Stop teaching kids how to denigrate leaders

Our discourse today seeks to go against the wisdom embedded in a Nupe adage, which says, “Do not point at your birthplace with the left hand.” It means one is not expected to point an accusing finger at his birthplace, his people, culture or heritage. However, like David J. M. Muffet whose account of the […]

Our discourse today seeks to go against the wisdom embedded in a Nupe adage, which says, “Do not point at your birthplace with the left hand.” It means one is not expected to point an accusing finger at his birthplace, his people, culture or heritage. However, like David J. M. Muffet whose account of the 1966 coup d’état in Nigeria is titled “Let truth be told”, this writer finds it necessary to defy the Nupe proverb under reference. One should not be tempted by sentiments to be silent when it’s not golden to do so. This position is further informed by the divine injunction that overrides the adage. Allah commands in Qur’an 4:135 saying “O ye who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witness to Allah even as against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor, for Allah can best protect both; follow not the lust (of your hearts), lest ye swerve ….”

A video clip that went viral earlier in the day and had since then been trending was shown to me when I visited a colleague last week Saturday, February 17, 2024. The clip was about a debate among primary school pupils in Agaie, my birthplace. In the 4mins 6secs video clip, the schoolboy whom I guess was the lead-debater, introduced himself as: “My name is Abdul-Kabir Abdulkadir from Kasimu Primary School, Agaie. I’m here to oppose the motion: Voting should be mandatory.”

The stylish manner and the confidence with which the schoolboy spoke would hold every listener and watcher of the clip spell-bound. He said, “Firstly, the use of force in a democratic setting is unconstitutional. Forcing people to vote undermines democracy itself. People should be free to choose who to lead them. Making it mandatory to vote is directly taking away this freedom.” … The credibility of any elections is for people to be allowed to come out enmass on their own to vote….”

After one minute or so into the schoolboy’s presentation, the language of the discourse soon turned vulgar as if the speaker were an adult speaking out of accrued frustrations and deep dissatisfactions with the government in power. I felt flabbergasted when the clip showed the debater saying, “Leaders that have turned out to be bunch of thieves, gold-diggers, betrayers, hungry lions, and have diverted from their constitutional functions. I beg you Baba-God, scatter them, destroy them including ….” The wrongly guided young debater added, “O thunder! Where are you? This is the time that you are supposed to strike …” I cross-examined myself asking whether the clip before my eyes was still that of a debater, cultist or a ritualist?

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Those discourteous expressions that swiftly changed the tone of the debate unsettled me at once and I gave the handset from which I was watching the clip back to my host. This damning aspect of the presentation immediately shattered all the good opinions I had about the event from the beginning particularly because it took place in a school located where most schools, pupils and even the teachers lack access to basic teaching and learning facilities.

Given the tension occasioned by severe hardships that since left many Nigerians frustrated and angry, it was not surprising that the contents of the viral clip appealed to a lot of those who watched it. People simply saw the naïve schoolboy as a ‘little star’ speaking on their behalf. But given this writer’s background as a trained teacher certified at different levels with Teachers’ Certificate (TC) II, NCE, and a Bachelor’s degree in Education, it only behooves that the demonstration of any professional misconduct is aptly denounced. Yet, this does not in any way suggest that bad policies of government should not be criticized. Indeed, there are several better ways by which the teachers could have guided the debater to genuinely convey the same message without cursing leaders.

Like home, the school is not a place for teaching young minds how to denigrate leaders or anybody at all. Insulting leaders is a bad habit that must never be cultivated in schoolchildren, no matter how bad the former had become. Doing that is professionally unethical, morally scandalous, and totally inexcusable. The radicalization of kids at this level portends serious threats for the future of the society because they would grow up as adults who feel cursing leaders, rather than constructive criticism, is the best response to bad governance.

Every curse a citizen directs at his country or leader is a curse directed against oneself. The woes of citizens who curse their leaders shall be no less severe than the discomfort or grief that may be suffered by the accursed (i.e. leaders) because citizens and leaders live in the same country, state, city, town or village where climate or weather may be one common experience. Only few people may err, but everyone is affected when Allah sends down His wrath. The thunder the debater was calling for shall not discriminate even between the proposing and opposing teams of debaters, let alone between them and their teachers. Disasters do not separate between the rich and the poor, leaders and the led, young and the old, the healthy and the weak. The Prophet (SAW) said, “A true believer is who from whose tongue and hands other Muslims are safe”. It is prohibited in Islam to curse even a sinner. Abu Hurayrah (RA) reports that the Prophet (SAW) once stopped them from cursing a drunkard.

Western education is too old to suffer this embarrassment in Agaie, the town where the literary debate was held. The first western school in the town was established in 1915; only six years after the first western school in northern Nigeria was founded in the Nasarawa area of the old Kano city in 1909. Incidentally, the centenary anniversary of the first school in Agaie holds today Saturday, February 24, 2024 within the school; now called Abubakar I primary school.

Meanwhile, media reports indicate that the Niger State Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education had vowed to investigate the incident and the use by pupils of vulgar language. It should be noted that while the pupils are scapegoats used by their teachers to convey public ill-feelings about government, the teachers too are not to blame. The weak system that produced sub-standard teachers who couldn’t separate between formal language of debate and street language of outlaws should rather be criticized. May Allah grant teachers the knowledge and wisdom with which to raise a well-mannered generation of schoolchildren, amin.