The culture in Nigeria with respect to corporal punishment – which is so commonplace you find it at home, in schools, in places of worship and ultimately wielded by the powers that be against law-abiding citizens – is evolving towards at the very least the understanding that this is a problem.

Corporal punishment is a discipline method in which a supervising adult deliberately inflicts pain upon a child in response to a child’s unacceptable behavior and/or inappropriate language. The immediate aims of such punishment are usually to halt the offense, prevent its recurrence, and set an example for others.

Think of the countless slaps you received as a child, the violent beatings with all things ranging from TV cords to twigs and planks, and infamous slippers wielded by Nigerian mothers – something the spread of social media has come to show is more global than we thought before.

Conversations about this subject usually go thus;

“Omo, the way my Dad used to beat us, once it is around the time he usually returns from work, everywhere will be quiet and clean. But we sha turned out okay.”

But did you?

When those opposed to corporal punishment push back against this, and ponder if maybe the reason empathy doesn’t come easy to adult Nigerians is because they endured years of this method of ‘correction’ its proponents insist that isn’t true and that they, “will do the same” to their children.

Yet, a huge body of research – largely conducted in developed nations – shows that this kind of ‘correction’ has serious negative long-term effects on human beings.

Corporal punishment, for starters, can lead to increased aggression, antisocial behavior, physical injury, and mental health problems for children. And that is just the tip of a very ugly iceberg.

A country full of broken people

The statistic on various forms of violence in Nigeria is undeniably huge. From gender-based violence to child abuse, to abuse perpetrated by authorities, it is inarguable that a violence problem is deeply entrenched in the Nigerian culture to the point it can easily be considered an important feature of it.

When we study these statistics, do we sit with it and think about what got us here?

UNICEF reports that six out of every 10 children experience some form of violence. That is a whopping 60% of the country’s children population.

These children – deeply affected in the way abuse has been proven to affect, even change the structure of, the human mind – grow up to become adults who can’t communicate without losing their cool, whose favourite go-to language is violence.

Here are some of the long-term effects of corporal punishment that you may recognize paint a picture of why we are where we are with rampant violence:

• Aggression in children:

Hardly anyone who has been to a Nigerian school – public or private – can claim to not be aware of the rampant bullying that exists among children.

We wonder why this is, and when we do we simply dismiss it as one of those things that just happens. Yet there is research showing that this behavior can be linked to corporal punishment of children.

According to US psychologist Lynne Namka, EdD, physical punishment engenders more aggression in a child.

That aggression, because it cannot be channeled to the adults in their lives who rightly deserve it for the violence they inflict on them, is turned towards other children.

In the end, the punishment doesn’t even work. Children, rather than learn that what they were punished for is a bad thing they need to stop, take the punishment, instead, as an instruction to hide the behavior.

Elizabeth Gershoff, PhD, a leading researcher on physical punishment at the University of Texas at Austin, and psychology professor Sandra Graham-Bermann, PhD, say physical punishment doesn’t work in the long term and can make children more aggressive.

It is a lose-lose situation.

• Physical violence:

Observe the ease with which even adult Nigerians resort to throwing punches. Better yet, as highlighted above, the insistence of adult Nigerians who have suffered corporal punishment on punishing their own children in the same way.

A 1999 survey led by Murray A. Straus and Julie H. Stewart, called “Corporal Punishment by American Parents, found that [persons] who received physical punishment [growing up] are three times more likely to grow up to abuse their own children.

Usually, human beings are only able to give what they received.

• Impaired Cognitive Development:

Admittedly, Nigeria has an education problem. Yet even for adults who had the good luck to have attended excellent schools, we often find that a lot of Nigerians have a comprehension problem.

Take a quick swipe down your social media feed. Read the exchanges between clearly learned individuals. If you are in awe at the seeming level of incomprehension, you are welcome.

A 1998 study by Murray A. Straus and Mallie J. Paschall, titled “Corporal Punishment by Mothers and Child’s Cognitive Development,” revealed that [corporal punishment] can reduce a child’s brain’s grey matter, which is crucial since it influences learning abilities.

From childhood, the ability for critical thinking of many a Nigerian is beaten out of them.

We end up with adults who for no fault of their struggle with understanding clearly communicated messages because they never stood a chance against the infamous slippers their mother’s wielded to terrorise them into compliance.

• Impaired emotional development:

You are not insane when you wonder why your friend gives a non-comforting cold retort after you tell them about the ordeal you went through at the hand of a service provider or an ex for instance. They just lack the emotional intelligence to empathise because they never had a chance to develop emotionally as children.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, physical abuse can lead to poor social skills when children reach adulthood.

It can also lead to low self-esteem, brain damage, attention disorders, substance abuse, and anxiety and depression.

It is a gift that gives and keeps giving.

The evidence is clear, the data is unambiguous, whether the trajectory of our cultural evolution will lead to a culture that accepts the harm corporal punishment precipitates or not, is completely up to all of us.

It helps that we think about the children and the adults we are shaping them to become.