Drug abuse and thuggery, under whatever guise, are twin evils which menace was known to have taken a disastrous toll wherever they were allowed to go unchecked, with notable drug barons having a field day illicitly importing the detested commodity into the country’s shores at the expense of the most vulnerable youth who often become victims of the dastardly business.
He who got drunk or intoxicated, via the consumption of hard drugs, can go to any length to perpetrate all forms evil ranging from killing or maiming whoever he come across in the course of perpetrating his nefarious act and that one always lose his mental calculus at the time drug beclouds his sense of judgement.
In many countries across the globe, there are dismal instances when some drug addicts got intoxicated to the extent that they wantonly open fire in schools and kindergarten where innocent children are attending classes or in a restaurant, unmindful of the repercussions of their despicable acts, in as much as they feel to kill innocent people with sheer levity.
In Nigeria, for example, drug addiction among the youth has become a recurring decimal with almost no end in sight despite the persistent spate of public enlightenment via radio jingles, seminars and workshops all in a bid to keep their minds away from the menace that was known to have taken a catastrophic toll on their future, but all to no avail.
It is an indisputable fact that high profile drug barons who were believed to have become billionaires in a jiffy, most of the time escape the long arm of the law in a situation they were able to strike a deal with some heartless security operatives who could never discern the danger of striking such a shady deals.
With the present political dispensation in the country taking shape and the much awaited 2023 general elections around the corner, there is the looming danger of political thuggery, with the deep-seated fear that some irresponsible politicians would out of their seeming parochial interest love to seduce youth with peanuts in order to perpetrate mayhem before, during and after the elections with no justifiable premise.
What is however most worrisome is the fact that despite the usual peace accords brokered by various security agencies, non governmental organisations or civil societies, is the manner dangerous weapons like swords, knives, sticks and machetes are being displayed in the convoy of politicians on campaign tours, without regard for the so-called peace accords signed for sanity to prevail.
What is also most disturbing is the fact that the youth being used by such politicians are children of the common man, whose future cannot be safeguarded by those pushing them into such a cul de sac, and craftily forgetting to realise the folly of engaging in such a destructive mission that gives them a bad name.
They have also failed to take into cognisance the fact that those who are luring them into such a despicable act, only care about the future of their children, using their plum positions of political authority to accumulate stupendous wealth for their children, only their children I dare to repeat, in first class universities around the globe, leaving the most gullible sons of the common men to wallow in ramshackled public schools.
They unashamedly enroll their children in Cambridge, Oxford, Sussex Cardiff and others, or have them enrolled in Princeton, Harvard Standford, Caltech or MIT regardless of the respective promises they have made in the course of their political campaigns.
What is most intriguing is the cavalier manner the youth engaging in drug abuse and political thuggery fail to heed the voice of reason by agreeing to put a stop to such a dubious practice and that the peanuts they are receiving cannot in anyway bail them out from the bondage of hunger, poverty and miserable life.
It is a point of fact that some of our major streets are littered with scores of mad men and women, who sleep in gutters by the roadside and dismally fall easy prey to those who have crude appetite for mad women.
It is the menace of dug abuse that often lead to giving birth to unwanted children as a result of commercial sex by their mothers who engage in prostitution and drug taking to satisfy their flair for getting high, without taking into cognisance the fact that they are doing a great disservice to themselves.
However, with the huge population of youth in Kano under extensive spotlight, there is a palpable aura of apprehension in the minds of most peace-loving citizens of the state that the menace of wanton banditry and thuggery may rear its ugly head, especially during and after the elections, knowing that the most bellicose losers may not accept to regard their loss as divine.
But if the most vulnerable youth refuse to be cajoled into accepting to receive negligible slush fund to perpetrate any illicit act, those supporting such evil acts may not be able to actualise their dream via the use of crude tactics that could spell doom for the peace we are desperately yearning for.
It is high time for those seeking respective political offices to embrace the concept of decorum and have the ability to think out of the box during elections.
It is also high time for the most vulnerable youth to chart a positive course for themselves, in order to be responsible citizens, since there is no way the people they support to murder sleep can think of them under whatever guise.
Kalla writes from Kano.
