Sayo
Aluko
For
any mind that sees beyond the cliff, it is a disgusting sight. Like a howling
pack of insatiable hyenas, wave and wave of ill-visioned and totally jobless
youths that besieged campaign venues and convoys, either in a raucous quest to
get money from politicians or pilfer from unsuspecting Nigerians, it was really
mind-disturbing. I had the privilege of covering a slew of these
politically-inclined events in the months that preceded the 2015 elections, and
they were all well-graced with the narcotic presence of these delinquents.
From one event to the other, I was made to see yet another blight in government's scorecard, and at a point, it became to me, a thing that just hurts.
These rudderless ones proved violent at their worst and virulent at their best.
From one event to the other, I was made to see yet another blight in government's scorecard, and at a point, it became to me, a thing that just hurts.
These rudderless ones proved violent at their worst and virulent at their best.
This is an army of able-bodied young men and women (yes, women too dey) in whom idleness, laziness and greediness, have
formed a cancerous triad. Yes, this is what society has crumbled to become; and
yes, this is how bad we've fared in managing human potential. But no, this can,
and actually, must be tackled head on!
The undeniable failure of government to sincerely create a system that truly maximizes its youths' population, plus our shameful kind of profligate democracy, a lαΊ£ money politics, both abetted by the ill-fated death of the institution called "Family", led to the creation of this seemingly untamable societal monster, that clearly poses a threat to sustainable development and proud nationhood.
It is not the mere existence of these miscreant groups that actually bothers the mind, rather, it is their rapidly increasing number and their ongoing recruitment, mostly of teenagers, into despondency. They are just too much, sadly enough, increasing. A visit to recruitment bases across Lagos for example, in places like Oshodi, Mushin or Bariga, Itire, etc, surely blows the mind and shatters the heart, too see potential lying destitute and waiting to pounce on the next "Black Jeep".
I spoke with a colleague, who at the time was also touring the entire nation with the now President-elect, he confirmed that this same ugly scenario was obtainable across the country. My bubble burst.
During one of those outings, I also spoke with one of them, a 27-year old, who highlighted the normal suspects of interrupted education, poverty and unemployment, as reasons why a lot of them joined the shameful but "lucrative" trade of truancy.
But, while the typically myopic politician will merely see just another band of supporters and cheerleaders in this wasting lot, a true administrator will see an urgent need for a reprieve, an urgent need to clean a societal dirt, a need to halt the ugly trend set to hijack our youth structure and dent any intention of good governance.
To initiate the solution, government must invest unrepentantly in the establishment of the right form of education at the primary level. This will cut the availability and supply of our teenagers into these ma’shanfaani (useless) groups. It will give a solid foundation to kids and set them on the path of usefulness, rather than expose them to wantonness. Right education in the formative years has a lot to it; right education in the form of right curricula, right environment and the availability of true teachers (by true, I mean passionate teachers, not the "teaching-was-just-the-last option" staff). Beyond "lip-servicing" it, the government must just achieve greater strides in making education broadly accessible, truly affordable and in fact, very attractive, at all levels. This is the first step at initiating a lasting solution to this menace.
One major obstruction to the rescue of these miscreant youths is their acquired 'natural' crave for "easy-money". And, this is the reason why government efforts at taking them off the streets haven't quite succeeded, that lack of needful rehabilitation from its effects. These guys can't be simply urged off the streets and directly enlisted into empowerment programmes where they seldom stay or last. They are used to merely throwing hands in the air, utter some urchin gibberish and gbam!, land some cash, yeah, that easy. They can be likened to carnivorous animals that have tasted human blood, and as such possess the natural tendency to crave for more. But, rather than kill these "animals", as the case may be in a zoo or a Games reserve, the government must redirect their untoward crave towards dignified labour through the process of rehabilitation. Before committing to any act of empowerment, government must admit that rehabilitating this crop of youths in the quest to re-align their psyches and make them understand the reward of hard-work and the dignity in labour, is surely an arduous process, but mustn't be overlooked.
Then, wherewithal are the vocational and technical schools meant to engage some set of youths and make them wealth creators in their own rights? They seem inoperative, moribund and largely extinct. But, there was a time when vocational and technical schools were the proud mainstay of extra-orthodox and extra-conventional education in the country. They must be fully revived and functional in order to expand the prospects of rescue for these misdemeanant youths in error.
Furthermore, government must seriously encourage Social Enterprise, which is the sector of the 21st century world that has come to stay. Social enterprise is the new allosteric that is designed to complement government efforts at all levels. And one thing social enterprise can do rightly is productive youth engagement, another means to take wandering youths off the streets.
Social entrepreneurs therefore, should be provided with the political will to flourish beyond their limited capacity, and contribute their quota towards ending this rot.
The undeniable failure of government to sincerely create a system that truly maximizes its youths' population, plus our shameful kind of profligate democracy, a lαΊ£ money politics, both abetted by the ill-fated death of the institution called "Family", led to the creation of this seemingly untamable societal monster, that clearly poses a threat to sustainable development and proud nationhood.
It is not the mere existence of these miscreant groups that actually bothers the mind, rather, it is their rapidly increasing number and their ongoing recruitment, mostly of teenagers, into despondency. They are just too much, sadly enough, increasing. A visit to recruitment bases across Lagos for example, in places like Oshodi, Mushin or Bariga, Itire, etc, surely blows the mind and shatters the heart, too see potential lying destitute and waiting to pounce on the next "Black Jeep".
I spoke with a colleague, who at the time was also touring the entire nation with the now President-elect, he confirmed that this same ugly scenario was obtainable across the country. My bubble burst.
During one of those outings, I also spoke with one of them, a 27-year old, who highlighted the normal suspects of interrupted education, poverty and unemployment, as reasons why a lot of them joined the shameful but "lucrative" trade of truancy.
But, while the typically myopic politician will merely see just another band of supporters and cheerleaders in this wasting lot, a true administrator will see an urgent need for a reprieve, an urgent need to clean a societal dirt, a need to halt the ugly trend set to hijack our youth structure and dent any intention of good governance.
To initiate the solution, government must invest unrepentantly in the establishment of the right form of education at the primary level. This will cut the availability and supply of our teenagers into these ma’shanfaani (useless) groups. It will give a solid foundation to kids and set them on the path of usefulness, rather than expose them to wantonness. Right education in the formative years has a lot to it; right education in the form of right curricula, right environment and the availability of true teachers (by true, I mean passionate teachers, not the "teaching-was-just-the-last option" staff). Beyond "lip-servicing" it, the government must just achieve greater strides in making education broadly accessible, truly affordable and in fact, very attractive, at all levels. This is the first step at initiating a lasting solution to this menace.
One major obstruction to the rescue of these miscreant youths is their acquired 'natural' crave for "easy-money". And, this is the reason why government efforts at taking them off the streets haven't quite succeeded, that lack of needful rehabilitation from its effects. These guys can't be simply urged off the streets and directly enlisted into empowerment programmes where they seldom stay or last. They are used to merely throwing hands in the air, utter some urchin gibberish and gbam!, land some cash, yeah, that easy. They can be likened to carnivorous animals that have tasted human blood, and as such possess the natural tendency to crave for more. But, rather than kill these "animals", as the case may be in a zoo or a Games reserve, the government must redirect their untoward crave towards dignified labour through the process of rehabilitation. Before committing to any act of empowerment, government must admit that rehabilitating this crop of youths in the quest to re-align their psyches and make them understand the reward of hard-work and the dignity in labour, is surely an arduous process, but mustn't be overlooked.
Then, wherewithal are the vocational and technical schools meant to engage some set of youths and make them wealth creators in their own rights? They seem inoperative, moribund and largely extinct. But, there was a time when vocational and technical schools were the proud mainstay of extra-orthodox and extra-conventional education in the country. They must be fully revived and functional in order to expand the prospects of rescue for these misdemeanant youths in error.
Furthermore, government must seriously encourage Social Enterprise, which is the sector of the 21st century world that has come to stay. Social enterprise is the new allosteric that is designed to complement government efforts at all levels. And one thing social enterprise can do rightly is productive youth engagement, another means to take wandering youths off the streets.
Social entrepreneurs therefore, should be provided with the political will to flourish beyond their limited capacity, and contribute their quota towards ending this rot.
Now that political campaigns are over, their major source of income is gone, and the fate of these ones lies either in committing both imaginable and unimaginable crimes or in festering insecurity. And as said above, they have formed a benign societal cancer that is ready to grow malignant if unchecked; more reason why this new regime of Change must tackle this menace head on.
This new face of governance shouldn't afford to leave this stain on its fabric of Change. Promises have been made to this effect by the Lagos state Governor-elect, and likewise at the Federal level; I pray they fulfill them to the letter. Area boys, Omo-ita, Omo-ijoba, Alaye boys, Omo abii’pabe, we can call them all we want, but, Youths, the lot of these miscreants inclusive, must just be taken off the streets, recycled, and be used for the good of society rather than against it.
Until we harness this goldmine of growth, that is, the fallow economic and developmental prospects laden within our pubertal and mature youth population, we are set to witness the sustained surge of delinquency in our society, wherein violent cartels and gangs rule our streets without remorse.
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