Lets start out with a brief introduction on what we think social evils are all about. According to popular website Ask.com, a definition of 'Social Evil' would be something like this ''Social evils are issues which in one way or another affects members of a society and is often considered controversial or problematic in terms of moral values. some of the most common social evils would be alcoholism, child abuse, inequality, racism and organised crime.
There has been a great increase in moral decadence in the country. Many Nigerians, especially youths are insatiable in their desire to get rich quickly. They want to get rich quickly in their greed and love for excessive materialism. Bribery is the order of the day while embezzlement of public funds by government officials is prevalent in the country nowadays.
So basically, social evil is anything that could be considered harmful or dangerous to a society or a community. now let.s take a few examples and determine why they can be called 'social evils'. One of the first things one can think of when discussing issues that could be harmful for a society would be crime. Organised crime is something that is happening for thousands of years now and will most likely keep happening for the few decades. if i may ask what makes organised crime a social evil? Judging from the above giving definition i just mentioned, organised crime can be harmful to society in many ways. first of all, some forms of crime go hand in hand with violence, which can be considered a direct threat or danger to society.
Other forms of organised crime can take a non-violent approach but can still cause harm to individuals and groups of people. for instance, a bank fraud which was deliberately kept secret by the perpetrators can cause harm for people who deposited money on that bank. In a worst case scenario the bank could go bankrupt and thousands of people would lose their hard earn savings.
This development has become a matter of constant discussion on radio, television and newspapers. Its social evil have dangerously threatened the very existence of our society, and its now smelling like a bad sore.
The causes of these social maladies can be traced to the warped or twisted societal values of our people. Nigerians do not cherish hard work and diligence nowadays. Those who acquire material wealth by crooked means are praised and honoured, while the hard working but poor people are not respected simply because they do not have money.
What are today's biggest social evils?
Therefore, as a result of this, many Nigerians do not believe in hard work and perseverance. An average Nigerians is greedy and everybody wants to own and ride exotic and flashy cars at all cost. This has lead to many Nigerians, especially youths to engage themselves in various forms of social evils like arm robbery, bribery and corruption, embezzlement and other forms of social malaise. All that they want is to acquire material wealth, in most cases, by crooked means since material acquisition speaks louder than such respected virtues and values like hard work and honesty. As long as you can get wealth, nobody wants to know how you acquire it.
Another cause of the social evils is the low level of discipline and morality in our various homes and families. Most parents are not honest to themselves and they encourage their children to acquire wealth by all means, no matter how crooked such means are.
The Nigerian government, at the various levels, doesn't help matters too as top government functionaries and officials embezzle public funds at will. Public funds are converted to personnel uses and policemen collect bribes from drivers, smugglers and even from arm robbers. Honesty is no longer the best policy. The honest man now finds out with great disappointment, that he is a misfit in the society.
However, can it be altered? if not, what hope? what future? i strongly believe that there must be a way out. Where there is will, there is a way. This means that if we want to bring an end to these social, there must be a change in our hearts. Once our heart get the message, i am sure that all the social evils will be eradicated.
The Nigerian society should change its values and put honesty and hard work above any other thing. The government should put into practice the principles of reward and punishment and it should be stipulated that any body found guilty of committing any of these social evils should be treated in the same as arm robbers. On the other hand, government should reward honesty and query ill gotten wealth
As we can conclude from my written work above, social evils can happen in many forms and be harmful for society in several different ways ranging from physical harm to financial, social and even psychological harm.
Even without the consultation, many of us tend to agree with many of the above mentioned 'evil' within our society. this is exactly the reasons i wrote this, through this medium i want to raise more awareness and provide a place for like-minded people to share their thoughts and be informed about some of the latest development when it comes to social issues.
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