04/11/2020
HOW NIGERIA SOCIETY GRADUALLY INFLUENCED & CONTRIBUTED TO MORAL DECADENCE THAT AFFECTED ITS INNOCENT YOUTHS
We have always hammered it here that little things matters a lot especially at the end; because if a small cooking pot was contemptuously neglected on fire, its boiling overflow is capable of quenching a great cooking fire. Therefore, we must endeavour to also highlight here, some of the areas by which the society aid in corupting itself through wrong policies by leaders at various levels.
1. Handwork Practicals at Schools:
Hand work in the likes of crafting ropes, brooms, baskets, carvings etc was a continueous process of ensuring that pupils and students of elementary and Secondary schools respectively begins life by using their hand to produce useful materials. Such practice which was part of the school discipline was supervised at intervals as work-in-progress by the teachers concerned. The students got their recorded marks which form part of the examiniation scores. Finally, the cummulative items so produced were sold in the open market and the proceeds put in the schools fund. It was therefore supprising that due to the craze for raw cash, the school authorities neglected and withdrew the manual craft practice and opted to receiving finished products like toilet papers, plastic items, plates and finally raw cash for higher mark scores to the students. Do students or their families produce toiltet paper rools in their homes? What we thought was quick gains has today helped to land our society in get-rich quick syndrom. Monetary Inclinations!
2. Harvest Thanksgiving in Churches:
Havest in the past as the name suggests, is the harvesting of ones farm products at the end of the year and the best product/s of the harvest brought to the church at an officiallly predetermined date of thanksgiving assembly. This created the love to work harder to produce more bumper harvests for the next years thanksgiving service. Even the Catholic Church Mission was popular for doing after-harvest barzzar sales of the offerings to commercialize and monitize the proceeds at greater gains. Later on, the churches and church organisations prefer raw cash instead of people harvesting what they sowed or planted for the period. As for the cities where almost all worshippers are corporate workers, it may be acceptable but what about those farmers in the village too? Such system may sometimes demand for more than the people are able at a time but a farmer cant go to farm and harvest more than he has planted or achieved for the season. Monetary inclinations!
3. Government take-over of Mission Schools:
In the past, the moral training and folkwisdom at the family level was complemented with the exact experience back at school with good social behavours, including the fear of God and respect for humanity at large. As the schools were later taken over from the missionary owners through fiat and military decrees; government, its new owner jetitioned religious studies, prayers, civics and ancient history subjects etc. If children are not inculcated with the fear of God at young age, how do we expect them to fear or respect mortal being at grown up age? Creation of diliquency in youths!
4. Overemphassized Paper Qualifications:
The nation has laid too much emphassis on paper qualifications such that its citizens are prepared to do anything evil and dangerous to acquire it. The love for paper qualification blinded the eyes of policy makers to the extent that science, engineeing, technology and tecnmical forums were neglected to the backseat in the nations accademic and corporate considerations. Today, both students and their parents are culpable in the saga of examination malpractices commonly referred to as xpo. It is so sad that people/parents buy off other students results to gain advantage position in admission or employment. Examination malpractices has become a norm in some schools known as special centers and in some families where hard work and study has been religated to the achives of history.Instead of reading at school, students prefer to join cult groups and bad gangs in order to threaten the lecturers for unmerited marks; even for exams they did not participate in. Worse still, when such circles of youths grow up as lecturers, they want the female student to zip down or fail his papers for a re-sit. Coruption in the corridors of correction!
5. Federal Character & State of Origin Syndrome:
Federal Character and State of origin syndrome are twin monsters that have made the beneficiaries to believe that if they struggle hard or not a place is reserved already for them in advance. The policy is a direct way of making mockery of the whole system as mideocrity is celebrated while the intelligent suffer loss because of his/her Federal Character or State of Origin disadvantages. It forces some of its victims to go into forgery and lies on their real status of identity. Imagine being the best student in the class and watching the poorest student in your class gain an admission in same educational or corporate institution where you are rejected for the above reasons. If the best cannot get the admission or job, why expect the best as workers at the commercial and the industrial sectors? Do we really need the best performance in our national spheres? If yes; can plantain tree produce orange fruits? No! It is a natural law that what you sow is that you reaps. Garbage in garbage out!
6. Praise Singing at High Places & for the Wrong People:
In the past, the family and the religious institutions reshape the society at large. Then, community, church and the society are critical of where any rich individual obtained his wealth. And that made people to be extra careful of their action and inactions in the community. Today, the family, and even the religious communities are resahaped by the external society. Therefore, the family, church, community and the larger society are not interested in where the wealth comes from so long as they expect to have a taste of the action. While the corporate societies are saying, ‘what is in it for me?’ the youths are requesting indirectly by asking, ‘anything for the boys?’ All these group of people do praise singing of people with dubious characters. That has therefore removed shamefacedness in criminalisms and corruption based wealth acquisituions. Aiding & abeting corruption as an acomplice!
7. Youths Disorientation by the Military:
In the original culture of the Nigerin clans, the traditional rulers headed by the Oba, King, Chief, Emir or the Obi has enomos powers of natural authority to rule over his subjects ease of obedience. During the military era of the nation, the Federal Military Government through the respective State Governors in attempt to ensure that their decrees and fiats are obeyed in military grand style, desecrated and disgraced the position of the traditional rulers and pulled away their ruling powers before the communities. Such youths were quick to take advantage of the odd situation of incarceration of the Traditional Rulers and turned hardened disobedient to community native orders by clan chiefs. This was made worse, especially as militarys profane public displays also aided in militarizing the youths to be as threatening as the armed robbers, eg area boys, agboros, militants, cults and secret societies etc. Kings lost power of public administration of their domain communities. Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs!
8. Politicians Misuse of our Youths:
When partisan politics arrived at the end of military era, the Politicians who are also partly dominated by retired soldiers took further advantage of the militancy created in the youths and engaged them as bodygaurds or secreet personal defence army against political opponents and parties. What they have succeded in bequiting to their contemporary youths are nothing but demoralization, militarization, monitizationa and ungovernable disposition. Currently, the mindset of some youths are centered on acquiring massive wealth in split seconds but are not thinking of how to work towards it. They rather rely on financial pacification and, or evil thoughts of hostage taking, rob, r**e, and terrorizing of the same people who corrupted them into joblessness and idlleness. What goes around comes around!
To be cont;
+Lawrence Sc Egwali.
