The Spate of Social Vices in the Degenerated Generation – An Indicator of the Beginning of the Nation’s End -By Solihu Abdulmumin

The labour of our past heroes, I’m announcing, has finally been rendered void. As a matter of fact, the entire phrases and sentences contained in the country’s national anthem and pledge need to be completely overhaul as they have been tampered with in one way or the other. Our progenitors struggled with so much zeal amidst sufferings and punishment to bring up a nation where peace and unity is going to be the watchword. They all dreamed of a nation where freedom reigns and where humanity is not taken for granted. A Nigeria where every child has access to quality education at all levels without gender discrimination. A united, peaceful, and stable country. The Nigeria of their dream is one where every citizen will live in dignity, peaceful coexistence and tranquility. A Nigeria where there is low level of poverty, inequality and unemployment. A country where rule of law is respected by all and observed by those in power equally to all and sundry and of course where human rights are not trampled upon by the higher-ups.

The list is unending…

The bottom line is that, the Nigeria they all dreamed of is an independent Nigeria in all ramifications. A Nigeria that’s indisputably worthy of the giant title bestowed on it in the continent and beyond! Unfortunately, all of these – till today – are mere illusion that were envisioned. A long-term dream that never for once come into reality and might not come to pass in generations to come. That’s if you’re not going to argue and will agree with me that the country has reach its peak of failure and downfall. Or what good would you expect of a country where its future leaders are now ton of ritualists and cyber criminals.

Pause to reflect…

Who do we blame for the unending drastic increase in the level of social vices among adults who no longer believe in working hard but rather working smart? If parents would take the fault, then what do we have to say about those who turn out well in the society even though their parents abandoned them while they were young or even lost their parents. We have seen and heard of cases where parents support their children on these bad actions whilst stopping anyone who tried to rebuke such child. Parenting and Parenthood have presently been taken with levity and treated the other way round. In case you are ever concerned about why this is happening, forget not that the untrained children of those days are now parents to the untrained children of nowadays. What goodness then would you expect from a bad foundation? Indeed, someone who lack something cannot give it out.

A child’s house (the family) is considered the primary institution for the training of the societal moral and ethically accepted behaviors. It is responsible for guiding the children through on what the societal accept as right and wrong – what is expected of him/her in the society. With the right religious and moral upbringings, the society wouldn’t be left to nurture a faulty structure from a corrupted background. It is even more unfortunate that today’s children, in most cases, are allowed to act as though they are one entity on their own. They are seen acting as if they are superior to their parents. Such parents also will be found saying statements like “just leave him/her alone oo… s/he won’t accept” or “children of nowadays… one just has to be patient”, among several other unbefitting statements. The children are made to have this feeling of some kind of freedom of self-decision at a young age when they hardly can differentiate between what’s right or wrong. There is absence of proper counseling, punishment, discipline, cautioning, and not even doing as little as condemning their bad actions. This is for the fear of making them feel sad or bad. The Yoruba adage have it that, “A parent that doesn’t want his/her children to shed tears today, (such parent) will shed blood tomorrow”.

However, enough of blaming the parents for all that is happening in the society presently lest we leave out other factors and entities contributing to the social vices. It is noteworthy to mention that the society, economy, government, institutions, and even various media are contributing to this menace in the society. When some young boys in their late teens (least of 17) were caught with a chopped head of a young girl ready for money ritual and claimed that they found the piece of fetish information online. The Nollywood industry got blamed for promoting ritual-related contents in their plays forgetting that the society itself is communicating a bad message to its younger ones. For a “Zazuu” Crooner of recent memories to get famous for dropping an album that neither add any positive value to the society nor forbade any vices. The musician gets famous and earn different gifts and cash prizes from the masses. Big Brother Naija winners are made to leave the event with 90 million naira when a best graduating student in a university was given a cheque of 2 thousand naira, so embarrassing and discouraging. The former is a reality TV show that only promote nudes and many other shameful activities that shouldn’t be heard of among the viewers – not leaving out the young Nigerians. The housemates were not even displayed praying or carrying out any religious activities throughout their stay in there, just game, play, party and slay then got evicted and become the talk of the town. Some later even turn out to be taken as Role Model by the senseless young adults who have nothing much to do with their lives than destroying their future in the name of enjoying their youths.

What a pity?

There is this burning question I have always want to ask our elders and leaders. The question is “how well can you disestablish the correlation between the myriads of unemployed graduates across the country and the ‘school/education nah scam’ slang among today’s students, undergraduates to be precise?” Ever since I heard the president himself saying that every office has been occupied and there is no vacancies in the country regardless of your excellent result, then I know indeed, there was a country!

Sigh!

The problems bedeviling this country is really so much that it is so hard to get focused on approaching them all at once. The inability of the concerned individuals and groups to even attribute the problem to a particular cause – say corruption, make it even more compounded. At first, it was the Niger Delta Militants, Boko-haram, and Fulani herdsmen. Then it comes to unknown gunmen and bandits, while raping and kidnapping featured. Police brutality and armed robbery (looters from the supposed peaceful end-SARS protest), among several others. All of these challenges contributing significantly to the downfall and the degeneration of the country. As if that is not enough, there begin a drastic rise in the number of missing individuals in the country on a daily basis. Then comes the sudden call to divide the country into the three major ethnic groups, IPOB, Yoruba Nation and Arewa. It is not surprising anyway since the love, strength and faith with which we promised to serve our fatherland have been channeled to hatred, lack of tolerance and discrimination.

On a second note, our National anthem must be overhauled!

Succinctly, all of the above-mentioned problems and threats give rise to a big question of what exactly is the problem of the country? Psychologically and even mere using the mental faculty, one can easily understand that there is no such problem without any source. In the same vein, to proffer an effective and comprehensive solution to any problem, it is important that the problem itself with its source has been clearly outlined and identified. That alone will give the problem-solving mission a clear and well-defined direction.

Based on my observations and researches, it become known to me that the major cause of all these problems cannot be traced. In a community where its superiors and higherups are corrupted, what exactly will you expect from its citizen? More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government if procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, and public offices are bought and sold. Of course, you would agree these are what we are currently experiencing in Nigeria. Qualifications (academics) no longer constitutes part of the requirements for any positions now, just be connected with those in power and position, then you are covered. We can then decide to blame corruption for it, though it still doesn’t just happen that majority become corrupted, there is still more to it. But for the sake of the argument, let’s hold corruption responsible.

While writing this piece, I came across a news on Premium Times where the Minister of Youths and Sport, in person of Solomon Dalong was blaming the Nigerian youths for aiding and abetting corruption. He must have forgotten that, the society together with the government teaches or better still, lured them into this. Globally, the problem of corruption has been attributed to leaders with the belief that with corrupt leaders come corrupt nations. Corruption has an indirect effect on a country’s economic performance by affecting many factors fueling economic growth such as investment taxation, level, composition and effectiveness of public expenditure. It distorts incentives and market forces, leading to the misallocation of resources. It is apparent in our daily life as it impacted the implementation of rule of law and democratic values. It takes funding away from important infrastructure investments such as roads, schools and hospitals – a reason why strike has always been the last resort, and also deters international investors. All of these are apparently what the nation is currently suffering from.

According to the Fresh reads, Youth can play an important role in combating corruption. They can arrange awareness campaigns about corruption and make an anti-corruption youth brigade, to keep a vigil over the offices. Youth can make people understand that they should not resort to corrupt practices to get their work done. I found this rather funny. The question is which youths are they talking about here? Nigerian youths?

The Nigerian youths that have been made to believe that the power of people can never surpass the people of power (as against the norms). The Nigerian youths that are now assets and instruments to politicians during campaigns and manifestoes. This same youths are those studying in higher institutions with zero chance of getting employed, even after spending up to 6 – 7 years for a 4 years course. The Nigerian youths that experienced how their mates were brutally massacre during a suppose peaceful protest without anyone holding anyone accountable. Most of these Nigerian youths are even apolitical. They have lost interest in political activities since the winner would have been decided among the leaders and then end up manipulating the election results. The Nigerian youths who are made to emulate musicians and Big men whilst first class graduate and pious ones among us are embarrassed and given less identity.

And again, there was a country!

As stated earlier, there are a lot to say which are coming up in subsequent articles as I’m tired of the present state of the country and I hope this writeup will reach the concerned individuals and organization. On a final note, the current trend in the level of money rituals among the young adults can be attributed to poor parenting, peer group influence, and the value presented by the society. While the first two points are clear enough, the society made the youths believe that ONLY rich and wealthy or influential individuals are assigned due recognition and highly respected. Thus, they also opted in for a get-rich-quick option regardless of whatever it is going to cost them.

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Solihu Abdulmumin

09129720863

abdulmuminsolihu@gmail.com