What a wicked society!

NIGERIA’s security crisis which is indicated by widespread terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, insurgency and all forms of criminalities has remained the most profound challenge in recent times. Hardly a day passes without hearing cases of murder, ritual killings, kidnapping and terrorism. Nowadays, there is no fear of God: people are so wicked that you cannot even trust anybody. In the olden days, we used to be our brothers’ keeper but not anymore. This reminds me of three scary stories published in the Punch newspaper just of recent. The stories were really pathetic. On February 4, 2025, the Punch published two terrible stories on pages 4 and 5 while the basic page was an article written by one Azuka Onwuka captioned: “Why do young women still visit men in secret locations?” The first story which was so scary has to do with the dastardly killings of three siblings in Anambra State while their lifeless bodies were stored in the deep freezer. What a barbaric act! According to the report, some yet-to-be-identified gunmen invaded an apartment in Nnewichi community in Nnewi North Local Government Area and murdered three siblings including a boy, aged five and two girls, aged seven and nine, respectively. At the time of the murder, their parents were not around.

The Anambra Police Command has begun an investigation into the murder. First, I express my condolence to the family of the three deceased siblings. When I read the sad story, I started asking myself questions: What offence had the parents committed to warrant this kind of brutal killings? Did the parents have any business deal with some people? There are questions that beg for answers. I hope that the culprits will soon be apprehended and made to pay for their crimes to serve as deterrent to others. The second story was about the gruesome murder of a couple Mr. and Mrs. Fatiroye in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital. Mr. Kehinde Fatiroye was an employee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Abeokuta Branch while his wife, Mrs. Busola Fatiroye, was an employee of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta. On January 1, 2023 at 2.00 am, one Olalekan Adekanbi and his two cultist friends, Ahmed Odesola and Waheed Adeniyi, struck when the couple and their only son had just come from the cross-over service into the new year. The assailants killed the couple and set them and the house ablaze, while their son was thrown inside the Ogun River. The son later died inside the river.

Obviously, the assailants must have been under the influence of hard drugs. It was on the 3rd of February when the judge passed the death sentence on the three assailants. The third story was about a 25-year-old lady rescued from a hotel room in Abuja by the police. According to the story, the lady met an unknown man online and the two agreed to meet in a hotel. Inside the hotel room, the unknown man tied both the arms and legs of the lady together while her mouth was taped to prevent her from shouting. The alleged offender was said to have used the name Michael Price on social media and claimed to be an employee of an oil company. This story should be a lesson for others, especially young ladies who are found of meeting strangers online. Today, there are a lot of wicked human beings who go about harvesting human parts for ritual purposes. In this part of the world, it is believed that ritual killings can make people rich and this is why cases of ritual killings are so rampart in our society.

Another sad story has to do with the recent killing of a retired Federal Controller of Works. In January 2025, gunmen numbering six trailed a retired Federal Controller of Works from Offa, his home town to Ilorin, the Kwara State capital where he lived. They pursued him to his house where he was brutally murdered in the presence of his family. This is quite unfortunate. Research has shown that most of the crimes being committed in our society are done by youths who are between the ages of 20 and 45 years. The question is: Why is crime so persistent in our society? The answer is not far-fetched. Some of the major causes of crime include but are not limited to the following: drug abuse which is prevalent among the youths, lack of parental care, poverty, unemployment among the youth population, broken homes and peer groups. Let me briefly highlight some of these factors. Drug abuse is said to be one of the major causes of crime in our society today. Drug trafficking is a big business worldwide and the drug barons can be regarded as merchants of death because the illicit drugs which they are trafficking are extremely harmful and hazardous to human health. Once the drugs are ingested or inhaled, they go straight into the blood stream, thereby causing serious damage to the central nervous system.

Some of these drugs are psychoactive. They include cocaine, opioids, heroin, tramadol and cannabis. These drugs, with the exception of cannabis, are imported into the country. The majority of our youths are now addicted to these drugs. A 2019 report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes in Nigeria showed that 14.3 million people between the ages of 15 to 64 have mental illness due to drug abuse. Research has also indicated that most adolescents commit crime under the influence of hard drugs. Another factor is the lack of parental care. Nowadays, more and more parents and guardians are shirking their responsibility of shaping the character and conduct of their children and wards to be of high standards. Most parents do not have time to be with their children to educate them on moral values. Poverty is another factor that can lead a person to commit crime. For instance, a young lad who is from a poor family with little or no formal education will go out of his way to commit crime. Peer group pressure is another factor that aids criminal activities and this is the more reason parents must always monitor the type of friends that their children or wards associate with.

So, the question remains: How can we mitigate security crisis in Nigeria? Here are my recommendations for the Federal Government. First, corruption which is one of the militating factors against our development must be tackled headlong instead of paying lip service. Second, the Federal Government must ensure that the security system is strengthened and decentralized to cope with the magnitude of the crime wave. Third, the Federal Government must invest in education, job creation and schemes directed at poverty alleviation. Fourth, the Federal Government should introduce policies and programmes that encourage active citizenship and community participating. Fifth, the Federal Government, civil society and citizens must unite to address the root causes of violence and insecurity. Sixth, the Federal  Government should ensure that both the NDLEA and NAFDAC are strengthened in order to enable them perform their statutory responsibilities effectively.

Seventh, it is also important for the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to collaborate with relevant agencies in educating and sensitising the youth on the dangers associated with illicit drugs. Eighth, in order to curb drug abuse in our society, there is need for stricter legislation. For instance, in other climes, anybody that is caught trafficking in hard drugs is executed. Ninth, parents must take informal education of their children and wards very seriously. And finally, it is also important for the parents to constantly monitor their children and wards to know the type of friends their children associate with. All hands must be on deck to make Nigeria great.

• Oladipupo writes in from Agbara Estate, Ogun State via [email protected]

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