NATURE AND IMPLICATIONS OF YOUTH STREET GANG ACTIVITIES ON COMMUNITY SECURITY IN KANO METROPOLIS

Abstract

This article examines the nature and implications of youth street-gang activities on community security in Kano Metropolis. It is drawn analysis upon social disorganization theory. The study adopted desk-review using existing literature in textbooks, journal articles, conference proceedings, newspapers, magazines, internet materials, etc. It is the findings of the study that these gangs (called Yan Daba) have evolved from informal social fraternities into semi-organised formations engaging in_activities like armed robbery, systematic extortion, political thuggery ('Yan jagaliya), drug trafficking and distribution through bush bar networks, during electoral cycles, inter-gang territorial violence (fada clashes), sexual harassment and gender-based violence, and infrastructure vandalism., It also found that gang activities is embedded in the State's political economy, because they are used by political elites who provide impunity and resources in exchange for electoral violence. The analysis demonstrates that gang formation is driven by structural conditions, such as chronic youth unemployment, poverty, rapid urbanisation, and institutional attenuation. The article reveals the high prevalence of gangs in Kano. Their implications for community security include: erosion of public safety and nocturnal curtailment of urban life; normalisation of violence and its intergenerational transmission; strain on law enforcement and erosion of institutional legitimacy; the contested monopoly of violence and fragmentation of governance, etc. The article concludes that the situation is destabilising Kano, the most populous city in northern Nigeria; and reproducing the conditions that render gang participation subjectively rational for successive youth cohorts. To mitigate violent youth gang activities, there should be economic inclusion strategies targeting gang-involved youth; urban governance reforms to rebuild collective efficacy and legitimate neighbourhood institutions; public health responses to substance abuse; political reforms to sever the gang-politics nexus; educational and social welfare investments.