Target Safety

Nigeria - as we all know - is regarded as a violence-prone society with youth at the heart of most violent conflicts in the country. In fact, recent empirical studies show that 90 – 95% of violent conflicts in this country are propagated by youths. Every geopolitical zone in Nigeria is entrenched by a characteristic structure of violence, taking for example the oil rich south – south region of Nigeria; resource control and environmental conflict waged by youth militias of the Niger delta have become an endemic stigma not only in this region alone, but in Nigeria as a whole. In the south western part of the country, ethnic and communal violence is on the increase in recent years. In the three geopolitical zones of old northern Nigeria, land dispute and ethno-religious conflicts are common problems. In the South-Eastern part of this country, organized crime and political turbulence have resulted in fragmentation of communities, which has lead in to a high rate of lawlessness. To crown this all, there is a nationwide problem of political violence which is linked to electoral fraud and the use and sponsorship of thugs by politicians and political parties.

All of this leads to severe trauma, disabilities or deaths. As medical students there is much that we can do to educate the local community on the effects of violence.

Although a very high percentage of youth know that youth violence has serious health and socio-economic implications, a significant proportion of the population still engage in violence either because of poverty, idleness, drugs etc. In other to help educate youths on the effects of violence, and increase the level of police-community relationship in Nigeria, SPIM BUK developed the project called TARGET SAFETY which was launched on the 17th of March 2007.