Don’t let their future wither away

Few years back, violence, insecurities and calamities hit the front fold of this country like nothing before. Today, at the mention of the word Terrorism, a primary school child translates it to fear, killings, violence and pain. We all picked up the word with individual definition of it.  This article is pointed at the effect […]

Few years back, violence, insecurities and calamities hit the front fold of this country like nothing before. Today, at the mention of the word Terrorism, a primary school child translates it to fear, killings, violence and pain. We all picked up the word with individual definition of it. 

This article is pointed at the effect of child exposure to violence. This country have been fighting terrorism for the past six years and the government have not put any program in place to address the issue of children who are suffering from psychological trauma in vehemently affected states like Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. As a concerned youth that is passionate about the future of children who will be the leaders of this nation, I believe the escalation of crime rate has a direct linkage to the prevailing issue of children with untreated trauma experience. 

Psychologically, children who are exposed to violence at a very tender age are liable to developing lack of human empathy, depression, aggression and hatred. 

 Those who will surely become the youth of this country are being abandoned and deserted at internally displaced camps, on the streets in the communities and societies where their mental and physical health are being threatened and their future in a shabby state. In a country that gives no regard for the mental wellbeing of its citizens, what will be the faith of the children who witness violence daily?

The herdsmen and farmers crises as a good example. It’s a known fact that some part of this country has been engulfed by crisis triggered by selfishness, economic gain, religious intolerance as well.

Thousands of lives have been brutally massacred, properties have been destroyed, attacks and counter attacks from both parties (farmers and herdsmen). Yet the government has being so insensitive towards one of the direct victim of these tragic incidents.

The children in Plateau, Benue and Zamfara states who have witnessed such chaos and lawlessness are being left alone in the same community where they will grow up to hate the perpetrators. If not addressed, their terrible experience will sow seeds of discord between the farmers and herdsmen for many generations to come.

Finally, if the government wants to find a solution to the scalding epidemic ongoing in the country right now, I suggest there should be an urgent rehabilitation those children.  

Those children should be taken away from the communities where they cultivated such dark memories, they should be shown love as the way to heal their pain, they should be taught forgiveness as the way forward and they should be rehabilitated for a better future. 

 If the government fails to do these, there will be escalation of crime rate especially among teenagers as a result of early exposure to violence. 

If the government continues to display insensitivity towards the children of this country, what has faith in store for us?

Rasheedah Musa Muhammad, Bayero University, Kano