22nd September, 2011
Armed robbery is despicable and nobody in his right mind would support it. But the Nigerian state, it is sad to say, seems to be encouraging it; or put another way, the country seems to be pushing the youths, especially graduates, into the condemnable act.
If university and polytechnic graduates think the only way to survive these times is to go into armed robbery, then there is something wrong with the country.
For these young men, who ought to look to the future with hope and aspire to be great, to lose hope and turn to robbery says a lot about the country and its leaders.
In recent times, police have paraded and killed young promising men, who would have otherwise contributed to the development of the country, for dispossessing other citizens of their hard-earned property.
Moral decadence and failing family values may be the cause but we think it is much more than these. Government seems to have failed to live up to expectations of the populace and as these young people feel hopeless, they become outlaws in the mould of monsters.
Agreed, opportunities abound for creative young people to earn a living by becoming entrepreneurs but is the environment conducive for such? Do they all have equal opportunities to start something small? Is the government doing enough to encourage these young people to embark on small scale business after school? Are the banks and finance houses helping to encourage the spirit of entrepreneurship?
Before many of our graduates turn bad, we must begin to think of ways to encourage the young to become self employed. Our universities and polytechnics must begin to train our children to become independent after graduating from school. Technical schools must do more than just train these young people. They would do well to push them in the direction where they can obtain loans and start something small before idleness pushes them the way of crime.
There would always be criminals but when many graduates begin to turn to robbery when they can always do something positive, we need more than sober reflections.