Family Breakdown, Insecurity Fuel Nigeria’s Adolescent Crisis — Don

A Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Uyo, Sunday Bassey Udoh, has warned that family breakdown and rising insecurity are fuelling Nigeria’s growing adolescent crisis, with serious consequences for the country’s future.

Udoh said weakening family structures, declining traditional authority, peer pressure, social media influence, poverty, substance abuse and insecurity were exposing young Nigerians to drug abuse, cultism, violent crime and other risky behaviours. He spoke during his 140th Inaugural Lecture, titled: “Adolescent Crises and the Family: Navigating the Paradox of a ‘Normless Society’,” held at the TETFund Auditorium, Nwaniba Campus, University of Uyo.

According to him, the adolescent crisis should no longer be viewed as an individual problem, but as a reflection of failures within the family, school, community, healthcare system and government. He described Nigeria as increasingly becoming a “normless society,” where traditional values and social controls that once guided young people are weakening without effective alternatives.

The don explained that adolescents were particularly vulnerable because the brain systems responsible for emotion and reward mature before the prefrontal cortex, which controls impulse and long-term decision-making. This, he said, makes young people more susceptible to peer pressure and risk-taking.

Udoh said the consequences included identity confusion, mental health problems, substance abuse, academic failure, early sexual activity, teenage pregnancy, trauma, poverty and social exclusion. He disclosed that a study of 161 pregnant women at a secondary health facility found that 45.5 per cent were teenagers, with more than half aged between 13 and 15 years.

He added that 57.55 per cent of the teenagers studied came from very poor families, while 61.64 per cent had never received sex education. Udoh also raised concern over emerging forms of substance abuse among adolescents, including inhaling shoe polish and the use of formalin.

The professor said insecurity had further worsened the situation by exposing adolescents to violence, displacement and psychological trauma. He noted that family cohesion and effective communication could be stronger predictors of substance use, early sexual debut and psychological distress than household income or parental education.

Udoh called for urgent measures to restore the family as the first line of protection and health support for children, including stronger parenting programmes, family-friendly workplace policies and assessment of family functioning during clinical encounters involving adolescents.

He also advocated stronger schools and community institutions, digital literacy, age-appropriate sexuality education and adolescent-friendly reproductive health services. He urged government to broaden substance regulation, introduce routine mental health screening and provide trauma support for young people affected by insecurity.

He further called for a national adolescent health surveillance system and greater interdisciplinary research to understand and address the crisis, stressing that the future of Nigeria depends on how effectively it protects its young population.

“The adolescent crisis in Nigeria is not principally a crisis of individual adolescents but a crisis of the systems,” Udoh said, adding, to“To secure the adolescent is to secure the nation’s next generation of productivity, stability and moral order.”