NIGERIAN CHILDREN ARE CRYING

See Nigerian children crying to government and their parents for the lack of proper care and love. I have a question to ask and that is the question that Nigerian children want an answer to, Children’s day is being celebrated on the 27^th of May of every year. Why is it only on may 27^th we remember and celebrate our children? Did children really being celebrated? Did they have a sense of belonging? Did our children really feel the joy that our members of the society have? It is here in Nigeria that I know that children always work for their living, treated like animal. Almost every child not those one who were born in Aso Rock and in all government houses in the country but I am talking about typical Nigerian children raised in the city, town and in the ghettoes are not enjoying what they should enjoy as a member of the society. There is abuse and lack of love. Some of these children always blame the Supreme Being (God) for placing them in Nigeria they wish they were born in developed nations like America, United Kingdom or European country. I don’t like to blame such children it is lack of love, care and lack of sense of belonging.

Infancy, period from birth to about 2 years of age. This first stage of life is an important time, characterized by physical and emotional growth and development. We are entitling to love, care, protection and all provision not abuse says Nigerian children.

When we are young, we grown up in the labour field where parents treated us as one of the slave bought, we are battered, beaten, punished and some times we are subjected to terror that we lost our sense of value for our real self-worth and our true identity was affected. We don’t enjoy our childhood, no time for rest, our parent engaged us all the time for hawking and other domestic work but for us no objection as we leave one work so also we are expected to jump into another. The most damaging experience of the Nigerian child is that after all these labour, no thank you or well done from the parents or the guidance instead what they receive is blame and beaten for every mistakes.

When Nigeria child commit any atrocity or offend the parent or any elderly person, see the beaten, they beat the child until there is no breath in him anymore and often they are starved of sleep, food, clothing etc for little mistakes that these elderly ones can even do more if they are in their position.

No proper education is given to the Nigerian children, no special attention and love. It is when we pretend to be sick or when we are really sick before we can get or gain the attention of our parents and guidance, Oh it is a sorry case!

Parents, children are heritage of God without price to take care of them, instead you left these children alone to feed, cloth and protect themselves, this is an abuse. Subjecting them to labour and hawking round the street is damaging to our self worth. It is only on Christmas day  parents remember they have a children they suppose to cloth and feed, it is only on Christmas day we are able to wear new shoes, new clothes says one of the children.

Why is it only once in a year we are entitling to all these goodies and privileges of life?

When I sat down with television, magazine to watch and read what other children in Europe and America enjoy from their parents and governments I always feel sorry for the state of children in this country and in Africa.

Hear the cry of the Nigerian child “Anytime  I pay visit to my friend’s house and I see how their parent relate and show them love, I regret being born of my parent”

Nigeria government needs to rise to this challenge and do something now concerning the plight of children. Presently there is no adequate provision for Nigerian child, see all motor pack and all our street children that suppose to be in school are found every second and everyday hawking instead of being in school please do something.

Child abuse means using or treating our children in a wrong way. One day just open your window if you are living in a widely congested area like Lagos state, within 5 minutes the next thing you see are these little children hawking, carrying tray of yam, cloth, gari etc. In every society where there is a tragic occurrence, children are always the major victim, children of 4 to 5 years dying of hunger, war and famine. Parents and government please do something on child abuse, child protection, child victimization they are the seed of the future we desire to build.

There is one ugly experience in the northern part of Nigeria where parent who should be the custodian of the destiny of their children gave them plate and telling them to go beg for food and money.

Celebrating our children should not be once in a year or twice a year. If this nation or parent neglected the children the future is being neglected and every labour of our lives will be in vain. Our dear parent and our dear government, watching the children like this is like sitting down watching your home collapsing. Parents and government let us build up our children, train them, give them all they deserve and a ready-made future will be delivered into your hands. Hear this, when a ball is throw or tossed against a wall, the direction it will bounce depends on how it was thrown, many parents live helpless today and they have children living fine and adequately equipped but because their children did not enjoy them when they are young.

NIGERIA: A DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURE RUNNING OUT OF ENERGY.

Once upon a time, Nigeria used to be the pride of other Africa nations, joy of many western powers. J.F. Kennedy say during his inauguration that “today a new child is being born give that child 20 year he will rule the world” he was referring to Nigeria. The pronouncement would have been fulfilled but due to a lot of entanglement that cripple the growth, development and emancipation of this country everything today is pathetic.

The unfortunate event is that nothing positively and pragmatically is working, everything is retrogress, no electricity, no good roads, infrastructure are going down the drain every day, education is in shambles, we have lost everything that gave us a good beginning, lives were lost to road accident, air crash, tribal violence, religious clash and intolerance, boko haram insurgence, militancy, kidnapping and what have you. One of the reasons why nothing is working is because those who destroyed yesterday are still in charge of our nation today that is a sorry case.

Considering where Nigeria was in the past and where we unfortunately are now. Today, Nigeria is in a big mess, the way things are going now is not the way our founding fathers designed our future. The prediction of America is far approaching; the life of an average man is going down the drain every day. Nigeria is pathetically an irony of nationhood and shadow of itself. Nigeria is placed first in corruption, bribery, poverty, diversion of public funds, illegal transfer of money abroad, inflated budget and what have you. Youth unemployment is on the rise daily, breakdown of law and order, breakdown of moral values.

Today we are face to face with uncertainty, economic failure because of significant crash in economic structure. This country is presided over by generation of looters and squanderers, a nation where the presiding minister of finance said publicly that budget prepared by Federal Government cannot bring development, oh what a tragedy!

There is disconnect between the people and their country, Nigeria is doing nothing for Nigerians, the government has been disconnected from the governed. The myriad of problems facing Nigeria is limitless but there is a way out. New Nigeria is possible when we have leaders not the kind of rulers, vagabond in power (VIP) we have today, who are ready to serve and committed to serving the people we will or may never make any headway.

The civil societies must embark on mobilization of our people just like in the days of military when Beko Ransome Kuti and Gani Fawehinmi and host of others activist mobilize us to fight the military and until we see their end. Now we need massive mobilization of our people to identify the enemies of our country and how we can defeat them so as to take back our country.   

Productivity is a function of value, let us teach our people our people to embrace and cultivate right values for living. We need to shun status quo and say no to corruption and discipline. Nigeria government should stop this malady “movement without progress”.

GOOD MANNERS AND ETIQUETTE

No country ever prospered without a disciplined and sophisticated population. Time was when Nigeria used to pride herself as the giant of Africa, with the riches of its culture and the discipline and fitness of its people. Alas, so much of these attributes seem to have deserted us, it is no wonder that many people yearn for the good old days.

The process of rejuvenation must begin with the youth. Parents and teachers for whom the care of children should be a fundamental responsibility must regain their role in helping children to develop their talent in a discipline manner so that fewer or no people are on our streets urinating carelessly, spitting about freely or dropping empty bottle or sachet of pure water on our street.

Culture defines a people and at the inception before the unfortunate incident of 1914 and 1960, culture has given this country a proud history.

Many aspect of our culture are synonymous with good manners and etiquette – the way the youth relate to elderly, cleanliness, eating habit etc. Yet culture divides particularly in this modern age of frequent human movement across boundaries and continents.

The consequence is that our cultures have encountered other cultures and in the process we have come to recognize that certain aspect of our culture would do well to be modernized. One does not walk the street of Singapore or Tokyo and expect to urinate in public without raising many eyebrows or without being arrested.

In Nigeria, the culture of impunity, uncared attitude that have come our way since the days of Military has reduced our country to a mere jungle and the nonsense continues every day as if it is the normal way of life. Kudos to Buhari/Idiagbon regime who put every effort on ground to restore Nigerians to who we are at the beginning and who we should be in terms of corruption and discipline. But when successive government came on board, they scuttle everything good things this regime did and reduce our collective lives to a mere specimen of bad images you can talk of in human existence.

Culture is what define us as a people, dirtiness is the order of the day now, just march through the Nigerian streets, nobody cares, our people urinate on the road without caution, spit every where even while driving, drop sachet of water and litter where with it. The politicians and religious bodies’ hand bills and poster have totally disfigured our highways and major roads and streets. Something conscious needs to be done quickly just as in the days of Buhari/Idiagbon when order and sanity was brought to our land, time when discipline was our watch word, time when we don’t need a preacher or too much of  instruction to do the right, a time when the leadership was the example of the people’s expectation. That time society was civil but unfortunately today discipline, orderliness, neatness and integrity was the watch word of our country. Can we still have it now? Yes we can if we can all get our senses right and cultivate that which is right as our culture.

Get a man right, everything will be right. “The most important discovery of our time is the realization that we can alter our lives by altering our attitudes.”

One fascinating story that I read about a busy executive who came home with briefcase full of work. His 6 years old was demanding time, but due to deadlines, the father reluctantly told the boy he had several hours of work that took priority. The lad asked this recurring question “Can’t you play now, Dad? The young Salesman had a brilliant idea. Before him was a newspaper containing a map of the world. He tore the paper in piece and gave it  to his son to put back together telling him that when the puzzle was finished there would be enough time to play together. The salesman bargained for some uninterrupted time. However in a matter of minutes the youngster called his dad to look at the map. Astonished the father asked how he had managed to do it so quickly. The youngster explained that on the other side of the map was a picture of a man and that once he got the man right, the world was right.

The secret of getting you right is to get your attitude right. Until the attitudinal dimension of our people changed there is no hope for our nation. Our attitude to life, work, business, governance and what have changed we will still be perambulating in an inglorious position and no progress will be recorded.  Get our people right, get our children right, get our wives right, get our husband right, get our pastor’s and imams’ right, get our leaders right everything about our national life, be it family, government, school, churches and mosques will be right.

Manner is the way or how something is done or how it happens. In other words, it is a way of acting or behaving. 

Etiquette is the rules governing socially acceptable behavior. Looking at these definitions you will all agree with me that homosexuality that is being debated in the National Assembly today is alien to our culture, our manner and etiquette. When value is still value nobody would ever entertain it. At the beginning examination malpractices, day light robbery, pen robbery, Police killing innocent citizens because of N20 was alien to our culture and mannerisms. So many anomalism that I can’t mention here, because of space and time that have permeated the entire society. The paradox now is that, the right becomes wrong and the wrong becomes right.

What went wrong? Where exactly do we miss it? 

When a nation lost its identity, when a nation celebrate what is wrong, evils, men who suppose to be thrown into a prison that nobody should know about, when political office holders are men and women who looted the country treasury, men who runs down our good cultural heritage, men who sell themselves cheap because of money, invariably we set a wrong standard and send a wrong signals to the public that, this is the new order. We thought our children cannot see and hear all these abnormalities, they can see and hear. The signal today is that hardwork, honesty, integrity and discipline do not pay, what pays is the dishonesty, indiscipline, corruption and what have you.

Until this nation go back to the very good beginning and emulate the good culture that shun, hate and punish evils, impunity, and corruption. Culture that promote social justices, culture that make my children feel good about themselves, culture that will give my children a sense of belonging in the affairs of their nation. Unless we all wake up to our responsibility and be responsive we may never get out of this chaotic disorder and if care is not taken it will be worst that this in the days to come.

Dotun A. George

President, Youth Development Commission