Teenagers across Nigeria are increasingly at the centre of violent crimes once associated with hardened adults, murders, gang clashes, cult-related stabbings, and brutal street fights. From Lagos to Kano, Ogun to Anambra, and Abuja to Benue, families are being torn apart by a disturbing wave of youth violence that is leaving homes grieving, schools unsafe, and communities shaken.
In Lagos, a 17-year-old boy stabbed his best friend to death during an argument over a borrowed phone. What began as teenage banter ended in a funeral, with one family mourning a son and another battling the shame of raising a killer? In Abuja, two teenage girls were filmed in a bloody street fight over a boyfriend, a brawl that ended with one hospitalised, haven received deep cuts on her face. In Anambra, cult-linked violence has claimed the lives of secondary school students, including a 15-year-old boy who was stabbed for refusing to join a gang. His parents described him as a quiet child who wanted to be an engineer, but now they have only his photographs and memories.
The crisis is not limited to street corners. Teachers in government-owned schools now admit they fear their own pupils.
In Ogun State, one teacher who asked not to be named said, “Many pupils now come to school with guns and dangerous weapons. Teachers avoid telling them the truth because we fear for our lives. If a student considers you a threat, they can beat you up or bring others after you.” Across the country, educators share similar stories, confessing that silence has become their only shield in classrooms that once thrived on correction. The result is a generation of students emboldened by fearlessness, while authority crumbles before their eyes.
The reasons for this wave of teenage violence are many. Peer pressure and cultism play a central role, with gangs recruiting as early as junior secondary school. Stabbings, initiation beatings, and rival clashes have become rites of passage. Broken homes and poor parenting have left many teenagers angry, unsupervised, and prone to violence.
The lure of social media has also fueled the crisis, with teenage fights especially among girls, recorded and circulated online. Brutality is rewarded with likes and comments, turning violence into entertainment.
Experts add that the ban on corporal punishment, without introducing effective alternatives, has stripped teachers of authority. Students who know they cannot be flogged, suspended, or effectively disciplined grow bold enough to misbehave without fear. Added to this is Nigeria’s deepening economic crisis, which leaves teenagers restless and frustrated, making them easy recruits for gangs and criminal schemes that promise quick rewards.
The stories behind the statistics are haunting. In Ogun, ten students were arrested in 2022 for ambushing and beating a teacher who confiscated a cheating classmate’s script. Some were as young as 14. Their parents wept as police paraded them, torn between anger and shame. In Benue, a 16-year-old boy shot his elder brother during a quarrel over inheritance. “Two sons lost in one day,” the grieving parents said one dead, the other in police custody. In Lagos, gangs of teenage girls fought with bottles and knives over boyfriends, leaving one victim permanently blind in one eye. In Kano, a 16-year-old stabbed a fellow student during a cult clash near the school gate, fleeing as his classmate bled on the ground.
Child psychologists warn that Nigeria is raising a generation more comfortable with blood than with books. “Teenagers today are growing up in an environment where violence is normalised; from their homes to their peer groups to what they consume online.
Unless we intervene early, we are raising a generation that will see violence as the first option, not the last,” one Lagos-based child development specialist said. Police officers confirm a growing number of under-18 offenders in detention, many charged with robbery, gang-related assaults, and even murder. “We are seeing more teenagers in our cells than ever before. The danger is that once they taste crime, these young people become much harder,” a senior officer told this paper.
Teachers too are breaking down under the strain, no longer able to correct students without risking retaliation. Many now walk on eggshells, teaching cautiously, and avoiding conflicts that could spill into violence. A retired principal in Lagos admitted, “We no longer correct them because correction now attracts punishment for the teacher. It is the pupils who are in charge, not us.” Communities also live in fear as cult-related killings and teenage fights spill beyond school gates into markets, bus stops, and neighborhoods. A community leader in Anambra lamented, “We bury children almost every month now. It’s either cult fights or street clashes. Parents are tired, teachers are afraid, and the police are overwhelmed.”
Experts say urgent measures are needed to stem the tide. They call for schools to adopt restorative justice systems such as community service and peer accountability, instead of relying on punishment that fuels resentment. Parents must be held accountable for their children’s behaviour, with stronger PTA involvement and legal consequences for negligence. Schools need trained counselors and mentorship programmes to channel teenage energy away from violence, while law enforcement must act swiftly to investigate and prosecute teenage crimes, not only to punish offenders but also to deter others.
Authorities and parents must also monitor social media spaces where teenage violence is glorified, while introducing digital literacy campaigns to challenge the culture of clout-driven brutality.
The rise of domestic crime among teenagers is no longer a whisper. It is a scream echoing through classrooms, homes, and communities across Nigeria. Families are grieving, teachers are terrified, and young people are stabbing, shooting, and brutalising one another over trivial disputes, jealousy, and gang pride. If urgent action is not taken, Nigeria risks raising a generation for whom violence is not just an option, but the first instinct. And when children become killers, the nation itself becomes the victim.
By Titilope Joseph @TheIndependent
