How Prominent Nigerians Fuel Criminality—-Frank Mba

<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>How prominent citizens become lords of criminals<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that in the search for solutions to the unending crimes and banditry in Nigeria&comma; different assertions have been made and unveiled by various shades of analysts as probable reasons for the festering insurgency&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Over the years&comma; Nigeria has been under heavy attacks by the combined forces of Boko Haram&comma; Islamic State of West Africa&comma; ISWAP&comma; Kidnappers&comma; armed robbers etc&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;According to the United Nations&comma; UN&comma; Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs&comma; more than 30&comma;000 people have been killed and nearly 3 million displaced in a decade of Boko Haram&&num;8217&semi;s terror activities in Nigeria&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Boko Haram launched the bloody insurgency in 2009 in northeastern Nigeria but later spread its atrocities to neighboring Niger&comma; Chad and Cameroon&comma; prompting a multi national military response&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Besides&comma; there have been disturbing instances of school children’s kidnap&period; It began with the well-publicised abduction in 2014 of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok Secondary School by Boko Haram Islamist militants in Borno state&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Since then&comma;  more armed groups have resorted to mass abduction of students&comma; the latest being the kidnapping of nearly 300 students from the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe&comma; Zamfara state&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Before then&comma; teachers and students were abducted from a school in Kagara&comma; Niger state on 17 February&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Indeed&comma; since December 2020&comma; more than 600 students have been abducted from schools in north-west <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Nigeria<&sol;a>&comma; highlighting a worrying development in the country&&num;8217&semi;s kidnap-for-ransom crisis&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Reacting during an NTA interview&comma; Commissioner of Police&comma; Frank Mba&comma; who speaks for the Police submitted that until there is change of attitudes towards fraudulent wealth accumulation&comma; it would be difficult for the country to get rid of insurgency&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He explained that individuals with criminal backgrounds who have risen to prominence are being hero worshipped by Nigerians&comma; a development that sends wrong signals to the emerging generation that the best way to become a respected individual in the society is to be criminally inclined&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;Mba stressed further that younger ones who are involved in criminal activities are the agents of politicians who&comma; in several ways&comma; nurture their criminal tendencies for election prosecution&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He explained that for politicians who arm youths with <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">dangerous weapons<&sol;a> for the purpose of rigging elections&comma; criminal activities would have been at low rate&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;In all of this however&comma; Mba called on citizens to de emphasize rich-quick tendencies through illegitimate means&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Don’t hero worship those who attained prominence in the society with criminal records&comma;” he advised&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;He pointed out that these factors that drive criminal activities are squarely outside the control of security agents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;