Gen Z’s Suicide Pact: A nation dancing to its Doom

Each new day seems to usher in a fresh tragedy—so bizarre, so heartbreakingly avoidable, it leaves one in stunned silence. We are becoming a nation increasingly familiar with burying its young, not due to war, famine, or natural disaster, but because of choices rooted in recklessness and a crumbling value system.

The most recent of these grim headlines tells the story of a young man who reportedly fell to his death from a three-storey building, allegedly under the influence of a synthetic drug known on the streets as Colorado. The image is haunting: a student, caught in a haze of delusion, walking off the edge of a building as if he were invincible. It’s not just a personal tragedy—it’s a metaphor. A metaphor for a generation teetering on the brink, seduced by a culture that glamorizes danger and numbs reality.

This isn’t an isolated event. It is a flashing red signal—a symptom of a much deeper, more systemic crisis that has taken root in our higher institutions, once revered as bastions of enlightenment and moral grounding. Today, many of these campuses have become breeding grounds for chaos, decadence, and despair.

Let’s not sugarcoat it: cultism is alive and thriving, turning universities into battlegrounds where students lose their lives over senseless rivalries. Internet fraud—once whispered about in shame—is now paraded in plain sight. Young men, barely out of their teens, are hailed as “bosses” for scamming others online, while social media turns their spoils into symbols of success. ‘Yahoo-Yahoo’ is no longer just a crime; it’s a cultural aspiration.

At the root of this unraveling is drug abuse—widespread, normalized, and horrifying in its reach. From Tramadol and Rohypnol to Methamphetamine (Mkpuru Mmiri) and Colorado, the substances may vary, but the outcome remains devastatingly consistent: the erosion of potential, the distortion of reality, and in far too many cases, untimely death. These drugs are no longer hidden behind locked doors. They’re worn like badges of honor—glorified in music, flaunted in fashion, and embedded in the everyday vocabulary of our youth.

The tragedy is not just in the loss of life, but in the lost futures—the doctors never trained, the engineers never built, the poets never heard. Take a moment to recall the recent story of a young graduate who plunged from Cocoa House in Ibadan. Different city, different drug, same fatal narrative: potential extinguished in the blink of an eye.

We hear of students caught in armed robberies. Of young women trafficked through prostitution rings that operate shamelessly within the walls of university hostels. We read of overdoses, of mental breakdowns, of brilliant minds undone by addiction. These are not just isolated incidents; they are markers in a trendline of decline—a national freefall.

And while we mourn, while we write obituaries and post hashtags, the cycle continues.

We must confront this crisis head-on. We must name it, shame it, and root it out from our institutions and from our culture. This is not just a government problem. It is not solely the responsibility of schools, or parents, or religious leaders. It is a collective war for the soul of our youth—and by extension, the future of our nation.

Because if we fail to act now, the stories will keep coming. And one day, the names in those headlines will be even closer to home.

The recent incident involving a UNIZIK student serves as a poignant reminder of the challenges facing today’s youth. For the impressionable 15-year-old in SS2, grappling with peer pressure to conform, it sends a troubling message: that taking risks is a game and deviant behavior is becoming normalized. When a tragic outcome from substance use results in a fatal accident, and the discourse around it fades quickly, it teaches a dangerous lesson—that such incidents are simply another headline, another unfortunate but seemingly acceptable part of campus life.

This situation reveals a catastrophic failure of oversight among the school authorities, spanning institutions like UNIZIK, UNILAG, ABU, and UNN. Merely punishing students caught engaging in misconduct is insufficient. The battle against these pervasive issues cannot be won through memos and security patrols alone. Where are the comprehensive, mandatory counseling services? Where are the modern recreational facilities designed to harness youthful energy? Where is the collaboration with law enforcement to dismantle the networks supplying drugs and weapons that infiltrate our campuses?

It is time to move beyond lip service. The National Universities Commission (NUC), alongside federal and state ministries of education, and even the presidency, must recognize the urgency of the situation—this is a national emergency. We require a state of emergency concerning youth vices in our tertiary institutions, necessitating a collaborative effort involving parents, religious organizations, civil society, and the students themselves. We must actively stigmatize what is harmful and celebrate what is constructive, reclaiming our societal values in the process.

To our young individuals, we earnestly appeal: your energy, vibrancy, and zeal are invaluable gifts. They fuel innovation, creativity, and the leadership that our nation desperately needs. To squander that energy through reckless behavior, violence, or the temporary escape provided by dangerous substances is not only a betrayal of your potential but a deep loss for all of us.

We are losing our children, not merely from physical heights but from the very paths of reason, purpose, and meaningful existence. We must act now, decisively and collectively, to catch them before they fall too far.