FCT CP blames insecurity on erosion of cultural Values

 

 

FCT CP blames insecurity on erosion of cultural values

 

The Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Adewale Ajao, has linked the rising wave of insecurity in the country to a steady decline in cultural values and practices.

 

Speaking at a stakeholders’ meeting themed “You Against Crime” held in Abuja at the weekend, Ajao lamented that many young Nigerians have abandoned the communal ethics and traditions that once guided society.

 

According to him, culture served as a natural check against crime in the past, stressing that a return to indigenous values could help stem insecurity.

 

He said:

 

“When did we become our brothers’ killer? It is not our culture. Growing up, it was even a crime to be seen near where people were smoking, let alone doing it yourself. That was with cigarettes; now our youths smoke Indian hemp and flaunt it on social media.

 

 

 

“In those days, when you were passing a farm route, you would find tubers of yam left by the roadside with stones placed beside them. If you picked one, you left money there. On returning, the farmer would have collected the money. Today, people boldly rob banks. How did we get here?”

 

 

 

The FCT police chief expressed concern that the current social order encourages youth delinquency, warning that unless communities take ownership of crime prevention, the situation will worsen.

 

“The society is suffering from youth bulge. If we don’t take care of these youths, we have destroyed the future. Security agencies cannot do it alone. Let’s take the battle back to the community. Culture is a cure to crime and criminality,” he added.

 

 

 

He also urged young people to resist violence regardless of the circumstances, saying peace and discipline remain the surest path to a better future.

 

In her keynote address, Mandate Secretary of the Women Affairs Secretariat, Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, emphasized that broken families, alienated youths, and disempowered women create fertile ground for crime.

 

She said preventive and rehabilitative strategies that reflect cultural realities would deliver lasting security.

 

“It is culture that humanises policy, it is culture that sustains security, and it is culture that can turn our diversity into a collective weapon against societal decay,” she said.