Certainly there aren’t enough hours in a day for him to listen to everyone. Aside from the African Union, United Nations, European Union and World Bank, and foreign governments, he will be advised by governors, ministers, the National Council of State, the Economic Management Team, senior party officials, and a plethora of public affairs analysts […]
Our children are the future!
Certainly there aren’t enough hours in a day for him to listen to everyone. Aside from the African Union, United Nations, European Union and World Bank, and foreign governments, he will be advised by governors, ministers, the National Council of State, the Economic Management Team, senior party officials, and a plethora of public affairs analysts and newspaper columnists. GMB will further be advised by a retinue of special and senior special advisers (President Jonathan had 120!). A short anecdote should suffice to instruct on the matter of receiving advice. When incoming US President George Bush, Jnr. asked his father (himself a former US president) who he should take advice from, the latter retorted “son, presidents don’t take advice. They listen to opinions and take decisions”. While GMB will do well to appoint technocrats with master’s degrees (not theoretical professors or PhD holders) as ministers and advisers, he alone will have to decide the direction of his administration. The failure of the Jonathan presidency was rooted in its lack of direction caused by taking poor advice and not taking necessary decisions. The abysmally vague transformation program never inspired citizens to move the nation forward in any specified direction. In the early 1980s, Nigeria was progressively becoming industrialized with a relatively stable economy and currency, as well as good business and employment opportunities. Back then our main problems were indiscipline by members of the public and corruption of leaders. After being overthrown as military head of state in 1983, GMB has eventually succeeded in regaining the office in 2015. The adage “be careful what you ask for because you may just get it!” is appropriate in his case. The effects of failure to change our ways in the 1980s have now manifested and GMB will inherit a broken down nation, with a ruined economy, few large scale industries offering mass employment, non-existent graduate employment prospects, worsening predictions for the future, and a destroyed social fabric. Anyone viewing recent pictures of the malnourished and diseased children rescued from Sambisa forest will be appalled and wonder if we have any right to continue self-acclaiming ourselves as the “Giant of Africa”. How could this have been happening to our citizens while the politicians were busy banqueting, praising themselves and seeking re-election? We can only imagine what conditions the Chibok girls must be facing. We have become emotionally detached from pictures of starving disease-ridden children in African countries suffering from the effects of lack of rainfall and subsequent famine. Disgracefully, children of the Sambisa forest aren’t products of a natural disaster but a man-made one. The outgoing Jonathan-led administration just didn’t give a damn, but that’s history now. What’s important is that it must never ever happen again. Legendary musician George Benson is best known for his hit 1977 song “Greatest Love of All”, whose opening lyrics are “I believe the children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way”. These words speak to us, because they highlight the need for change in the priorities of political leaders. In practical terms it means the real direction for any government should be to properly prepare children for the future instead of mistakenly trying to prepare the future for children. The collapse of the public school system (while political leaders send their children to private schools or overseas) indicates our failure in this respect. Although in 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it hasn’t translated into improved legal protection for our children. As a nation we have accepted children hawking or begging on the streets of our cities even during school hours as normal. Despite our claims to “greatness” Nigerian children continue to suffer from poverty, discrimination, lack of access to medical facilities, poor education, child abuse, forced labour, child marriage, female genital mutilation, and child trafficking. Advocates of child rights highlight these failures and the weakness of the juvenile justice system. Nigerian children come into contact with the law because of poverty, our failed educational system, family problems, social inequality, drug abuse or peer pressure. Quite incredulously government sources say that approximately 6,000 juveniles are in prison and detention centres in many parts of the country and the majority of them were convicted and jailed without counselling by any sort of child psychologist or social worker. Born into a culture of institutionalized corruption, examination malpractice, get-rich-quick mentality, and disrespect for law and order they are the real victims of our failures as a nation. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, less than half (47%) of children have access to secondary school education, and over 75% of those who attend fail their school leaving examinations. Disastrously for the few who pass, the curriculum in our secondary schools is inconsistent with post-secondary employment requirements. Furthermore there is little investment in institutions providing access to qualitative and functional vocational education. Lamentably, Nigerian children who aren’t economically disadvantaged suffer from an overexposure to western cultures occasioned by the proliferation of cable or satellite TV and the internet. They are hooked on alien cultures which make them talk, dress and act as if they have no culture or traditional roots of their own. Nigerians desperately need and desire a better country, a more responsible government, a more caring society and better prospects for the future. It goes without saying that none of these can manifest themselves until all the ills affecting our children are addressed.
