The Commissioner of Police in charge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), CP Adewale Ajao, has attributed the worsening security challenges in Nigeria to a decline in cultural values.
Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting with the theme: “You Against Crime” held weekend in Abuja, Ajao lamented that many Nigerians, especially the youth, have abandoned cultural practices handed down by their forebears.
He noted that respect for culture once played a significant role in preventing crime, adding there is need for society to reconnect with its “roots” as a way to curb insecurity.
“When did we become our brothers’ killer? It is not our culture. When we were growing, it was a crime to stay close to where people were smoking, let alone smoking ourselves.
“That was even cigarettes then, now, our youth smoke Indian hemp and we celebrate it on social media.
“In those days, when you were passing on the farm route, you would see tubers of yam kept by the roadside and you would see like two or three stones beside the tubers of yam.
“When our mothers pick, they put money there and when you are returning, the owner of the yam must have picked the money. Now, people are even out to rob banks these days, how did we get here,” the police boss queried.
Speaking further he described as strange actions of contemporary youth, insisting: “We need to go back to our roots. The society today is suffering from youth bulge. If we don’t take care of these youths, we have destroyed the future.
“Security agencies cannot do it alone; let’s take the battle back to the community. When we get it right there, we will get it right everywhere. Culture surely is a cure to crime and criminality,” h6e stated.
In her keynote address, Mandate Secretary, Women Affairs Secretariat Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Pastor Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, said when women are disempowered, when young people are alienated, when families are broken the cycle of crime finds fertile ground.