What are we teaching our children?

If I read news of the death of Arise News anchor, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, at her residence in Katampe, Abuja, on September 29, with deep sorrow, I read news of the arrest of the perpetrators with heartbreak and exhaustion. According to the FCT police command, which arrested 12 of the robbers that had invaded Somtochukwu’s residence and caused her to jump down to her death from an impossible height in utter fright, one of the suspects, Shamsudeen Hassan, confessed to shooting the security guard who perished in the attack, while another, Sani Sirajo, admitted to trying to prevent the journalist from falling off the three-storey building but being overpowered by her weight. The 12 suspects each received N200,000 from the robbery and bloodshed, and presumably had a dinner of drugs and choice food while their victims lay in the pool of their own blood, silenced forever, and their (the victims’) families wailed in unending agony, disconsolate.

I was in the Tribune House, Ibadan, writing recently when I suddenly learnt that the police were engaged in a shootout with a gang of robbers right behind our fence! One was killed and another arrested. That day, I marveled that if the robbers, who had earlier shot two people in different places, had not been caught that day, they would have gone home to sleep soundly and engage in whatever revelry they chose.

I asked a colleague: “How do the women of these criminals engage in pleasure with them despite knowing that they have shed blood and caused other people untold pain?” The brain of some women is full of sawdust.

In Missouri, United States, 16-year-old schoolboy, Evan Bottler, lies in his hasty grave. The victim of a sextortion network traced to Lagos, Evan took his own life shortly after receiving a blackmail message from someone posing as a teenage girl on Snapchat. That “someone,” one child of perdition called Ola, had obtained nude images of the boy while posing as an online lover. He then began threatening to release the nudes if the boy did not pay up. One of his messages read: “I have your nudes and everything needed to ruin your life.”

Now, hear the incredible statement that this murderer made when US investigators asked him if he felt any remorse: “I don’t feel bad because I need the money.” The denominations can pillory the Laodicean Age messenger, William Branham, as much as they want, but there are two distinct categories of humans on this planet, one of them carrying the DNA of the adversary. Ola’s victims, dead or ruined, will never recover from his assault, but he does not care a hoot. Regardless of whatever punishment the authorities come up with, it is my sincere hope that everything that Ola has amassed from his sextortion will perish before his eyes.

His co-demon, one Ikechukwu, has just been arrested in Argentina over multiple romance scams involving thousands of women and for leading an international cybercrime network. Back home, this lunatic would have paraded town as an Odogwu — perhaps he is a chief in his hometown. But if you think Ikechukwu is mean, then consider the trio of Chukwuebuka Nka, Uche Okechukwu and Somto Chukwuma, three kidnappers who were recently arrested by the police in Delta State. Do you know what they did? They shot their victim for having “insufficient funds” in his account! They had seized the victim’s Toyota Venza, then flown into a rage when they found “just N2 million” in his account. And for having the temerity to be that poor, the victim got blazing bullets in his leg!

Various theories explain why some criminals apparently “enjoy” post-crime life. Individuals with psychopathic traits are said to experience shallow emotions and to lack guilt, allowing them to pursue pleasure without remorse. It is also said that the brain’s mesolimbic system can be hyper-responsive to thrill-seeking or material gain, reinforcing criminal behaviour. Then there is cognitive dissonance reduction. The idea is that to cope with the conflict between action and self-image, offenders may rationalize or minimize the harm.

Again, it is a no-brainer that peer groups or subcultures that glorify crime can provide camaraderie, making the offender feel a sense of social reward. In short, crime does pay. Mechanisms such as dehumanizing victims, diffusing responsibility, or blaming someone else allow offenders to detach from the moral weight of their crime. Besides, substance abuse can create a temporary “high” that masks guilt. This may be why criminals have a love affair with hard drugs and drinks.

Experts say that if a child’s early environment rewards rule-breaking, he or she may internalize crime as a normal pathway to gratification. So, what are we teaching our children? I ask this question because I remember certain things that my father used to do that, as a child, I thought were wrong or excessive, but which I came to appreciate in adult life.

One day in Ekotedo, Ibadan, he sent me to buy rice and beans from a certain Egba woman’s place. As it happened, the woman had mistakenly put four pieces of meat instead of three in the food. But while eating, my dad detected the error and gave me that piece of intelligence. Then after eating the food, he proceeded to the woman’s place and paid for the extra meat. As a nine-year-old or thereabouts, I thought that the mistake was a happy one and told him he should not bother since we had not asked the woman to make a mistake. But he insisted that he would rather die than eat what he would not pay for.

What I am today is due to my faith, but I remember shunning many things in life after imagining what my father would say. For instance, he used to insist that we should return any lost money we found on the road to that exact spot! Many years later, in Ondo town, I returned via taxi to a restaurant in Sabo from my residence in Odosida to pay for food that I had eaten but had honestly forgotten to pay for. I will never forget what one of the people eating in the restaurant said: “Ah, this one is a man of God!”

I am not trying to suggest that my father was an angel — he was categorically not — but he taught us to be honest. Actually, that’s what most of our parents were like. But what are we teaching our own children? Do you think the criminals we have referenced in this piece had good upbringing? Many parents today act like common criminals: they lie, rob and cheat others with Luciferic fervor, then wonder that their children have become crooks.

Today in many markets, if you buy fish and ask the seller to cut it for you, you will discover when you get home that it is not complete. People steal and cheat and call it business. Why won’t their future pay for their present?