When last did we truly walk through our neighbourhoods in Kano, Kaduna, Zaria or Katsina and engage directly with the youths who live there? Not from car windows or political podiums, but at street level, where reality is often uncomfortable and impossible to ignore.
Some time ago, during visits to Ungoggo and Dan Agundi in Kano, I witnessed scenes that were both disturbing and revealing. What stood out clearly was a visible moral decline: open drug abuse, phone snatchers operating with tricycles, petty criminals moving freely, and many sad-looking youths roaming the streets with no clearly defined future.
In Kofan Na’isa, groups of young men between the ages of 15 and 25, armed with crude weapons, attacked one another in broad daylight while chanting violent and abusive slogans. It was a clear case of fadan daba. In the Dorayi area, a woman lay bleeding after being stabbed by an assailant who escaped with her mobile phone. Similar incidents occur repeatedly, almost on a daily basis, in Janbulo, an area where I lived for several years. These events are not isolated; they are becoming alarmingly familiar across many parts of Northern Nigeria.
Anyone who has witnessed political campaigns in Kano will recognise the pattern. Thugs and masu kwace waya (phone snatchers) position themselves at the front and back of rallies, forcefully collecting phones and threatening victims with knives. In the middle, politicians wave confidently, fully aware of what is unfolding around them. One is compelled to ask: is this the future we are silently accepting?
Across Northern Nigeria, a quiet but dangerous collapse of character is underway. From Ungoggo, Dan Agundi, Dorayi Babba and Tudun Wada in Kano, to Rigasa, Kawo, Kabala and Narayi in Kaduna, extending through Zaria and Katsina, residents are confronted with the same grim reality. What we are witnessing is not merely poverty or unemployment, but a deep erosion of manners, discipline and moral direction among youths aged roughly between 15 and 30.
The symptoms have become routine. A young man walking home is attacked and robbed. At night, idle groups gather, drugs circulate freely, and violent clashes erupt, turning once peaceful communities into spaces of fear. Parents rush their children indoors, shops close early, and insecurity becomes normalised.
Equally troubling is the language that now dominates the streets. Vulgar insults have replaced respectful speech. Many youths struggle to communicate without degrading others or insulting their mothers (for example, “Dan mai… uwarka” and similar expressions). This behaviour has also extended to social media platforms such as Facebook and TikTok, where conversations are often dominated by nothing but abusive, insulting and vulgar language.One is forced to ask: when did indecency become confidence, and abuse become identity?
Government failures are often blamed, and not without reason, but the truth is broader and more uncomfortable. The crisis begins at home. Family structures have weakened, and the responsibility of parenthood has been abandoned by too many. Some men produce children without the means or commitment to raise them, marrying multiple wives while barely able to provide. These children grow up without guidance, discipline or care, leaving the streets to shape their values.
Politics has further worsened the situation. During elections, politicians deliberately recruit vulnerable young men as thugs, youths with limited education, fragile reasoning and no clear future. They are used, discarded and abandoned once elections are over, their anger and frustration redirected into crime, drug abuse and violence within society.
Conversations with many of these youths raise deeply troubling questions. If they marry tomorrow, what kind of homes will they build? What values will they pass on? What sort of society will emerge from families already broken before they even begin?
The response must be holistic. Elders must reclaim their roles as moral guides. Community discipline, mentorship and counselling must return. From an Islamic perspective, renewed emphasis must be placed on responsible fatherhood, moderation, fear of Allah, justice and good character (akhlaq). Islam does not promote neglect; it demands accountability.
From the Christian moral standpoint, values such as love, honesty, self-control, discipline and responsibility must be lived, not merely preached. Children must grow up seeing these principles practised daily within their homes and communities.
Government still has a crucial role to play through education, employment, rehabilitation programmes and fair policing. However, families must rebuild their foundations, and society must stop celebrating thuggery and vulgarity. Phone snatching is not hustle. Fadan daba is not bravery. Insults are not strength.
A society that consistently produces youths without knowledge, manners or moral direction is quietly preparing its own collapse. Youths carry the future of any region. Without discipline, education and ethical values, insecurity deepens, leadership deteriorates and development stagnates.
Northern Nigeria has a proud heritage of dignity, discipline and communal responsibility. Restoring these values is no longer optional. If the character of today’s youths is not urgently rescued, the future of the region itself is at serious risk.
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