Nigeria News
Mentoring The Youths For National Development
By Bilikis Bakare
The quest for economic prosperity and improved standard of living has led to myriads of domestic problems world-wide, chief of whom is poor parenting. This has resulted in the perpetration of social vices such as kidnapping, pipeline vandalism, suicide bombing, prostitution and raping of innocent girls and women among others. Invariably, the affected youths will become a menace to the society due to their evil practices as they turn to miscreants and street urchins popularly referred to in local parlance as “area boys”.
In traditional African society, it is believed that although two people come together to bring forth an offspring, many people will partake in guarding and guiding the child to maturity. But due to the so-called civilization and the adoption of western lifestyle, communal form of living is going into extinction as people now distance themselves from their relatives and extended family members. ‘I don’t want any family problems’ is now a common expression that one now hears from the so-called educated elite.
The usual practice of learning from the wise to become wise is now a thing of the past as youth delinquency is now on the increase in our society. We are now in an era of absentee parenting; children are now left in the care of nannies and maids who are themselves a little more than a child to instil bad values in the wards left in their care. Oftentimes, these children are abused by their supposed guardians. Therefore, in order to bring the youths back on the right track and to maintain peace in the society, mentoring remains one of the main effective tools.
Mentoring is a relationship where a less experienced person learns from a more experienced one over a period of time. It is impossible for someone to learn or discover everything and not want to learn from the people around. Indeed, life is even too short for one to learn or know everything all alone. From birth till date, people that we have come across have been instrumental in one way or the other to what we have achieved in life so far. A mentor can be younger or older; the most important thing is that the mentor should be able to impact on the life of the mentee to the extent that the former will turn the destiny of the latter around for good. Parents can also be mentors to their children by intimating them with their past mistakes and failures, which they had paid dearly for, in order to prevent the children from falling into same trap.
In the years gone by, it is a thing of pride for a person to be called a mentor, but the reverse is the case these days as people do not want to mentor because they are afraid the mentee may be greater and more successful than them in future. Little do those people realise that when someone dies, it is the belief in Africa that angels are sent out to listen to tributes that flow from people around and report back to the Almighty God. These tributes will form part of what he would be judged by on judgment day.
The late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a mentor to many people, some of whom are not blood relations. At his death and even till date, encomiums still pour in for him on his memorial. Some of those he mentored including his children have never failed to celebrate his birthday even after his death. Same goes for Professor Chinua Achebe who died recently. People, all over the world, who have been inspired one way or the other by his writings or his books, showered him with encomiums at his death.
There are other benefits that accrue to the mentor which includes sense of satisfaction, literarily changing lives and destinies of the mentee, giving back what others had given you and also making the mentor skilful in areas of expertise. If one takes into cognizance all these benefits and more, the idea of mentoring should be an exciting adventure of helping people to get ahead.
Even in the animal kingdom, the lion is called the king of the jungle not because he is the strongest, heaviest, the most intelligent or the wisest but because he is a team player. A lion will always alert other lions if there is a prey to be devoured, therefore a lion does not take credit for any success achieved alone. This shows that there is strength in unity.
Elderly people in the community should take it upon themselves to identify a disaster waiting to happen in youths, so that they will be able to nip it in the bud by being open, honest and freely sharing their experiences and knowledge. This will empower the youths to make choices. Also, an aspiring mentor should be ready to serve as a backdrop for the mentee by steadfastly standing behind the latter through thick and thin in order to achieve success.
Peace has become elusive in Nigeria today because there is dearth of mentoring and mentors. If the affluent and gifted people in the country have been taking it upon themselves to mentor the disadvantaged ones, the country will by now be a better place to live in. The same goes for parents. If they have not been shirking their responsibilities by running after money, power and material wealth, the country would have been blessed with responsible and godfearing youths that will respect the sanctity of fellow human lives.
Also, individuals should learn to plan their families. A situation where people that earn meagre salaries or low incomes give birth to children that their income cannot adequately catered for, should be discouraged, because the excess ones will not receive adequate care. It is this category of children that often turn out to be social misfits.
Therefore, it is now time to go back to the drawing board to identify and address the causes of the moral decadence among the youths and tackle them promptly. Parents, care givers, guardians and governments at all levels should organise a stakeholders’ conference in order to bare their minds and find a lasting solution to moral decadence among the youths.
It is equally important that moral instruction becomes an important subject in our schools. Right from the early years, students should be exposed to some moral values that will be part of them as they grow older. Parents should also make it a duty to inculcate religious practices in their children in their formative years by taking them along to their religious meetings.
The youth represents the very essence of every nation; put them on the right path and the nation will be better off. If we are to achieve the much needed national development and social rebirth, we need to give utmost attention to the all round well being of our youth.
•Bakare is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
Insecurity: Lagos bans occupation of abandoned buildings
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