Expediency Of Creating A Violence-Free Environment For Nigerian Children
If there is any psychological postulation that will make anyone to be afraid about the future of children in Nigeria amidst the rising rates of crime and killing across the length and breadth of the country, it is unarguably the one posited by Diane Gordon, a former kindergarten teacher. Gordon threw insight to how vulnerable children easily emulate what they see within the environment in which they live when she said, “Children are born ready to learn. During the pre-school years a child’s brain is twice as active as an adult’s, with trillions of corrections between brain cells being made. And it is the child’s relationships and experiences during the early years that greatly influence how the brain develops.”
Not only has Gordon left her postulation for the present generation and generations to learn from, there is no denying the fact that her conjecture has being replicated in various psychology textbooks and research papers. Similar findings in psychology say “Babies begin to take in sensory experiences from the world around them from the moment of birth, and the environment will continue to exert a powerful influence on behavior throughout life.”
Also, psychology as a discipline says “Genetic can have a powerful influence on development, but experiences are equally important.” “For example, while the genetic code contains the information on how a child’s brain may be pre-wired, it is learning and experience that will literarily shape how that child’s brain grows and develops.”
Going by a report by SBM Intelligence, early this year, killings in Nigeria report for Q4 2021 (October to December 2021), has it that 2,085 persons were reportedly killed in Nigeria in the fourth quarter of 2021 in violent incidents, including attacks from Boko Haram, militia herdsmen, abductions, gang clashes and terrorists, raising the tally of deaths to 10,366 in 2021.
Against the backdrop of the foregoing psychological findings, it is expedient to ask, “What experiences are our children, who are invariably our future leaders, gaining from an environment that is characterized by rising rate of violence and killings?”
Believe it or not, the unprecedented increase in the rate of crime and killing which our children are witnessing or reading about, particularly as they are internet savvy may make them to lose their collective sense of value for human lives. It may not be wrong to say that they would to some extent be negatively influenced given the psychological impacts of crime perpetrated on daily basis across the country. After all, according to Psychologists, children’s experience with violence has been linked to a variety of negative outcomes.
In fact, one may not be wrong to say that the unprecedented spiraling rate of crime and killings across the country, if not nipped in the bud, is bound to leave devastating consequences on the nation’s security architecture in the near future as vulnerable children are seeing such killings as part of life, or erroneously as an ingredient of African Value System.
You may have thoughtfully asked, “What are our future leaders, who are invariably the youths of today learning or experiencing from these killings across the country?” It is not an exaggeration to say that our leaders of tomorrow, who are mostly youths and children, are learning nothing from the rising rate of crime and killings other than some exploitable ones among them been brainwashed by making them to naively believe that crime pays.
No doubt, the leaders of tomorrow are supposed to be under the vicarious mentorship of the older generation. Regrettably, as it is today, most people in the older generation, or rather the elderlies that can be found in most communities today are not collectively exhibiting enviable lifestyle for the youths to emulate. It therefore stands to reason that if the youths and children of today emulate some criminal-minded elders that our nation would in the future be subjected to another era of rising spate of insecurity. Only God knows how long it would take the prevailing rising rate of crime and killing to recede, not to talk of experiencing another groundswell of crime and killing that are been speculated in this context to be worsened. The question once again is, “What experiences are our future leaders gaining from the ongoing escalating rate of crime and killing?” Without any sense of equivocation, they are gaining nothing, particularly as enviable examples are not being set by older generation of Nigerians for the youths to emulate.
Given the vulnerability of children, particularly in an environment that is awash with gruesome perpetration of crime of all manners and incessant killings by each passing day, the reason why the governor of Anambra State, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo in his speech on the Nation’s Children Day celebrated on Friday assured the people of his determination to embark on the promotion of the rights and privileges of children cannot be farfetched.
The governor’s call which aptly aligned with the theme of this year’s event which is “Strengthening Supportive System for the Protection of the Nigerian Child: A Wake Up Call” when heeded to, will no doubt ensure that children are adequately protected through the establishment of a crime-free environment, while President Muhammadu Buhari in his own message to commemorate the day called for the removal of children from the streets and enroll them in schools, and also called for an end to harmful social norms and practices against children, stressing the need to put a framework in place to ensure children get justice both as victims and as offenders. Similarly, he wants an improved birth registration which is critical for national planning and governance functions as well as serves as a foundation for achieving progress in child protection and the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals.
Sandra Ijeoma Okoye (Author)