The Menace Of Teenagers Engagement In Scrap Metal Business In Muslim Community Makurdi, Benue State -By Hassan Idris

Scrap metal business is a local business that buys and sells scrap metal for recycling, manufacturing, and many other purposes. The word ‘scrap’ is referred to as ‘ Kwanja kwanja’ in Hausa language among the Muslim community, Makurdi. A person who sells or buys scrap is referred to as ‘Scrapper. The Scrap business has been a long time business in the Muslim community, Makurdi. It entails the buying and selling of metal parts, irons and these metal parts includes parts of cars that have had accidents, motorcycles and so forth. It has been a well-known business in the Muslim community, and many people in the society engaged in it for livelihood and survival. Since this scrap metal recycling industry has become a billion-dollar industry and 90 tons of metal being recycled and reused every year in various countries in the world and Nigeria at large, it has today become a threat to teenagers in the Muslim community of Benue state. Teenagers from the age of 5 to 17 and above have appallingly engaged themselves in this metal business and many of them have left schools and their places of learning skills to engage in this business. Many of them have badly engaged in stealing people’s properties and burgling shops and houses to get metal to sell to scrap dealers instead of the normal and legal process of buying directly from the owners. These teenagers go around and move inside gutters and many different dirty places to get metal to sell to scrap dealers. The level of teenager’s engagement in scrap metal business in the Muslim Community, Makurdi is very alarming. Yesterday, there was a case of some Wadata teenagers who were about to be burnt around Wurukum axis, Makurdi for an alleged claim of burgling a shop to steal metals and other things. This social problem calls for the interview of Wale Nasir Balogun, a community activist from Wadata Community, Makurdi.

Good day sir, I’m Hassan Idris, a reporter and editor with Wadata TV Makurdi. I would be interviewing you on the Menace of Teenagers Engagement in Scrap Metal Business in Muslim Community, Makurdi Benue State.

Wale: Ok, you’re welcome.

Hassan: For this interview can you introduce yourself, Sir?

Wale: I’m Wale Nasir Balogun. I was born here in Wadata community and I grow up here. I’m a community activist who is concerned with the betterment of the society entirely.

Hassan: What can you say about the scrap metal business briefly, sir?

Wale: Barely every angle in the Muslim community that you won’t find metal scrap business and scrappers gathering their scraps. However, irrespective of the good side of this scrap metal business, the disadvantage has superseded the advantage. The scrap metal business is a source of livelihood for many over the years, but today, we do not understand the dimension it has taken again. You find in the Muslim community, Makurdi teenagers of about 4, 5 to 14 years going around the streets all in the name of gathering metal scraps to sell. And I think that a little boy of that age should be under the care of his parents and should be in school and not roaming about the street. I don’t know why some parents could be so careless to let their children engaged in such an act!

Hassan: What do you think could be the reasons for teenagers’ engagement in the metal scrap business in the Muslim community, Makurdi?

Wale: well, firstly is hunger and secondly is carelessness from the side of the parents. Parents are too careless nowadays!

Hassan: Can you elucidate more on the carelessness from the parents’ side you mentioned earlier?

Wale: Yes, parents no longer monitor the to and fro of their children. For instance, a boy of 5 years who ought to be under the care of his parents would be left alone to roam about in the streets of the Muslim community, Makurdi. This boy who is supposed to be in school or Islamic school in the afternoon or evening is left to roam freely in the streets to find metal scrap and sell. If he gets home, his parents won’t ask him where he’s coming from or even what he went out to do.

Hassan: Do you think a child of 5-10 engaging in metal scrap business when he’s supposed to be in school a plus and who would you put the blame on for this societal menace?

Wale: I’ll put the blame first on the parents! Because Parents are the first agent of socialization and they have various preponderant roles in the upbringing of every child you see today. As parents, you do not abandon your children and expect another person to take care of them for you. That’s impossible! As parents, you have to monitor where your child is going to, where he’s coming from and who he mingles with, what he’s into and the kinds of clothes he wears in his teenage This metal scrap business of a thing has led many teenagers in the Muslim community, Makurdi into various social vices such as drug abuse and even rape for female scrappers which are rare in the community. Well, in the domain where these teenagers exchange their metal scraps, they have easy access to drugs of all kinds. The orientation is that one has to take drugs to be able to be strong and get more metal scraps. Peer influence is very common amongst these teenage scrappers.

Hassan: Irrespective of the harm this metal scrap business is causing in the community, do you advocate its total stoppage in the Muslim community, Makurdi?

Wale: No, I don’t advocate the total stoppage of it because it’s the source of livelihood for many families. I call on parents to caution their children, take care of them too. The community leaders should call on the attentions of the leaders of the association of scrap metal dealers in the community to investigate how and where a child gets his scrap from before buying from them if they must buy. These two methodologies I have mentioned would go a long way in reducing the level of criminalities amongst these teenagers.

Hassan: Do you think there’s a correlation between the metal scrap business amongst the teenagers and the rise of cultism amongst the youths in the Muslim, Community Makurdi?

Wale: Yes of course! Because watching silently on these teenagers without doing anything is debilitating and tantamount to lead to societal menace that will bedevil everyone. A person who takes drugs at such teenage age and sometimes don’t sleep at home you think won’t be easy to join cultism? Well, an idle man is a devil’s workshop. If you can give birth to children, you’re expected to be able to train them and take care of them. When you don’t take care of these children academically or even engage them in learning other skills what do you expect them to do if not to go on with devilish acts? Friends will influence them and they might become cultists or heavy drug dealers and cause mayhem in society.

Hassan: What can you say regarding the three Wadata teenagers that were about to be burnt in Wurukum, Makurdi for stealing in the name of searching for metal scraps?

Wale: It’s so unfortunate two of our young brothers in Wadata lost their lives to social vices some weeks back and we woke up yesterday to be informed that three of our Wadata community teenagers below the age of 15 years wanted to be burnt at Wurukum all in the name of searching for scraps before the police rescued them. In the absence of scraps, these boys went on to burgle people’s shops. Unfortunately, they were caught in the process of opening somebody’s shop. This has been one of the issues we’ve been facing and have been trying to curtail before it consumes us all.

Hassan: Do you think teenagers who engaged in the metal scrap business have the money to buy these scraps and aren’t prone to health issues?

Wale: Initially, how the metal scrap business is, was that the people that started it here in the Muslim community go out to buy unused or unwanted metal scraps from various houses. But today, teenagers go out to hunt people’s properties and this is stealing.

Hassan: Do you think the engagement of teenagers in the metal scrap business has a negative effect on their mental & physical well being?

Wale: Yes, it has negative effects! At teenage age, things learnt by teenagers stick to their memories very well. Whatever is learnt stick permanently in their memories for years!

Hassan: Do you think the metal scrap business amongst the teenagers in the Muslim Community, Makurdi is a product of poverty?

Wale: Yes, poverty is the best friend of hunger! If you’re poor you’re always hungry and if poverty is abject in society or family, that’s where you see children roaming about to pick metal scrap to go and sell which might expose them to various social vices and health challenges. You see many of them inside the gutters picking these metal scraps to sell.

Hassan: What ways do you think the society can follow to curtail this societal menace?

Wale: We can’t eliminate the metal scrap business from our community, because it is a source of livelihood for many people in the society and eliminating it in its entirety isn’t a good idea. I’m calling on society to restructuring the metal scrap business. By restructuring, I meant that there should be a thorough check and investigation on where, how are those metal scraps gotten from? If a child of 10 years for instance brings a metal scrap for a scrapper to buy, he should send him away because he hardly gets money to buy but to steal. Society leaders should also call on the leaders of these metal scrap businesses, tell them of the menace this business is causing to teenagers and present to them a guideline and rule to follow. Badly as it is, some of our teenage girls who go into the dent of these scrappers to hawk are sometimes molested and are prone to rape. We need a better reformation!

Hassan: In conclusion, what is (are) your appeal to the Benue state government on this issue?

Wale: I appeal to the state government and even federal to reduce poverty in our society, empower our youths and even provide scholarship schemes for them to study. In most cases, we have brilliant children that want to enrol in schools but are not opportune due to lack of sponsorship. I’m also calling on well to do individuals in our society to assist and give a helping hand in improving society and curtailing all the social vices bedevilling our society.

Hassan: What is (are) your prayers for the society at large?

Wale: I pray that Almighty Allah brings control and solutions to all these social menaces bedevilling our society. May Allah touch the hearts of the government, parents, individuals and all to be able to fight this social menace!

Hassan: Thank you, Mr Wale Nasir Balogun.

Wale: Thank you, sir!

Work and photo credit goes
To Wadata TV, Makurdi.

Wadata TV can be reached; @wadatatvmakurdi@gmail.com