Value Re-Orientation as a Catholicon to Reducing Banditry in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue V, May 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Value Re-Orientation as a Catholicon to Reducing Banditry in Nigeria

Chibuzor Obi Jude^1*, Ibrahim Hayatu², Amanda Paul^3
1Department of Public Administration, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigeria
²School of Preliminary Studies New Bussa, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria
³Department of Public Administration Bauchi State University Gadau, Nigeria
*Corresponding Author

Abstract:-The incessant banditry in Nigeria has posed a big challenge to the country’s economy and the world at large. The area of concern has attracted many conferences, workshops, and dialogues about the future of the country’s image as other efforts to eliminate banditry in the land seemed abortive. This paper was an examination of value reorientation as a catholicon to reducing banditry in Nigeria. The paper used secondary sources for data collection to uncover issues surrounding banditry. The paper explored value reorientation and found it to mean “the act of intentionally struggling to change the direction which attitudes and beliefs of our value institutions in Nigeria are currently preoccupied with, or the act of altering behavior, attitude and beliefs of Nigerian youths in a new direction with the intention to reduce banditry in our society and the world at large. The Institutional theory was applied to explain the phenomenon. The incessant banditry in Nigeria could be as a result of failed moral institutions in carrying out their responsibility as it supposed. When the quest for wealth acquisitions outweighs quest for moral values, the result would not be far from criminality which among them is banditry. Essential elements such as humility, responsibility, diligence, entrepreneurship, contentedness and respect for elders, among other moral values should be made an utmost priority as values. We recommend that families, the schools, political institutions, religious institutions, and media should work round the clock in creating awareness and make sure that moral values are upheld in society.

Keywords: Value, Reorientation, Banditry, Institutional theory, Nigeria

I. INTRODUCTION

Everyone is brought into the world to fulfill one obligation or the other. But whatever obligation one is to fulfill has to be socially and existentially acceptable by society. That is why the issue of moral value or preferably ethics is very important and cannot be tired of emphasising. It is a belief that a child needs adequate care by the parents and even the society at large. The care is not only in the provision of physical, emotional, mental, and social needs as some people may think, but it also includes raising the child to associate and assimilate the norms, ethos, values, religious and cultural practices of his/her society. There is no doubt that failure to bring up a child properly is a call for social vices of which among them is banditry. Though it can be argued that some exogenous factors also contribute to an individual pattern of behavior.

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