Opinion
By Chukwudi George Ozalla
There are things one hears about from a distance and there are others one experiences personally. The growing violence among young people in Anambra belongs to the second category for me because I come from the state, I visit often and, on some occasions, tragedy has happened while I was still around. I remember the day several lives were cut down in a cult clash in my hometown. I had just returned from the market and got home. About 15 minutes later, I received a call informing me of the tragedy. It was one of those calls that leaves you wondering how quickly an ordinary day can turn into a terrible memory.
The shocking death of popular MC and comedian Isaac Nwosu, also known as Aiza, in Awka last Sunday was another painful reminder of the dangerous direction things are taking. Aiza was brutally shot dead along with another person, although different controversies have since surrounded the circumstances of the killing, which still remain sketchy. His death was a big blow to many people who knew him, and I count myself among them. I personally knew Aiza many years ago while working and residing in Awka as a young man. He was such a great talent, combining several skills in a way that made him difficult to ignore. In fact, just sighting him was enough to make me burst into laughter before he even opened his mouth. He must make you laugh.
Aiza could stop and begin to control traffic. He was a good dancer, a mimic musician, DJ and MC. He had that unusual ability to entertain people almost effortlessly. Someone with such a combination of talents should have been thinking about how to build a longer career and leave something behind, not become the victim of a violent shooting. His death, like many others, leaves people asking questions about what is happening to our communities and, particularly, what is happening to some of our young people.
Other states and regions have their own security challenges and social vices, and I do not pretend that Anambra is the only place where young people are getting involved in crime. My concern here is simply the place I come from and know well enough to speak about from personal experience. There is something particularly disturbing about seeing young people who should be building their lives instead becoming involved in cult groups, drugs, internet fraud, violent rivalry and the kind of reckless behaviour that can end in the taking of another person’s life.
The question is how we got here. Cultism did not suddenly appear in Anambra, but its grip on some young people has become worrying. For many of them, it starts with the desire to belong. A young man wants recognition, protection, friendship or the feeling that he has become somebody. He meets people who offer him that identity and before long, he is doing things he might never have imagined doing on his own. Rival groups then turn ordinary disagreements into battles, and lives are lost over matters that may not even have made sense to the people involved if they had been given time to think about them.
There is also the influence of money. The pressure to become rich quickly has become a serious problem among young people. Social media has made it worse because it constantly presents wealth without showing the work, failures and sacrifices that may have produced it. A young person sees somebody displaying cars, expensive clothes, houses, women and bundles of money and begins to wonder why he should remain patient. Internet fraud, money rituals and other dangerous shortcuts then become attractive to those who have lost their sense of right and wrong.
This is where we also need to examine the kind of lifestyle society has come to admire. We should jettison ostentatious living and stop giving unnecessary recognition to people simply because of what they display. Anambra, and by extension the Southeast, is known for a very visible display of wealth during festive periods. It is not unusual to see long convoys of expensive vehicles with sirens blaring through the streets, sometimes constituting a nuisance, creating traffic gridlock and intimidating other motorists. There is nothing wrong with success or having good cars, but when wealth becomes a public performance and people begin to compete over who can make the loudest statement, we should not be surprised when young people start looking for shortcuts to achieve the same appearance of success.
A young person watching all this can easily conclude that money is the only measure of achievement and that the method of getting it is secondary. We tell our children to work hard, yet society sometimes gives its loudest applause to people whose source of wealth nobody is prepared to question. The young man who has nothing is made to feel like a failure while the man displaying millions is celebrated. That contradiction deserves serious thought.
But perhaps the more difficult part of this conversation is the home. I do not believe that every child who goes astray comes from a home where the parents failed. Many parents have done everything they could to train their children properly, only to discover that the child they raised at home became a different person after mixing with certain friends. Peer influence is real, and sometimes it is stronger than what parents imagine. A child can leave a disciplined home, enter a different environment and gradually begin to reject everything he was taught.
That is why parents and guardians must not leave moral instruction until the child is already old enough to make major decisions. Discipline has to begin early. Children need to know that there are consequences for their actions and that having money or expensive possessions does not make a person successful. Parents should provide the basic needs of their children and wards without turning every demand into an obligation they must satisfy. There is a difference between taking care of a child and overindulging that child. When young people grow up believing that every want must immediately be provided, they may find it difficult to accept hardship, rejection or honest struggle when they eventually face life on their own.
The same responsibility extends to religious leaders, teachers and other adults who have influence over young people. We have spent so much time telling children how important it is to succeed that we sometimes forget to tell them what kind of people they should become while pursuing that success. Character cannot be left to chance. A child who is taught to respect human life, value honest work, control his temper and understand the consequences of his actions has a better chance of resisting the pressure to join a group simply because everybody around him belongs to it.
Drugs make the situation even more dangerous. A young person who is already angry, desperate, heavily influenced by peers and using drugs can become capable of acts he might not have committed under normal circumstances. It is frightening to see some of those who should eventually take responsibility for families, communities and the country becoming trapped in drugs, cultism and a hardened way of life. If we are not careful, we will be producing young people who have little regard for human life and then wondering where we went wrong.
The government cannot be left out of this conversation. The government of Professor Chukwuma Soludo must brace up to contain the worsening violence in the state. Security operatives also need to redouble their efforts, particularly in the area of intelligence gathering. There is nothing stopping us from having CCTV cameras covering strategic locations in our towns and cities. Awka, Onitsha, Nnewi and other major communities should have a properly coordinated network of cameras that can assist security agencies in monitoring movements, identifying suspects and investigating crimes. Technology cannot replace intelligence and effective policing, but it can give security agencies information that may help them prevent crime and respond faster when incidents occur.
It is better to know that something is being planned and stop it before it happens than to arrive after guns have been fired and lives have been lost. Security cannot be reduced to reacting to crime after the damage has been done. Information from communities, surveillance, cooperation between security agencies and timely action can prevent many incidents before they become tragedies. CCTV cameras will not stop every crime, but a state that is serious about protecting its people should not be reluctant to invest in every useful tool available to it.
There is also a need for the authorities to look more closely at the networks behind cult activities, drug distribution, kidnapping and other violent crimes. Arresting the young men who pull the trigger without going after those who recruit, finance, arm or direct them will not solve the problem permanently. Communities too must be willing to provide useful information to security agencies instead of keeping silent until someone close to them becomes a victim.
But government alone cannot raise our children. Parents have a part to play. Guardians have a part to play. Churches, schools, traditional institutions and communities have their own responsibilities. We need to find a better way of raising children who understand that life is not measured by the size of the car one drives or the amount of money one displays. We need young people who can endure a difficult season without believing that crime is the quickest way out.
What worries me most is not only the number of young people who have already gone astray but the possibility of losing many more who are still at the stage where something can be done. How long shall our young ones continue to waste away to the point where some of them also become willing to shed blood? How many more families must receive the kind of phone call I received that day after returning from the market before we accept that something has gone seriously wrong?
We cannot pretend that every young person is a criminal or that an entire generation has lost its values. There are still many decent, hardworking and responsible young Nigerians doing remarkable things. But the bad examples are becoming too costly to ignore. When a young person is killed in a cult clash, when a comedian leaves home and never returns because somebody decided to use a gun, or when kidnapping becomes another source of fear in communities, it is no longer enough to shake our heads and move on.
The warning is already in our streets, our schools, our neighbourhoods and even in some of our homes. We owe the next generation more than material comfort. We owe them guidance, discipline and a clear understanding that there are some things a human being must never do, no matter the pressure. And we owe ourselves the courage to correct what has gone wrong before another phone call comes, another family is thrown into mourning and another life is wasted.
