SOS for Rising Youth Criminality 

Lagos, Nigeria’s economic nerve centre is under siege, as teeming communities in Agege, Oshodi, Somolu, Sogunle, Surulere, Jibowu, and Ikorodu have become havens for gang-related crime.

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It has been a toxic mix of cultism, gangsterism, and thuggery that signals deepening societal dysfunction. Urgent and coordinated action is needed to halt this dangerous drift.

A recent report of the arrest and public parade of 23 teenagers (aged 14-16) for daylight assaults, shop thefts, and harassment in Mushin’s Ishaga, Awolowo, and Ojuwoye markets starkly illustrates the gravity of the crisis.

The Lagos Police Command, acting on public complaints, raided targeted criminal hideouts, where officers apprehended the suspects and seized several small arms and light weapons from them.

While the arrests address immediate threats, the case highlights the absence of robust grassroots policing, poor intelligence gathering for pre-emptive action, and a deeper crisis of young persons turning to organised crime in the face of grinding poverty, poor education, high unemployment, drug use, and moral collapse. It is the grim consequence of Nigeria’s systemic failure in youth development.

However, critical questions arise: How long have security agencies and communities turned a blind eye to these youths’ activities? Were there prior complaints that went unaddressed? How did small arms and light weapons slip past security agencies despite significant investments in intelligence and enforcement?

The government must enforce strict measures against illegal arms through coordinated efforts between security and border agencies, ensuring that anyone caught with illegal arms faces the full weight of the law. Security agencies must be proactive, preventing criminality from festering into organised crime.

Tragically, these 23 boys are both perpetrators and victims, products of failed governance that provides neither education nor employment.

According to the NBS, 20.1 million children are out of school. UNICEF’s 2023 report states that 43 per cent of students who enrol in junior secondary school fail to complete senior secondary school.

The Lagos Ministry of Education reports that 28 per cent of secondary school enrollees do not finish, with dropout rates as high as 41 per cent in Mushin and Ikorodu. Police data from 2023 shows that 68 per cent of Lagos “area boys” are secondary school dropouts.

The situation is aggravated by youth unemployment. The 2024 NBS report states that 53.4 per cent of citizens aged 15-24 are unemployed, while 37.2 per cent aged 25-34 are unemployed and underemployed.

Although youth unemployment is among the lowest at 45.7 per cent in Lagos, rural to urban migration contributes to above 60 per cent underemployment in urban areas.

Poverty leaves youths vulnerable to exploitation by politicians, terrorists, and religious fanatics, as seen in the almajiri phenomenon.

The 2023 NBS report finds that 63 per cent of Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty, while Lagos’ slums rank the city among the world’s worst places to live, according to The Economist Intelligence Unit.

Unfortunately, politicians in Lagos since the Fourth Republic have relaxed the zero-tolerance crime policy of former military governor Buba Marwa, instead incentivising thuggery.

This is exacerbated by a “get-rich-quick” mentality that has eroded the Nigerian work ethic. The once-thriving apprenticeship system in the South-East is collapsing, as many youths now pursue cybercrime, kidnapping, and ritual killings rather than honest labour.

So, the National Orientation Agency must work with NGOs and the media to promote behavioural change, instilling values of diligence and integrity in the youth.

Governors should prioritise strategic and vocational skills development, incentivise SMEs, and make agriculture attractive to young people through access to mechanised farming, land, credit, and extension services.

Without urgent intervention, the growing army of jobless youths will continue to fuel crime and social instability, threatening the very fabric of society.