Members of the public especially parents have been called upon to play active roles in surmounting the crime and criminality bedeviling the country.
This call was made on Saturday, May 8th, 2021 at the 1st Ramadan Lecture organized by the Consolidated Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Ogun State Council, held at Basic Trust Event Hall, Abeokuta the state capital.
Present at the event included the Chairman, Road Tricycle and Owner Organization (ROTO) represented by Alhaji Olanrewaju Saba; Park Management Service Limited under the leadership of Alh. Akeem Bodunrin (Iyeru) represented by Mr. Popoola; FIBAN President, Desmond Nwachukwu; PCRC Chairman, Architect Samson Popoola, among others.
The Guest Lecturer, the Ogun Police Command Public Relations Officer, Alhaji Abimbola Abdul Majeed Oyeyemi who spoke on the topic ‘Insecurity and Poverty in Nigeria, Islamic Solutions’ hinted that the issues of insecurity would only reduce the moment parents were not shying away from their responsibilities.
He also commended the transportation union for the drastic changes among their members, adding that their leadership should continue to orientate their members so that people will not be using them as instrument of distruption in the society.
Alhaji Abimbola who also warned parents said that the moment they are shying away from their responsibilities, they are building insecurity, criminal and insurgent in their homes.
His words: “The moment we resist to assist those who are less privileged, we are building crimes and criminality around us.
“If every parent can take care of their family or everybody take care of those that they are able to assist within the society, police will have little or no job to do, because there is going to be drastic reduction in crime and criminality, but the moment we are not doing or we are thinking only about ourselves we are not helping the society.
“Some people in their place of work, they are keeping vacancy for their children who are yet to finish school, some are even doctoring their age so that they will not leave government job.
“The more you are depriving young ones from securing job and the more crime we will be having in the society,” he concluded.
On his part, Chairman of the event, Alhaji Tiwalade Akingbade, Secretary of RTEAN warned journalists to be more proactive in their reportage, saying that media also have a role to play concerning to the issues of insecurity in the nation.
Akingbade said most people rely on media and they should not be the one to disseminate false information to the public.
“Nigeria has never been divided as it is now, most of this are caused by some messages we receive from journalists as the fourth estate of the realm, not necessary you go after money, when you have passion for it, definitely money will come.
“The issues of insecurity in this nation is alarming, why would a group of people invade a police station, carry all the ammunition, it’s so sad.
“I also believe poverty is among the insecurity in the nation because an idle hands is a devil workshop, the poverty is too much, people are hungry and they are angry, and the people of the fourth estate of the realm needs to do their journalism in a polite way not to cover some stories,” Akingbade noted.
In his remarks, Chairman, Consolidated Chapel, Kazeem Olowe said that the program was organised in this month of Ramadan to educate and inform Muslims and help to boost their faith in the face of security challenges and seek Islamic solutions to poverty.
The Chapel Chairman revealed that it is important as a journalist to use this Holy Month to talk about things that can bring solution to the country with Islamic perspectives.
“We want to use this Holy Month to reorientate the society and to solve some of the challenges facing us, such as kidnapping, armed robbery, banditry and the major one which is poverty.
“When we will look at this problem, there are solution and the lecture was organised to provide solutions to the highlighted challenges, he stated.