Whenever a black touches down a foreign airport and holds out a green passport, the difference in immigration treatment is not lost.
The search is more intense. The travel papers are scrutinized to eliminate any chances of crime and disease importation. Beyond the labeling, crime is no stranger to humans. It is not peculiar to race or colour. Large cities, villages, countries- regardless of geographical location and size description, have to deal with the social malaise of crime.
Some region make a success of combating crime while other places make a bad job of it. Here are a few success stories: In Cyprus, unlocked doors at night is not a strange sight. In Iceland, there are only 700 police officers and they have no license to carry guns.
The 200 prisoners in the country are allowed to visit their families periodically. Japan has only a 0.4 murder rate per 100, thousand people and more than 200 police officers are assigned to a hundredth thousand for ensuring the safety of the people. For the Dane citizen, life in Denmark is pretty much easy. Murder rate is 0.1 per 100,000 people and petty crimes are rare.
Hong Kong has reason to have a high crime rate but pleasantly surprises. The country which has the highest internet surfing speed in the world has only 0.2 homicides per 100,000 population and almost a complete absence of thefts and robberies. But the ultimate example and one which ought to be Nigeria’s final destination is Luxembourg.
The country is a stellar example of the victory against crime. Luxembourg is believed to have reached the zero mark on crime. It is not surprising that the country has been rated the happiest in the world.
Back in Nigeria, certain heinous crimes have become perennial and have refused to leave the headlines. On June 16, 2015, a large cache of abandoned home-made bombs killed 71 people at a camp where people who fled Boko Haram attacks were residing. A member of the civilian JTF had found a bag filled with metals. The bag was conveyed to nearby Monguno. A curious crowd became victim when the metals turned out to be lethal explosives.
The fight against insurgency which seemed to abate is far from over. About 98people have been reported killed in northeast Nigeria since May 30th.
The month of June, 2015 has recorded 114 deaths even as a twin bombing which took place in Yola main market claimed a larger percentage of the death toll. Because Nigeria has been dealing with heinous crimes motivated by insurgency , robbery, theft and corruption have taken a back seat as the country struggles to keep above the fray. Crime is systemic in Nigeria and it won’t change overnight. However, countries like Iceland, Denmark, Japan but particularly Luxembourg remind us that we cannot afford to give up too early.
Imagine a Nigeria where crime does not exist…Yes, close your eyes and imagine it; but at the moment keep your eyes open to the realities: Crime in Nigeria is systematic.
Across the rich, poor and middle income earners, crime packages itself uniquely and earns a huge revenue of its sales. Nigeria spends so much in punishing crime but neglects to prevent it. Think about the number of police stations, prisons and courts we have. Clearly, our country can do better with tax payers money than donate it to perpetrators of crime. At House of Justice,the organisation where I work, we have been working on a concept referred to as Crime Prevention Intelligence. We believe that crime can be reduced by not allowing it to happen.
Let’s take the police as an example, Section 12 of the Police Act states that it shall be the duty of the force to take lawful measures for preserving the public peace, preventing and detecting crimes and offences, apprehending and causing to be apprehended persons who shall have committed or shall be charged with or suspected of having committed or having abetted the commission of, or being about to commit, any crime or offence and the regulation of processions and assemblies in public places.
Section12(5-9)of the Police Act saddles the police with regulating traffic, preserving order in public places, assist in carrying out immigration and emigration revenues and the execution of subpoeanas, warrants and other processes. Other duties include the prosecution of criminal offences, the protection of unclaimed property and impounding straying animals.
Of all the duties of the police, one is the most important. It is also less expensive and more efficient-the prevention of crime. Unfortunately, it is the duty the police pays less attention to. Yet the police is not the only agency that has come short in this duty; the family, the court and the prisons are also culpable. Article 10 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights deals with the important subject of promoting and protecting the family as the cell unit from which society is produced. The law therefore recognizes that the family has the primary mandate of educating and inculcating morals in the children.
The responsibility of the family becomes even more important when the Social Disorganization Theory of crime is considered. This theory states that a person’s physical and social environment are responsible for the behavioural choices that a person makes. Hence, a family or neighbourhood that has a weak social structure is more likely to have crimes.
Put in a simpler form, slums and high density areas where the schools and education is poor, unemployment is high and poverty produce more criminally minded persons than government residential areas where life is easy and cozy. But that is just speaking generally. Social pressures can also become the push factors for children who grow in deprived environment to rise above their limitations morally, financially and otherwise. The intersection between poor societies and rich societies is that children who are raised by good families end up replicating their kind and the good news is, if every family raise good children, the whole of Nigeria will be a morally sound nation free of criminals.
The Nigerian courts are replete with cases that have no business crowding our cause list. We can decongest the case roll if counseling is introduced as a core component of the court so that menial cases and first time offenders can be counseled against vices and their cases struck off the roll. Some first time offenders become perpetual criminals not out of choice but for lack of the knowledge of other viable options.
If the family, police and court fail, the prison should save the day in our bid to hit the negative mark in criminality. One of the key mandates of the prison is to rehabilitate inmates. Presently, most Nigerian prisons are decongested and talks are going on in government circles of building more prisons “and reviewing prison conditions to ‘meet international standards. However, the culmination of meeting these international standards will not address the challenge of reducing and eventually eliminating criminality on Nigerian streets.
To clean up, our greatest preoccupation has to be how to re-orient minds to make crime naturally reprehensible to our people.
Just reading it sounds like a tall order but in reality; it is doable if we begin a massive campaign on social re-orientation for the young and upcoming generation. Across schools and workplaces, a punishment-reward system should be put in place. Those who do wrong should be punished while those who keep with the straight and narrow should be encouraged and held up as good examples.
I believe that this nation can do better than the nations we mentioned. Everyone needs to buy into this belief.If we preach and demonstrate the message of morality as strenuously as religion is taught in mosques and churches,there is no telling how safe and sane this country would look like in the near future.
