BY AMAYINDI YAKUBU
What comes to your mind when you hear and watch personalities like Albert Einstein, Barack Obama, Denzel Washington, Tony Elumelu, Aliko Dangote, and our phenomenal Chess Master and Guinness world record holder the Tunde Onokoya?
The stories of these men are beyond the shining and glittering properties that they have been acquired. When we look intently at their lives, especially at their boyish years, despite the odds that were against some of them by virtue of being born in disadvantaged backgrounds, they chose to defy the norms to become a beacon of inspiration to millions of boys globally.
As the world, yesterday, commemorated the International Day of the Boy Child under the theme “Building Self-Esteem in Boys: Stand Up, Be Heard, Be Seen,” it is expedient to recognise a vital truth: the men we celebrate today as change makers, innovators, policymakers, philanthropists, business leaders, and even those society often writes off as failures, were once boys.
What we need to pay much attention to is not necessarily the outcomes of their lives, but most importantly, the choices they all made at various points in their lives, which eventually shape the beauty that is now radiant in them.
Data retrieved from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in a 2021 report highlights an alarming trend that demands attention. As of 2019, there were an estimated 10.9 million male prisoners and approximately 0.8 million female prisoners globally.
There is a defining point in the lives of these millions of men now locked behind prison walls across the world, a season when they were once boys. Significantly, the fact that many of them abandoned their life’s purpose and engaged in deviant behaviour points to a pattern of poor choices made during their teenage years.
While these once-upon-a-time kids, now men in prison, made their choices by the content of their character, the kind of homes, societies, organisations, and the government that govern their affairs at their teenage stage might have been the reason of their predicaments.
Understanding the unique challenges and frustrations that boys find themselves tangled in, a university professor, Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, pioneered the first call for the celebration of Boy Child on May 16th.
Addressing government leaders and non-governmental organisations through a letter, Teelucksingh said, “On the media, there are regular incidents in which young, misguided boys and teenagers are involved in crime and violence.
“If a boy child is neglected or fed a diet of hate and violence it is obvious he will develop into a teenager who is misguided and confused. There is an urgent need to focus on the home and school in order to save the boy child.”
Speaking about the significance of having a positive mark in the lives of young children in their early age, there is an African proverb used by Nigerian parents that says, “You cannot bend a dried fish,” symbolically referring to the failure of parents in failing to guide and correct their children while they are still very young which when the grow up all efforts to lead them right might be futile.
Let’s X-ray the perspectives and insights shared by Nigerians on the boy child, his challenges in the face of the popular yahoo that ravages the Nigerian society, drugs, and lack of interest in education.
The Chief Programme Director at Male and Human Foundation, Jos Plateau state, Joseph B. Gatis, aired his thoughts on the challenges that the Nigerian Boy Child faces in rapidly decaying society.
According to Gatis, the situation is dire. “Yahoo, as it is popularly known, or internet fraud, is a cancer that is eating up our society and especially our boy children. Lately, we’ve found that a large percentage of those indulging in these practices are boys. It’s pathetic. Even worse, many of them are teenage boys, minors who haven’t even matured yet.”
The problem, he said, stems from a cocktail of bad influences and systemic failures. “I think the first issue is impatience. These young boys are extremely impatient. They’ve been sold a false picture of success, especially through visual media. What they aspire to is an illusion, a distorted version of success that is totally and absolutely wrong.”
For Gatis, the moral compass that once guided young men has been all but obliterated. “They haven’t been trained properly to understand the dignity of labour or the value of earning a living through honest means. Instead, you now find boys doing whatever they feel like, without pausing to consider the consequences. It’s very terrible.”
The consequence, he said, is evident in the rising number of boys dropping out of school or completely disengaged from education. “Most of them have shifted focus from responsibility. Rather than working honourably to earn a living, they look for shortcuts, which almost always lead them down the path of fraud.”
It’s a slippery slope, and Gatis believes urgent intervention is necessary. “There’s a need for stakeholders, parents, guardians, agencies, and community leaders, to rise to the occasion. We must redefine success for our boys. The institutions responsible for training and grooming them need to step up. We need massive campaigns, widespread advocacy, and robust training for these lads.”
He notes that one of the biggest problems is that these boys feel invisible. “They feel unheard, unseen. So, they look for their worth and validation elsewhere, often in the wrong places. That’s how they get sucked into destructive lifestyles.”
Education, in his view, must go beyond classrooms. “The boy child needs proper economic education. They need to be taught how to manage finances, learn hard work, acquire skills, and understand why they must return to school to become responsible members of society.”
He is particularly concerned about the high prevalence of drug use among boys. “Campaigns against drug abuse need to be more aggressive. The boy child engages in substance abuse more than his female counterpart. Advocacy must intensify. Education, health awareness, entrepreneurship, and the moral guidance of religious institutions are all critical in tackling this menace.”
At the root of all this, he argues, is the worsening economic hardship. “The economic adversity in Nigeria, the rising cost of living and pressure on families is probably the major driver of this crisis. Many boys are simply trying to survive or meet responsibilities expected of them as males. But instead of handling those roles responsibly, they opt for immoral and ill-mannered paths.”
In an exclusive chat with The Pointer, An Economics teacher at Erhavwen Secondary School, Ughelli North, Pastor Mrs Ojakovo Eseoghene said, “One of the major problems boys face is the lack of parental involvement in their educational pursuits. Most parents are not interested in their wards’ education. They neither provide study materials nor pay the necessary levies.
“This neglect affects the boys, as many are drawn away from school. Instead of going home, they hang out with drug addicts and those involved in internet fraud. Even the well-behaved boys are tempted to join these fraudulent activities to make quick money. Therefore, parents should take greater interest in their wards’ academics by ensuring they are well equipped for the learning process.
“The government, on the other hand, should ensure that schools are well equipped to make the teaching and learning process effective. Facilities such as laboratory equipment, seating for students, books for the library, and good buildings should be provided. This will help to curtail truancy and make learning more engaging.
“Education should also be adequately subsidised to make it affordable for less privileged boys. Additionally, it is necessary that education becomes more practical, allowing students to learn or acquire skills that they can use to support themselves and fund their educational pursuits,” she added.
Also, a senior lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Dr Kabiru Danladi offered a diagnosis of the challenges confronting the Nigerian boy child.
With the nation’s growing hardship, the burden on boys has become heavier. “Now that the country has become extremely difficult to live in, you are the leader as a boy child, head of the household, head of the class, head of the community. You must offer, mentor, and assist. Nowadays, people have discovered quick ways to survive, such as cybercrimes (Yahoo), and every boy child is tempted to join and deliver that swift blow. You will have to deal with rejection from friends and family if you have not, because you do not fit in with the wealthy class.”
“The Nigerian boy child today is trapped in a failing system that neither demands discipline nor offers reward for virtue. At the root of his vulnerability to crime, drugs, and educational apathy is a systemic collapse of structure and status,” Dr. Danladi asserted.
Rather than pathologise young boys, Dr. Danladi urges a shift in perspective. “We must abandon shallow narratives that blame the boy child while ignoring systems of neglect, hypocrisy, and weak accountability. Boys, especially from lower-income families, are socialised into performance without guidance.
“With absent fathers, schools that punish curiosity, religious institutions that avoid truth-telling, and media that glorify criminal affluence, we create a pipeline of boys who see drugs and internet fraud as the only form of social coping strategies available.”
He continued, “This is not about ‘bad boys’, this is about unoptimised systems. If we want to reverse this, we must reconstruct the reward mechanisms: make education visibly valuable, mentorship credible, and consequences consistent. Otherwise, the current incentive map will continue to produce the same behavioural outcomes.”
Dr. Danladi also laid out a pragmatic reform strategy. “Solving this requires focus not on slogans, but on exploiting what works in other places. Reform the education system to align with real economic outcomes. Demystify criminal glamour by prosecuting high-profile fraudsters publicly and consistently.
“Use digital media to elevate models of excellence that boys relate to tech entrepreneurs, athletes, engineers, not recycled politicians. Train teachers to engage boys differently, discipline without emasculation, curiosity without ridicule.”
A Global Prevention Influencer and Youth Leader from Kaduna, Aliyu Mukhtar Usman also shared insights into the state of the boy child in Nigeria.
“The society in which we live in Nigeria presents many difficulties, particularly for boys. Boys are indoctrinated from an early age to be resilient and to never cry. You will hear expressions like ‘Be a man,’ which reflects the lesson that we should never make excuses for failing or for showing emotion. You are taught never to express your feelings.”
Expanding on this thought, he explained, “Human behaviour is shaped by incentive structures and social reinforcement loops. In Nigeria, criminal success, for example, the so-called ‘Yahoo boys’ is more visible and celebrated than honest, disciplined effort. The boy child sees the education system as irrelevant to real-world outcomes, because it is. He watches graduates beg for jobs while fraudsters flaunt wealth. The result is not a moral failure, it is a rational response to a broken system.”
Aliyu observed that others, unable to withstand the pressure, simply give up. “Others who decide they do not give a damn might try using drugs and dropping out of school. All of these difficulties primarily impact the boy child during his developmental stage. The expectations are boundless, and the temptation is strong.”
The Youth Leader argued that the society in which boys grow up, and the intention behind their upbringing, is critical. “Boys grow up, but the kind of society and intentional upbringing their families, religious institutions and other agents of socialisation dedicate to these vulnerable boys matters a lot.”
He called for urgent systemic responses. “We need to see policies, campaigns, and initiatives emerge from the National Assembly, Aso Rock, schools, churches, mosques, and traditional stools that are actively engaging boys in a positive manner.”
Aliyu also linked the solution to a global goal. “The bedrock of meaningful transformation in the lives of the boy child like their counterparts must be founded on what the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 preaches, which is to ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.’ Let’s walk the talk by re-educating our boys’ minds about who they ought to be, with the requisite knowledge.”
Meanwhile, an Asaba based secondary teacher with many years of experience teaching the male students, Mrs Oba Joyce, tells The Pointer that the use of drugs among secondary school boys has increased unruly behaviour among students, while pressure from some parents to take up responsibilities has pushed some into crimes such as Advance Fee fraud, popularly called yahoo yahoo.
She was of the opinion that most of the boys in secondary schools do not have proper or no parental guidance, especially fathers, in order to provide for the family do not create time for their children, no time to advise or help with studies or personal issues.
Mrs. Oba also spoke of the influence of peers group, she said, “The pressure to belong to a group could lead to joining secret societies, get involve in bullying, fighting and skipping classes”.
While not absolving the school of the blame in the problem facing the boy-child, she opined that shortage of male teachers in schools may contribute towards lack of positive male figures for them to look up to in schools. These challenges, she said could impact greatly on the educational success, mental health, emotional health and future potentials, she added.
As the global community commemorates International Day of the Boy Child, the truth remains that the Nigerian boy child stands at a critical junction, one shaped by broken systems, absent role models, and a society quick to condemn but slow to nurture.
If we continue to ignore the root causes, economic hardship, moral decay, and educational neglect, we are merely sentencing a generation to repeat the same cycle of lost potential and despair.
Real change demands more than empty slogans or fleeting campaigns; it requires committed, deliberate action from families, communities, government, and institutions alike. We must rebuild the foundations of discipline, respect, and opportunity, showing our boys that dignity and hard work still matter.
Only then can we hope to raise men who inspire, innovate, and lead Nigeria out of the shadows of yesterday’s failures into a future defined by responsibility and achievement. Until we do, the boy child remains a silent casualty of a society that has yet to learn how to truly see, hear, and uplift him.
