You see,
In the last few days, I have been so bothered, worried, concerned and disheartened by the level of restlessness, violence, crime, chaos and troubles perpetrated by young people all over the country.
Worthy of mention are the cases of gangsters crises in Ibadan and the rising cases of armed robbery in Lagos.
I saw the some of the pictures of the arrested armed Robbers in Lagos and it’s worrisome. I saw small boys that should be in their late teens, early twenties, mid twenties and late twenties and I asked myself what is happening to us.
In Ibadan today, there are Network Boys, Kuwait Boys, One Million Boys and so many other notorious violent groups like that and as much as I understand that it is a function of dysfunctional society, I also understand that there are fundamental errors from the part of the government.
See,
A boy that was 10 years old in 2011 when Ajimobi became the Governor has grown to be 18 years when Ajimobi stepped down as the governor of the state. In all of these 8 years, there was always the agency for Youth development, The commissioner for youths and sport and sometimes, the SA Youths development.
I really wish I could see the commissioners of Youths affairs in Lagos and Oyo State during the past administrations and asked me pertinent and salient questions. Especially that of Oyo state.
1. What was the sustainable youth policy of the Ajimobi and Ambode administrations ?
2. In what ways did their government engage the minds and time of the youths and teenagers?
3. How effective and running are their vocational and entrepreneurship centres if they have?
4. What were they doing when Badoo, One million boys, Network boys, Kuwait boys and other notorious were formed?
5. Apart from money expended on Sports, what else did they do with the annual budget of the ministry of Youths in their states?
So many questions running through my mind.
If Ajimobi and Ambode led administration had done well in youth and teenagers management, maybe, we will not be having these kind of disheartening news.
This is also a charge to the people in charge of Lagos and Oyo states youths affairs arm to rise up to the challenge and ensure that we do it in a better way.
I strongly believe that with a viable youth engagement system, these violence will reduce and we will have a more peaceful society
Good evening Facebook.
Ogunsina Oluwaseun Michael writes from Ibadan