Man Kills His Parents Over Food
A recent report indicated that a misguided young man, Mutawakilu Ibrahim, stabbed his grandparents to death during a heated argument over food at their residence in Kofar Dawanau Quarters, Dala Local Government Area of Kano State.
The suspect was said to have used a knife to inflict multiple injuries on his grandfather and grandmother who were 75 and 65 years old, respectively. And they were both pronounced dead by the medical authorities at the hospital they were taken to after the attack.
The 30-year-old man, who has been arrested by the police, is believed to have been under the influence of intoxicants at the time of the attack.
Kano State is Nigeria’s most populous state, and it has been reported to be plagued by many social vices in recent times, including increased cases of violent crimes within family settings.
According to security experts and community leaders, it is the combined effects of drug abuse, mental health challenges, and rising economic hardship that have been putting pressures on family relationships. And some of these factors have causal relationship: the use of illicit drugs may have resulted in the burgeoning cases of mental issues while mental challenges, on the other hand, have a serious bearing on the increasing violent conduct, especially amongst the youths. All of these exemplify the rot in the society arising from the collapse of the moral value system.
The killing of the Kano old man and woman allegedly by their grandson is a terrible development that is very difficult to comprehend. How and why would one kill one’s grandparents under any guise? And indeed, why should one kill anyone, for that matter, in order to settle ‘scores,’ if any? It either shows defective upbringing or is down to an unteachable or incorrigible disposition on the part of the killer. Engaging in a heated argument with one’s grandparents is bad enough; going ahead to murder them is extremely strange.
It is doubtful that this young man is from a cohesive, disciplined family background as his action smacks of someone raised in a dysfunctional family setting. And in all of this, there has been no mention of his parents. Why should his feeding be the responsibility of his grandparents if his parents are available?
And indeed, why should the feeding of a 30-year-old be the responsibility of anyone else other than himself? If he could raise money to procure illicit drugs, why not raise money to buy food also? It is really sad that many youths of today are increasingly unable or unwilling to appreciate what constitutes reasonable, decent and decorous conduct.
The sense of entitlement they exhibit at every turn is very alarming. Or why would a 30-year-old have a heated argument with his grandparents over food and go ahead to murder both of them by dealing multiple lethal knife blows on them? This callous and bizarre act can only be perpetrated by a demented person whose stability of mind is suspect.
In the recent past, people felt a sense of gloom at the mere mention of death or serious injury to humans: hardly did anyone want to be associated with such heart-rending circumstances because of the attendant social repercussions, including the ostracisation of perpetrators.
Today, however, because of the high frequency of cases of killings and the preponderance of the agents of death like killer herdsmen, bandits and Boko Haram insurgents and their heinous activities in the North and unknown gunmen in the South, gory cases of killings and maiming have become just mere statistics to many. This is a dangerous tendency that seems to be making violence the new normal in the society and, in a sense, encouraging or at least making light of the breach of the sanctity of human life.
The optics around violent conduct in the country is bad. The daily news of terror killings, homicides and parricide as in the instant case is very troubling even as it reflects horribly on the image of the country. All critical stakeholders, especially leadership at all levels, with the government leading the pack, must ensure that the society is reset on the path of moral rectitude, decency and decorum. The government should be exemplary by providing good governance that is capable of reining in citizens’ economic hardship, so that the tendency for one to slide into criminality or engage in asocial behaviour like drug abuse to just get by is reduced. Families and religious institutions should endeavour to influence young men and women to shun societal vices like illicit drug use, excessive consumption of alcohol, violent conduct and so on.
The traditional leadership, too, should avoid deliberate or inadvertent incentivisation of criminal and/or morally reprehensible acts through inapposite recognition of wealthy perpetrators in palaces. Savagery, uncivilised conduct and other criminal acts must be discouraged in all ramifications. Meanwhile, Ibrahim’s alleged dastardly act should be painstakingly investigated, diligently prosecuted, and punished to the fullest extent of the law if he is found guilty.
