Today’s children: Tomorrow’s leaders?

Yesterday May 27, 2016 was marked as Children’s Day in Nigeria. I am not sure if the 10 million out-of-school children in the country were part of the occasion. Are they even aware that such a day exists? Even for children privileged to be in school, one wonders if there was so much for them to celebrate as Nigerian children. The prevailing state of the average Nigerian child raises some fundamental but multifaceted questions about not only his prolonged plight of huge deprivations but also of the collective failure by the home and the school to guarantee his rights as well as basic needs. The challenges confronting the Nigerian child become more disturbing when the inadequacies from which he suffers and their cumulative impacts on his intellectual and moral upbringing are put into context. Worse still, the Nigerian child today is himself part of the problem. Yet, ‘Today’s children,’ as the popular saying goes, ‘are tomorrow’s leaders.’
Nigerian children suffer from huge deprivations such as limited access to qualitative education and primary healthcare, hunger, malnutrition and disease. Many children in different parts of the country sit on bare floors or share seats in the classroom to learn. The almajiri syndrome which is more pronounced in northern states of Nigeria has been left to become intractable. The failure to achieve an integrated system that blends Qur’anic schools with the UBE programme is largely responsible for the survival of this menace which allows school-age children to be begging for alms on the streets. Those who are physically-challenged among Nigerian children receive little attention. I doubt if 10 percent of the 774 local government areas in the country has a school for the blind or for the deaf and dumb. The worst of these deprivations comes from the home. Some parents are too busy (probably out of un-measured pursuit of wealth) to have time to show love and care for their children; two psychological ingredients of training needed by children in this formative period of their lives.
The generation of children I belonged to felt inspired by many political leaders in the first and second republics of this country. As young boys and girls, we grew up to also admire the public and private lives of some public officers. Although they were naturally few, they include Alhaji Muhammadu Jega, Alhaji Hassan Lemu, Alhaji Sulaiman Liman Agaie, Chief Sunday Awoniyi, Sheikh Ahmed Lemu; and much later the likes of Prof Tam David West and Prof Olukoye Ransome-Kuti (who gave up smoking when he became minister of health).
My worry now is the crop of leaders and public officers Nigeria produced in the past 16 years. A bleak future is looming for this country if it is this set of leaders that we expect our own children to derive inspiration from. What kind of inspiration have Nigerian children derived from shameless political leaders who saw nothing wrong in converting chambers of the National Assembly into boxing or wrestling rings? If political leaders are supposed to be models whose life children should emulate, then, there is likelihood that today’s children who would be leaders in different capacities after 20 or 30 years would be a hybrid crop of corrupt leaders who are not going to be less bribable and less corrupted than those they ‘innocently’ admired, including James Ibori, Chief Olabode George, Patricia Etteh, Demiji Bankole, Faruk Lawan, Nyesom Wike and Ayodele Fayose.
Some public officers in government as well as private sectors who should be exemplary have corrupted the tender psyche of our children; re-defining though wrongly certain ethical concepts that include trust, modesty and patriotism. One sincerely hopes that Nigerian children who saw the level of colossal corruption that perverted all sectors, especially under the Jonathan-led administration will not grow to see looting of public treasury as a virtue or regard Cecilia Ibru, Abdulrasheed Maina and those currently standing trail in ‘Dasukigate’ as heroes. If they do, what happens when they take charge of this country as leaders? Is this not a thing to worry about?
Now, let us review the behavioural patterns of today’s children compared to what some of us who are now in our 50s were as children or youths. Besides the textbooks used in our various school subjects, we read newspapers and magazines. For those of us in Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs), J.S. Farrant, P.O. Adeyemo, Adu Bohen, Bashir Sambo, Sheikh Ahmed Lemu and M.O. Abdul as authors of some of the textbooks in use then were household names among students. Even as post-primary school graduates, we felt motivated to be zealous readers of novels. We competed among ourselves in reading novels to allow the copies we got from our elder brothers then in the universities reach everyone in our group of friends within limited time. This was how we got to read most of the titles in the James Hadley Chase series. Although a copy of a Hadley Chase novel cost only 80 kobo then, we had no money to buy them. I got to read these novels through Alhaji Muhammadu Abu who picked Engr. Abu (his elder brother’s) copies for us to read and sometimes through Malam Bagudu Usman Umaru who borrowed them from Ya-Kudu Jadoo or Yanda A.G.
The story of our children’s generation who should be leaders of tomorrow is quite sad. They neither read newspapers nor novels. Have they even read the textbooks for their various school subjects? They seldom visit libraries to consult reference materials or even read their own books. This explains why they have poor communication skills. Indeed, they are poor in everything including record keeping. It takes them days or weeks to locate their last term’s report sheet or note books. I still have some of my TTC notebooks and report sheets. The internet is their ‘life’ and their handsets their ‘textbooks.’ They find motivation more in music than any other human activity. Is this the set of children that will be contesting in about 25 years’ time or less to become governors, senators, and Reps members? There is really something to worry about.
We take advantage of the 2016 Children’s Day to empathise with children living in IDP camps. We also pray for the Nigerian military to succeed in rescuing the Chibok schoolgirls that are still in the hands of their abductors. May Allah (SWT) guide Nigerian children to find motivation more in virtuous leaders and endeavours that will make better leaders tomorrow, amin.