Kidnapping by teenagers: Doomed future unless…

We were not longer what we were! Every right thinking mind must have felt very sad by the wide spread news on the media over the arrest of three teenagers by Kano state Police Command who were suspected to be kidnappers. All the three suspects are below 20 years old. What a tragedy! A 19-year-old […]

We were not longer what we were! Every right thinking mind must have felt very sad by the wide spread news on the media over the arrest of three teenagers by Kano state Police Command who were suspected to be kidnappers. All the three suspects are below 20 years old. What a tragedy!

A 19-year-old Ibrahim Ahmad who happened to be an uncle to Ahmad Ado, popularly known as Sayyid a five -year old primary school pupil, aided in the abduction and subsequent murder of his nephew. He was paraded alongside Abdulmajid Muhammad and Musa Sanusi who are both 18-year-olds. The three of them are the prime suspects in the said crime. Before the murder of their abductor they had demanded for a ransom of N20million which was later reduced to N100,000. Imagine!

In my observation, many suspects that were arrested on several occasions for various kidnapping allegations in the country in the recent times are youth whose average ages are mostly below 30 years. Only few of their gang leaders are above 30 years. Where did we get it wrong?

We are really in trouble if majority of our youth who are supposed to be the future of our society resort to crimes. This really calls for a serious soul searching. Our country is really sitting on a time bomb. Our future is doomed unless something serious is done. We must act now!

What is the problem? Is it the issue of high rate of unemployment or poverty or lust for money or community or religious failure or family break-down and or all of the above? We must continue to dialogue, debate and or discuss until we find answers to the said questions.

The government needs to pay genuine attention on our youth. There should be a deliberate policy by governments at all levels in the areas of youth education and empowerment. The government should and or must engage our youth through free and compulsory education, skills acquisition, and vocational training etc., in order to safeguard our future. As the saying goes, an idle mind is a devils workshop.

The government should and or must pursue deliberate policies on jobs creation through entrepreneurship, industrialization, private sector investments in order to address the issues of poverty and unemployment in the country .

Our religious institutions as well as the community as a whole must wake up. They have a great role to play on children’s socializations. There is lust for money in our society. Something serious must be done about this if we must get it right. Nobody questions the sources of one’s income anymore. Everyone wants to get rich quick because the society doesn’t care anymore about it sources. This is against our religious and societal values!

Parenting or socialization is a responsibility of all. The family, school, religious organization, community, mass media, civil society, pressure group and the government. Let everybody takes his responsibility very serious.

Nurudeeen Dauda ([email protected])