Where are our values?

While driving recently along a neighborhood street, I stopped over to greet some neighbors. It was a stop-over that introduced me to two new definitions of today’s Nigerian youth. Shortly after exchanging pleasantries with the neighbors, a group of four teenage boys from the neighborhood walked and passed us. However, the unruly manner by which […]

While driving recently along a neighborhood street, I stopped over to greet some neighbors. It was a stop-over that introduced me to two new definitions of today’s Nigerian youth. Shortly after exchanging pleasantries with the neighbors, a group of four teenage boys from the neighborhood walked and passed us. However, the unruly manner by which the young boys passed by our side caught our attention. As we stood lamenting at such show of disrespect, we soon noticed three other young boys quarrelling at a distance of about fifteen meters. We responsibly intervened but the boys ignored every bit of our attempt to pacify them. Our scolding at their action rather landed on deaf ears. Disrespect and disobedience, as witnessed in the two instances, were the new definitions of “youth” or “youthfulness” that were added to my list of vocabularies in the short stop-over. The scenario only suggests systemic failure on the part of the family and school systems in contemporary Nigeria. Our celebrated values do not seem to be with the younger generation.

This unfortunate situation is forcing a sort of reminiscence on us. While we were growing up as children, it was not possible to meet or pass by an elder or anyone older than you without greeting him, whether he is known to you or not. This is the culture of the traditional northern Nigerian community in which I was born and grew up. By means of the values extolled in our culture as we grew up, we were expected to collect loads from the hands of elders and take such to the desired destination. You are not required to know the person you are rendering such a service. The elder shows gratitude by giving you his blessings without any cash essentially accompanying the appreciation. I also want to believe that the same cultural values obtained in traditional Southern Nigerian society. But where are these values today?

Many parents today have failed in their responsibilities as fathers and mothers who have moral obligations of nurturing well-behaved children. They are busy chasing money or power from north to south and from east to the west of the country; having no time for monitoring and checking the excesses of their children and wards. Others think it is parental “love” to refuse sanctioning deviant behaviors in children. That, perhaps, explains why some parents are prepared to fight teachers who take disciplinary measures against their badly-behaved children. One would be surprised if children of such irresponsible parents greet their teachers after graduation.

Our late father who lived and died as a school teacher never enrolled us in the school he taught; for fear that we were going to be coddled by his colleagues. It was not possible for me to travel without giving prior notice to my father at least two days before the journey. This continued even when I was an under-graduate, even though I was married. I also remember that my second position in primary five earned me a second-hand bicycle from my father. Yet, he never allowed me to ride it to school. I went to school on foot like most children. Some of us would say the control was extreme. But I think those of us who went through such rigourous home-training have no regrets. I only rode the bicycle whenever I went on errands. I had a memorable time riding the bicycle when I accompanied my father to several villages during the 1973 census enumeration exercise. Today, the parking spaces on campuses have been taken over by students’ vehicles. I find it quite amazing when some parents, in defence of the “love” for their children, argue that “times have changed”. This, in my opinion, is an excuse that is inexcusable. So, if times have changed, values should also change?

The tone in school discipline, which we used to know, has similarly been lost. I did not know my house-master in the Teachers’ College until in my final year, form five; and that was because there was a form to be endorsed by him for his house members. House captains and class monitors in the old good days of secondary education were assertive enough that their classmates never dared them. Discipline poses a great challenge to many schools in the country today. Truly, some of the problems that led to the collapse of the education system in Nigeria cannot be isolated from hypocritical implementation of educational policies by government in addition to constant summersault in some of them. Religion at the senior secondary school level is an elective subject. When government discovered serious moral laxity among youths, it decided to introduce “Moral Philosophy” as a general studies course in our universities. History was abolished as a teaching subject at the primary school level. However, government introduced “Nigerian Peoples and Culture” as a general studies course at the university level when it was discovered that youth know very little about their nation.

The space of a newspaper column is obviously insufficient to discourse the problems bedeviling our education system, a fundamental and strategic instrument of preparing future leaders for the survival of not only our country but also our culture and heritage. May Allah (SWT) guide us to appreciate the truth that the future of our children lies in what we make of them today, amin.