Thuggery in Nigeria has grown over the years to become something we can call a national issue. From political thugs to street and bus park thugs, they have almost been adopted as something we have to live with, and in most cases worshipped by the population for protection.
Protection from who, you may ask and I will say themselves. If I am correct, a thug will only protect you from a fellow thug, and the two of them shouldn\’t have been there in the first place.
So, What Are The Causes of Thuggery In The Country?
There are many causes of thuggery in Nigeria, but I will be highlighting a few;
Godfatherism and the need to reward loyalists
This is in the case of agberos and task forces. These jobs if I\’m correct are to be done by the Police and law enforcement agencies, but then am I correct?
Why does someone have to load the buses at a park? I can\’t just walk myself to a park only for the driver to pay someone for loading me. Am I a joke to them?
There is even a book on this, Causes And Effect Of Political Thuggery In Nigeria by Umar Lawal Aliyu. I will be discussing it more in the next section.
Political Thuggery
This is a simple case of the monsters you made. Sometimes in desperation to access a position, someone might arm thugs with weapons that will not be collected back after that.
What happens? These boys with the weapons will have to begin to terrorise society and what do you do? Call them to order and reward them with the job of being task forces and national thugs on salaries.
Poverty
A lot of people are thugs also because of poverty. They don\’t have any certificates to be able to get jobs. There\’s no money to feed and pay their bills.
What can a man do? Since not everyone has the sense to understand they can become tailors or do any decent jobs, they enter the streets.
Cultism
We cannot even overlook that many thugs are cultists, or at least speak slangs we do not understand.
I have also heard cases of thugs asking people to identify the colour of cloth they are putting on and eventually lose their personal items to these people.
What does that tell you about thuggery?
Hard drugs
Many of these thugs take hard drugs to function on a daily basis and when they cannot afford them go back to the street.
Effects Of Thuggery In Nigeria
There are many negative effects of thuggery on the citizens but I will be listing a few;
Insecurities
This can be defined as the state of being open to danger or threat; lack of protection. You can\’t feel safe when the next person around you is high on some substances and screaming around.
They can rob, rape and even kill people because of the influence of substances.
Robbery
Some of these thugs are the ones who eventually rob and pick-pocket people in the various cities. Thuggery is not always lucrative and they can resort to other things to continue feeding.
Election fraud
They are used over and over again to ruin and manipulate election results. These thugs snatch ballot boxes and do everything possible to make sure the election results are to the favour of their paymasters.
How Can Thuggery Be Controlled?
There are many ways through which political thuggery can be controlled in Nigeria and some of them include;
Strict enforcement of policies
Policies can be put in place to watch the actions of these thugs everywhere. This could be in the streets, parks or anywhere else. Remember it all starts with us.
Involvement of law enforcement agencies
The police, army and other members of the force should be put in place to control their actions and put things in place.
Education and public enlightenment
One of the major causes of thuggery is illiteracy and we know many of these thugs can\’t even speak basic English. Education does a lot of good to someone and no literate person would resort to a life of violence.
Provision of jobs
There should be job opportunities put in place to help take the people off the streets. Not everyone doing something bad today is enjoying them, there are a lot who will want to live decent lives too.
The violence of any kind should be condemned because you do not know when it will reach your doorsteps. Remember the monsters we created today will be the enemies of tomorrow!