The viral video of trainees in Mushin, Lagos, displaying axes, cutlasses, and other hazardous weapons is not just disturbing– it is a damning indictment of a system that is steadily losing its grip on discipline, morality, and accountability.
In the video, these trainees– allegedly marking the end of their secondary school journey– honestly displayed signs and behaviour associated with cultism. What should have been an event of academic transition instead descended into a brazen exhibition of violence and moral insolvency.
Let us be clear: this is not youthful enthusiasm. It is a harmful normalization of criminal culture.
This stunning display screen exposes the worrying depth of ethical decay among students. If teens at the secondary school level can so with confidence flaunt weapons and cultist affiliations within school premises, then something is essentially broken. Schools are no longer functioning as centres of character formation; sometimes, they are fast ending up being breeding premises for deviance.
And Mushin is not an isolated case.
Across several public schools in Lagos, especially in densely populated communities, indiscipline has actually settled with careless desert. Students misbehave without worry, without restraint, and– most troublingly– without effects.
So, where were the school authorities? Where were the instructors? Where was security?
The large audacity on screen because video points to more than negligence– it recommends a collapse of oversight. One can not overlook the uneasy possibility that some within the system might be complicit, either through silence, indifference, or outright support.
Are these the leaders we are getting ready for tomorrow?
At a time when Nigeria is already battling a crippling wave of insecurity, permitting this culture to fester within our schools is absolutely nothing short of careless. These are not simply misdirected youth; they are potential recruits for criminal networks if urgent action is not taken.
Enough of the lip service.
The federal government, education authorities and school administrators need to move beyond rhetoric and take decisive, noticeable action. Schools must be secured– not symbolically, however efficiently. Skilled and experienced security personnel ought to be released with a clear mandate to keep track of, prevent, and report any form of deviant behaviour.
More significantly, the ethical vacuum in public schools should be attended to right away. Counselling and mentorship programmes, which are standard in numerous independent schools, are virtually non-existent in government institutions. This is undesirable. Routine, structured sensitization programmes need to be made compulsory to confront cultism, violence and other vices head-on.
There need to likewise be consequences.
The trainees captured in the viral video should be identified and decisively disciplined. Anything less will send out a harmful message– that such behaviour can be displayed without effects.
This is not just about Mushin. This has to do with the future of our society.
If we stop working to act now, we are not just tolerating indiscipline– we are supporting the next generation of crooks.