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"It is customary, but I think it is a mistake, to speak of happy childhood. Children are often over- anxious and acutely sensitive. Man ought to be man and master of his fate;but children are at the mercy of those around them." Sir John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury INTRODUCTION A natural phenomenon is taking place in my dear country. The people as individuals and the nation as a collective are changing. Changes? Yes. There is nothing wrong with changes as life itself is not static. Life vibrates; the earth, the sun, the moon and the stars move. However the direction of the changes is what is of concern to me. Is this generation moving in the right direction? The speed with which these changes have taken place in the last 20 years is so alarming that one cannot but record the events for future generations and also use emprical evidence of this period to provide a basis for an improved and better future. These changes are alarming because our values, peace of mind, hospitality, mutual love and happiness have been taken away and replaced with fear, anxiety, mutual distrust, poverty and most importantly the loss of our identity. Identity, just as the national flag has a life of its own and a crisis of identity or loss of it is akin to the death of a person or race. We are Nigerians, nay Africans only in name, our cherished values and aspirations have since departed our lives and shores. This article is a follow up to my previous one titled “Going back to our roots� published in this medium and the urge to write was further re-enforced when I noticed that most children of today cannot sing the National Anthem. THEN AND NOW I, like most other children of my time, grew up in a family setting. In my case, I grew up in my family house in Lagos called Agbole Anibaba (Anibaba Compound) in the midst of the members of my nuclear and extended family. As kids, the first six years of our lives were spent on parental and societal education. We were close to our parents who taught us about ourselves, who we are, about society, God, mannerism, hygiene etc. We were groomed as natives with strong emphasis on native intelligence that was required then and at maturity. In essence, our parents used this period to prepare us for the challenges of latter years, challenges which you will not find in a book! I usually recapture this period of my life by remembering the song titled Time Will Tell by Jimmy Cliff It was after this that we were sent to formal school at the age of six to commence education “in the ways of the white man�. The curricula at that time also included studies about our identity, our history and our responsibilities to society. Such subjects as civics, social studies etc were taught in addition to Arithmetic and English. And the Boys Scout, Girls Guides and other similar societies were run by selfless and dedicated Nigerians to further nurture our young minds. The Boy Scout oath was something taken seriously and it tuned our young minds towards virtuous conduct. So we grew up with a clear understanding of who we were, our society, our environment etc and merely assimilated western education for the purposes of improving rather than replacing our identities. It was an unwritten code of conduct that western education was essentially to prepare us for white collar jobs, not to transform us to African ‘Oyibo’. Indeed majority of our mates who left for England and other western countries did so as a result of their failure to pass school certificate examinations while those whose parents could afford the luxury (to taste western education and lifestyle) were in the minority. Our parents, God bless them handed over to us a banner without stain! They did not raise us as slaves! Our formative years were built on solid foundation. NOW But now, children are raised with a view to replacing their identity with that of the white man, in spite of the fact that less than 20% of them will ever live or visit the white man’s land. From the age of the two they are bundled off to pre-nursery where the entire curriculum is about the white man. Whenever I see these kids in the wee hours of the morning I could not but remember Louis Armstrong as he made his first journey to the moon. At home, the parents return late in the evenings while the children had gone to sleep after watching such programmes as Scooby Doo, Tom and Jerry, Batman, Spiderman and playing computer/ internet games. It is therefore not surprising that most of our children today cannot sing the national anthem or recite the pledge. But they can sing any Michael Jackson or Awilo’s song with impeccable accuracy. Why national anthem or pledge? The beneficial psychological impact of knowing these can best be appreciated by the manner in which Mr. Joe Clark used the school song not only as a unifying but a corrective tool in turning East Side High School from a jungle to an institution of repute (Film:LEAN ON ME). The first assignment he gave to every student was to learn and memorize the school song. Most of our children don’t know who they are or where they come from. They have little knowledge about their country and her people; perhaps they don’t even see themselves as Africans. The fear of the village "witch or wizard " and the colonial mentality of going abroad to have them also make it impossible for their parents to show them their roots. These children grow up unprepared for the society in which they live. This often leads to a disconnect between them and society. A void is created and since nature abhors a vacuum the stimuli is responded to through restiveness, drugs, prostitution, examination malpractices etc. We, parents are sacrificing the future of our children through our myopic view of life and inferiority complex. That is what I call the second slavery. We are handing over to them a banner that is not only stained but which is torn into shreds - the shreds being the disjointed pieces of their lives! And the signs are already showing. It will therefore not be surprising if in a few years a Cameroonian, a Togo lese or Lebanese inherit the land of our forefathers. Or an Ekiti man will claim that the land in Ibadan belongs to his forefathers. The children of today, no matter their level of academic achievements will grow up to be ignorant about things that affect them because we raised them up to lose their identities and their roots! It is customary these days to see a wanton corruption of our history by mischievous people. Even the accounts of the civil war, June 12 , Abacha years etc are being manipulated by people for personal, political or ethnic gains in the glare of all of us who witnessed these events. In this connection, I will like to advise that a study of the Nigerian history be instituted in all schools, whether public or private. The government should direct the Ministry of Education to commission historians and publishers to provide standard texts for schools. Nigerian history is rich enough for both primary and secondary education. Finally, publishers should as a matter of urgency flood our markets with books written by our forebears. For instance, I don’t think one can get a copy of the books written by Chief Awolowo (voice of reason, wisdom, courage etc) or those written by Alvan Ikoku anywhere in Nigeria today. Yet Spectrum and some other publishers are still in existence. They just have to re-awaken the Nigerian spirit in us, so that we can buy these books which will make their organizations profitable. Why can’t Chief Awolowo’s or other books be read in schools as part of the curriculum? Why would this generation of Nigerians want to sever the link between our past and our future? CONCLUSION I want to appeal to parents, educational institutions, publishers and other stakeholders to assist our country and the children of today in this social reform effort that will ensure the preservation of our cherished past. Let us bring our past and our being to the front row in national discourse. A people in the wilderness, like the Israelis delivered by Moses are directionless, unproductive, un-coordinated, and above all will almost likely be visited by miseries. Our heritage is as important, if not more important than our economy, oil reserves, foreign reserves etc . Let me leave you with the concluding part of THE CONSCIENCE OF THE NATION MUST BE ROUSED BY FREDERICK DOUGLASS (Independence Day Speech 1852. Source: The Book of Virtues) “What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages, there is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of United States at this very hour.� Please do me a favour by replacing United States of America in this quote with Nigeria and tell me the result. Thank you Taslim Anibaba(FCA) 16th November 2005
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Posted by Robot| 16.11.2005 16:17