Advice for all Teenagers and Youths (A must read article for all students)

By: Oluwadamilola Awodele

“Find out who you are and be that person. That’s what your soul was put on this earth to be. Find that truth, live that truth, and everything else will come.”

— Ellen DeGeneres

Recently, there has been a rise in ritual killings and fraud in Nigeria and the most recent one that has got everybody's attention is the one perpetrated by 4 boys within the age of 17 - 20.

These four high school boys were caught by the police for butchering Sofiat Kehinde and consuming her head for cash custom which they claim that they got the rules on famous online media stage, Facebook.

The teens said they were enlivened by the rules, saying that it informed why they chose to butcher Sofiat, said to be the girlfriend of one of them.

Within the few days that this has happened, everybody has been pointing accusing fingers at other persons based on their view. Some people have said it's the fault of the parents, Some said it's the government while others have claimed the perpetrators themselves are at fault, but when thing goes wrong, it's in the nature of human to cast blames.

Children are a product of the society they live in. What we are exposed to everyday, takes part in building our lives. Yorubas have an adage that literally translates to "Four eyes give birth to a child, but 200 train the child". That is, parents are the caregiver and caretaker of a child, but the society trains the child.

Everybody is at fault, because we all make up the society, Parents rarely have time to take note of any change occuring in their children's behavior and attitude, they rarely have the time to inculcate moral lessons in their children mind, Religious institutions now take more pride in who's giving the larger offering, they rather hammer on how important it is that you pay Tithe and Zakat, than to tell you how important it is to earn that offering legally. 

Coming down to the governmental aspect, the breakdown of law and order in the country has become a norm and tradition, graduate are seen around without any jobs for them, educational systems in most public schools has deteriorated, this alone is making student loosing interest in educational sector. 

It could be recalled when elders are talking about their experiences in government-owned secondary schools back in their days, it makes me wonder if it's still the same country they are talking about because the educational sector of nowadays are now viewed as Floccinaucinihilipilification (something worthless) by some students, making them lose interest in getting Educated and having a legal Job.

We no longer pride ourselves on how intelligent we are again, but on how many designers we can afford. It's sadornic and barbaric. I'm a teenager also and the peer pressure influencing teenager nowadays are really enticing but a child with a good background will never be enticed by this because the Holy Bible says in the book of 1Timothy 6:6 "But Godliness with contentment is great gain".

One of the most influential driving force to some of these actions is the social media, When youngsters with unquestionable and illegal source of income come on social media to flaunt riches and sleek cars, these teenagers get enticed with it and would want to chill with the big guys, Everybody will wants to 'bambam' with them.

Meanwhile, the society's positive response to this wealth is what fuels most young people to go ahead with fraud, cyber crime (Yahoo), ritual killings and lot of these related crimes when they feel pressurized or oppressed by their mate.

 With the society's support, anyone who counters them or make a contradictory statement becomes a hater, and this includes their parents.

Ladies now depend on most of these guys to fuel their extravagant lifestyles. Girls, not even ladies; Children that are young enough to be in secondary school are the ones cruising in sleek cars with young boys about the same age, but when it goes wrong, they start shouting, "stay with your broke boyfriend", and the most sardonic part is that some of these girls aren't even old enough to have boyfriends at all, because most of their activities depends on Sexual Immoralities that would distract them from their career.

One painful aspect is that with when the criminal act works out successfully, some people will start hailing them because of what they want to collect from them, some parents will also use them as an example or role model for his/her children, but when it boomerangs everybody start casting blame on one another and the victim, the victim will also regret their actions and start blaming themselves for involving themselves in that kind of act

According to Soliu, one of those four boys who butchered Sofiat let newsmen know that he had lamented his activity, he also encouraging different young people who are in a rush to bring in cash rapidly to hang tight for their time.

"I have laments. Assuming that I realized it would wind up like this I would not have gotten myself engaged with the demonstration. My recommendation to the individuals who would rather not sit tight for their time is that, they ought to if it's not too much trouble, sit tight for their time," he said

You and I are as responsible for these vile actions as the perpetrators. The sooner we take responsibility and try to better the community we find ourselves, the better for all of us.