Lere Olayinka, the Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and Social Media to the FCT Minister, has stirred fresh debate online over the root causes of insecurity in Northern Nigeria.
In a post shared on X on Tuesday, Olayinka criticised the trend of low-income earners marrying multiple wives and having more children than they can adequately cater for. He pointed to unchecked polygamy and the neglect of children as major contributors to the region’s security challenges.
He wrote, “This is one problem the North must begin to solve now. There is no reason a man who cannot properly take care of one wife and two children should marry three wives and produce fifteen or seventeen children.
“Many of today’s terrorists and bandits were once innocent children roaming the streets, hungry, uneducated, and forgotten.”
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Olayinka further described the growing number of children seen begging on Abuja’s major roads as a troubling signal of what lies ahead if the issue is not addressed.
“Each time I see them on major roads in Abuja carrying a plastic bowl, my questions are always How did they get here? Who are their parents? What will these unaccounted children become in future?” He asked.
He also maintained that while citizens often blame the government for insecurity, there are limits to what authorities can do in cases where individuals make irresponsible family decisions.
Olayinka wrote, “I am sure some people will still come here to blame the government. But what can the government do in the case of a gate-man earning say N60k per month, but has four wives and 17 children?”
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“Abandoned children, like these ones, will certainly grow up angry, desperate and dangerous,” he warned.
In a related development, John Onaiyekan, a former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, had earlier linked rising insecurity in Northern Nigeria to the failures of the Almajiri system.
He warned that many abandoned children in the region have ended up joining criminal groups, including bandits and insurgents.
