L
ast week, officials of the
Lagos State Task Force
intercepted a lorry
conveying over 123
people and about 40
motorcycles to Lagos.
The young men who claimed to hail
from Jigawa state, said they were on
their way to the Centre of Excel-
lence in search of greener pastures.
Parading the suspects in front of
newsmen, the State Commissioner
of Police, Mr Zubairu Muazu said
the suspects were moved to the State
Police Command where they were
profiled and later set free when,
according to the authorities, nothing
incriminating was established
against them.
Some have raised eyebrows over
the action of the police, saying they
had not acted in good faith and in
conformity with the laws of the land
which guarantees freedom of move-
ment and association to all citizens
of the country and permitting them
to live and work in any part of the
country they so wish. They argued
that showcasing the men before the
public even before their profiling
was an attempt to portray a part of
the country as breeding criminals
and social misfits. This could be
an attempt to trivialize the bigger
picture.
At this time when insecurity across
the country has risen to an alarm-
ing proportion, the onus lies on the
police authorities to be vigilant at all
times and ensure that the people are
law abiding. With such in mind, the
action of the Lagos State Task Force
should be commendable. Indeed,
the mass movement of the young
men, 123 in number raises much
worrisome issues that should not
be swept under the carpet. It should
be a source of worry to our leaders
that a large chunk of our youthful
population is wasting away at a time
when other nations are positioning
their youths for greatness. Let us
examine this scenario.
It is a known fact that several of
such youngmen now staying in La-
gos have no known places of abode
or fix addresses. Rather, they live
in communal groups, defecating in
open spaces and making little or no
revenue returns to the government;
they further add to the human and
infrastructural congestion the state
is noted for. Secondly, many end up
doing odd jobs as shoe repairers or
working as emergency okada riders
to supposedly aide transportation
in the state, and as is evident in the
large number of motorcycles the
men in question were seen with.
Of course no one in Lagos would
claim ignorance of the great danger
some of the okada riders portend
for their passengers in terms of
body injuries. It is also a known fact
that a good number of criminals in
the state make use of motorcycles
while attacking their victims for easy
escape. Further still, some of these
unskilled youths working as security
men at homes and offices of private
individuals, end up causing great
havoc on their benefactors.
The profiling of the 123 youths
from Jigawa state is a sort of meta-
phor for the sorry state of our young
men who are left at the mercy of the
elements because the society has
failed to factor them into its plans.
Stripped of their dignity and left
with no means of livelihood, they
leave their homestead to the city in
search of better living condition,
only to find out that they can hardly
fit into the fast-paced, informa-
tion-driven and dynamic modern
society like Lagos where only the
elite live large. Left with no option,
many of them eventually take to
crimes like armed robbery and
kidnapping.
The issue of insecurity in the
country would remain unabated as
long as the future of our youths are
not factored into our policy formu-
lations and implementations.
