Why Nigerian youths are into crime

Nigerian youth protesting

Research has shown that one of the main reasons why youths in Nigeria go into crime and involve in other illicit acts is because of lack of job opportunities. The Bible says, “The idle mind is the devil’s workshop” hence lack of engagement means the youths will be easily lured into crime. And rather than government at various levels investing money into what will create employment for the youth, the governments invest it in weapons and expand the prisons.

Recently, the Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode launched the Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps, LNSC with a total of 177 salon cars and vehicles equipped with communication gadgets, 377 motorcycles, 377 helmets, 4,000 bicycles, metal detectors amongst other operational equipment.

Less than two months after the safety outfit was launched, people were not only kidnapped but killed in Ikorodu and other parts of the State, apart from other crimes that were unreported. The question is, where were the safety corps?

It appears that Nigerian leaders especially politicians don’t know the reality on ground. There is no doubt that the more unemployment, the more crime in the society.

Some may argue that the safety or security outfit has also created jobs for the youths but the question they fail to answer is, are the youth fulfilled? Is that the kind of work they dreamt of doing or are they just doing it because there is nothing else?

Youth corps members

It is believed in some quarters that what the governor and others especially the federal government are doing is a duplication of duty. In a country where there are Police, Civil Defence, the Military (Army, Airforce, Navy), even paramilitary like Customs, Immigration, Prisons, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, amongst others, always on the street, with private security guards, Also not forgetting the newly-created Peace Corps which is before the national assembly.

Even with the aforementioned, crime rate continue to soar. One would have expected government at various levels to deploy these men to manage traffic and other related issues, but instead, some of them spent their time discussing in their offices, and waiting for the closing time to be on their way home.

All these are happening in a country where the unemployment rate is high. Investigation shows that the country spends over N20.62 trillion on National Security in the last five years, amidst claims by the security agencies that they are being underfunded.

Year after year, the security sector continues to gulp the highest chunk of the country’s expenditures. In the 2015 budget for instance, N934billion was allocated for the security sector, the highest for the year.

A newspaper reported that the figures for 2011 and 2012 were N920billion and N924billion respectively while N923billion each was thrown at the sector in 2013 and 2014. Yet, Nigeria is faced with continued kidnappings, crude oil theft, armed robbery and other sundry crimes.

It was also discovered that government at various levels have security votes which are not spent on any security issue hence these monies go into private accounts unaccounted for and unquestioned.

Year in year out, various governments purchase vehicles, weapons, gadgets, gunboats, amongst others for security agencies to fight crimes but they never thought it wise to invest such money on the youth.

Some experts opined that rather than purchase gadgets, gun-boats, vehicles and weapons to kill these youths why not invest the money into things that will engage them.

Many of them have business ideas but need little capital to start and they have the tendency of empowering or engaging others as the business expands. Some analysts suggest that youths should be deployed to farm and paid even higher than those in the offices to encourage more people to go into that sector.

By so doing, more people will pick interest and more crops will be harvested; and that will lead to food sustainability in the country and might also export some. If products are exported as they used to be in the past, the exchange rate of foreign currencies will be affected positively too.

Some schools of thought argued that the more the youths are engaged, the less the crime rates in the country. “Government should make loans available to anybody that needs it not restricted to graduates alone. Some uneducated youths are better business men than some graduates.

“Government should also as a priority, give loans to undergraduates or those willing to go to school and as soon as they start working, they can start deducting the monies from the persons. It will reduce the level of illiteracy in the country and to a large extent, reduce crime because it is easy to lure an illiterate than an educated or enlightened person to crime.

The NYSC should also include in their scheme, business or self-sustenance education or skill acquisition programme so that these graduates don’t remain jobless as they are finishing their service years.

Also, the idea of government giving N5,000 to individuals will not do this country any good. It will only create room for laziness, redundancy and low-productivity. It is better to teach them how to fish rather than give them fish on monthly basis. A woman started akara (baked beans) business with the sum of N5,000 and today, she is erecting a building.

Finally, some experts suggest that rather than invest money into acquiring weapons, gadgets, vehicles and others on an annual basis to kill the youths and thereby killing our future, it is better to invest those monies on them, if truly, they are the leaders of tomorrow.