LAST week, in a bizarre incident that most Nigerians must have found extremely shocking, the Kwara State police command arrested nine persons of secondary school age for holding a marijuana festival in Ilorin, the state capital. Completely indifferent to the moral, legal or social implications of their plan, the suspects had reportedly circulated posters informing members of the public about the event, and rebuffed calls by prominent citizens and organisations to call off the event. Police sources at the Adewole Divisional Police Station in Ilorin, who confirmed the development, said that the culprits were rounded up in the Asa Dam area of Ilorin. Happily, the state police command promised to intensify efforts to ensure crime prevention and create a peaceful atmosphere in the state.It will be recalled that some secondary school students were recently arrested for committing open-air rape in Lagos State. The implication of the sad episodes in Lagos and Ilorin is that things have simply fallen apart in the country and the centre cannot hold. It is saddening that secondary school students have become drug addicts, but it is even more distressing that they are openly and unabashedly flaunting their addiction, underscoring their marijuana evangelism and luring other youths into their criminal fold. Time was when secondary school students were noted for their literary and debating societies, their sports and science clubs, and their press clubs. Time was when the nation’s secondary schools nurtured brilliant, committed and patriotic students who were already budding intellectuals in their own rights. Today, bereft of funding and other appurtenances of learning, they are no better than concentration camps. They mirror the larger Nigerian society with superb dexterity.With respect to the Ilorin episode, we find it unbelievable that criminally-minded youths who openly advertised their plan to commit crime actually found the space to carry out their plans, even if they were eventually apprehended. The implication is that, rather too early in their lives, these youths have learnt that it is possible to commit any kind of crime that catches your fancy provided that you are smart and well-connected. Just how can such youths be regarded as the nation’s future leaders? But they might well be unless proactive measures are taken to arrest the situation. That is why every effort must be made to return the nation’s youths, nay the nation itself, to the path of honour.In any case, could there be a more troubling, even vicious sign of impunity than the apparent ubiquity of hemp dealers and smokers, including within the vicinity of the law-enforcement agencies? Drug addicts do not dare law-enforcement agencies in such a brazen manner if they are aware that they will be arrested, prosecuted and jailed for their crime. Sadly, more often than not, operators of marijuana joints are no sooner arrested by the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies than they are released upon the payment of an agreed bribe. Often, raids by the agencies are allegedly no more than revenue collection moves. That is partly why the battle against the trade in illicit drugs in the country has not been won.Besides, the level of moral decadence and perversion among the nation’s youths is too high to be shocking anymore. In popular culture, including the ubiquitous home videos, music and the media, the triumph of the banal and ephemeral is a daily reminder of the abyss into which the nation has sunk. Popular culture consistently reflects the predilections of the perverted section of the Western world, and the time-honoured values of the African continent continue to be relegated to the background. And when the degeneration in family values is factored into the equation, the desolation and emptiness of the contemporary Nigerian life is presented in stark hues. The foregoing should therefore advertise the need for more proactive actions by the authorities, particularly the agencies saddled with vetting movies and music. In this connection, it would not be out of place for governments at all levels to fund literature that appeals to family values while, of course, not neglecting to provide the dividends of democracy.Drug addiction is incompatible with national development anywhere in the world. If the Nigerian state cannot prevent every person who wishes to experiment with banned and dangerous drugs from doing so, it should at least always send a clear message that anyone caught indulging in such pleasures would be made to face the full wrath of the law.
