Violence

In my last year of secondary school my father and I had this whole plan of me furthering my university education in the far northern part of Nigeria. This would eventually not go as planned seeing it faced strong opposition from my mother, family and friends all because of the notorious situation bedeviling the hearts of the young and the old on daily basis, putting fear and preventing the flow of daily activities as it should be, all because of violence perpetrated by ungodly acts. This is one of the few alarming problems we have to face due to the precarious situation of violence.

The above paragraph is not to prove further the stereotype saying the northern part of Nigeria is a place filled with chaos or violence. This is entirely untrue! I study at a school of higher learning located in the North-central part of Nigeria. If not for some pockets of violence here and there. Thanks to the timely intervention of the security forces in keeping the activities of these acts at bay. 

Using Nigeria as a case study as regards the issue of violence. The prevalence of this intense, turbulent, or furious and often destructive action or force is caused by multiple reasons. Violence can be influenced due to peer pressure, drug and alcohol use, traumatic events, mental illness, domestic violence and child abuse, media influence a whole lot more reasons. The psychological literature however, usually divides these causes into four highly overlapping categories which are biological, socialization, cognitive and situational factors.

The biological factors refer to the wide array of neurological, physiological, or chemical influences on aggression and violence. Recent advances in the neurosciences have revealed that biological factors, interacting with the social environment, may have some significant influences on child development. The exact nature of these influences remains largely unknown. Child development researchers have found links between aggression and brain damage resulting from a variety of environmental factors. These include toxic materials found in the environment (e.g. lead poisoning which in turn results in brain damage), traumatic head injury as result of accident or abuse, dietary deficiencies, alcohol and drug ingestion. Once these deficits occur, attempts to remove or remedy the biological cause may include active biological treatment in the form of medication. However, a competent and social environment has also been found to neutralize or reduce effects that these biological factors exert on any propensity towards violence.

Socialization factors involves processes in which a person learns patterns of thinking, behavior, and feeling from his or her early life experiences. Generally children, young adults and the total populace can learn as much from observing significant or admired others in their environment as from their own experiences. Research has it that violent behaviours are often learned from significant others like TV shows, movies or fictional characters (remember the viral news of how the Nigerian Police Force told of kidnappers learning violent behaviours from Nollywood movies from acts like Zubi Michael).

Cognitive factors refers to the ideas, beliefs, and patterns of thinking that emerge as a result of interactions with the world during a person’s lifetime. It has been carefully researched that violent individuals have different ways of processing and interpreting information as regards how they perceive hostility in others when there is no hostility. Violent people are also less efficient at thinking of non-violent ways to solve social conflicts and disagreements. They also tend to be more accepting of violence in general and believe it is acceptable to behave that way. Also they have adopted the belief that it is acceptable to react to every perceived or imagined sign of disrespect with aggression.

Situational factors talks about the characteristic of the environment, such as stress or aggression in others, that encourage or engender violent behavior. Aversive situations such as continuous loud noise, unpleasant smells, crowded or unpleasant living conditions can provoke aggression and violence in those persons subjected to such conditions as it is common for the major populace in Nigeria. The presence of weapons increases the chances that violence might occur in the first place and that will come with its lethal consequences once it does occur. 

It is also clear that people who grow up in deprived environments where poverty, frustration, and hopelessness are prevalent are at a much greater risk for later involvement in violence or violent crimes than other societies with better conditions of living.

Seeing all these given reasons for the most likely causes of violence in a country like Nigeria, it is imperative that stringent measures are put in place through government agencies, private organizations, Non-governmental agencies, philanthropists and well-meaning persons in the society to eradicate situations involving the biological, cognitive, socialization, and situational factors that cause violence.

Article by:

Olaoluwa Olaitan

laolumi27@gmail.com