. It’s in Ajegunle that you will find ‘One Chance armed robbers’ and the ‘One million boys’ gangsters.
For instance, if you have six cases of ‘One Chance,’ at least half of the suspects would be from Ajegunle. The One Chance armed robbers are now called Awala.
Television
When youths watch television, they see a lot of violence and they want to practice it. Some of them don’t know the difference between reality and acting. Or they may know, but still want to practice it.
This is the situation where parental guidance, which ought to have started from their foundational stages, should come into play.
To kill is bad, to hurt somebody is bad, to injure anyone is bad, to lie or steal is bad. So, whatever they watch that contradicts that which had been inculcated into them right from their tender ages, would be difficult to erase with just a television movie. Television movies sometimes glamorise drugs, alcohol and other vices, thus, luring youths.
Cultism
Many people believed that cultism and cultists should be in campuses and happen only in our university campuses.
Today, cultism can be found among conductors, passengers, electrician and others.
In cultism, youths are given positions; the youth must do crime and rob. Once they are given order to go and kill, they cannot refuse.
Some of the youths are called to act as bodyguards to senior officers. They must guard the senior officers. Some youths enjoy it, they are now big boys.
They see cultism as a form of protection. They see it as a place just to enjoy themselves.
They can die when they commit crimes or get injured, they would then become convicts.
They would have records of convictions. The society too would get their own youth gangs, gangs everywhere and gangsters.
It would cost the government a lot of money to give the police to make other security agencies to pursue them and prevent some things from happening.
To even do prosecution is money and the money is meant for other things, which could cause serious economic implication.
People won’t want to come and do business with Nigeria; people would be running from state to state, before you do business where you put your money, you check the security state. The state of illegalities will increase.
Nigerian society worships money
The society also contributes to youths involvement in crimes.
For instance the Nigerian society worships money. Nobody cares how someone makes his or her money, people just respect and praise them.
Yesterday you are poor, today you are spending money anyhow, yet no body questions you.
In the past, if you give a kinsmen money, they would want to know how you got the money. They would ask questions. Even the churches and mosques contribute to youths going into crimes.
Social media
The world is now a smaller place. Anything happening in America today, you will see it in Nigeria. Homosexuality has become acceptable in some countries and those countries begin to champion it, putting it on social media every time. They want the youths to see it as acceptable.
Social media has made the world to become a smaller place. Our culture and belief as Nigerians are becoming eroded because of social media.
Parents involvement in crime
Youths, whose parents are into crime, are more likely to go into crime.
For example, Shina Rambo, his father was a criminal too; he also grew up to be a criminal. The youths grow up and see their criminal parents’ lives as acceptable and normal.
The contributor, Mr Olatunji Disu, is an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP). He has worked in many police formations and achieved so many successes in cracking criminal gangs across Nigeria.
He is a quiet achiever and pacesetter, who shies away from media limelight and prefers his works to speak for him.
Under his tutelage, so many high profile cases had been cracked. He had headed so many teams and presently is the commander in charge of the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), Ikeja, Lagos State Police Command.
First Published 2017
