Extrinsic Materialist Conception of Value and the Burgeoning Banditry in Nigeria

Abstract

Despite the determination of security agencies, governmental and                                                          nongovernmental commissions and institutions to arrest the current of
criminality in the country, particularly in northern Nigeria, such as
banditry and kidnapping and other sundry financially induced
criminalities in Nigeria, it has continued unabated, bestriding the
country like a colossus as citizens shiver and quiver in the scale of terror
the criminals have unleashed and are unleashing relentlessly. Using
available data, reports and critical textual expositions, our analysis
shows that the brazen spate of criminality, especially, banditry and
kidnapping to extort money in Northern Nigeria, is driven by the
concepts of let-us-take-our-share and get-rich-quick by all means
mentality. These concepts are motivated by the misplacement of values
on negative extrinsic materialist attitudes. We submit that until the
youths, the bandits and other criminals, re-evaluate and realign their
values with those that promote being-with-others, being-for-others, the
common good of the community and the care for others above material
acquisition, banditry and kidnapping in the north will continue to fester.