Victor C. Ariole
Listening to children and how they perceive future on WAZOBIA’s ‘Kodi and the kids’, it remains evident that some of Nigerian children are not ready to face the future either because of faulty parenting or wrong educational system that seem to ignore morality. Parents could over pamper their children to a point that they believe so much in them and ignore others in the society as they grow in not knowing what is right or wrong like it was reported of superstars bribing their children’s way to great universities in the USA. It could also be the pressure of capitalist dogma of the end justifies the means as long as you are not caught in all the cheating games as wrong or right does not matter.
Capitalist values are mentioned here because well-known socialist/communist countries seem to be caving in to capitalism. Educational systems in Russia and China seem to be jettisoning the morality they have been observing in the past in which pyramid of knowledge is well observed and people’s levels and capacities are made to fit into the pyramid so as not to overtask or frustrate their brain and still keep them relevant in the society.
Capitalism seems to have adapted to the Christian values that expect people to gain from their sweat as well as care for the poor as welfare programmes are taken into account. And beyond the Ten Commandments, a higher moral quotient expects people to love their neighbour as their selves so as to know their boundaries of what is right or wrong towards their fellow beings.
Someone told me that he went into a hostel his child was sharing with two other people and he decided to furnish it to taste for all of them but got a shock as the other children resented what he did and reported him. That is non observance of a greater moral quotient of his part and so it showed among Kodi and the kids.
Some children on that show said that they would rather remain children all their lives or delay being adult so that they can live longer as the burden of care continues to be on their parents. In effect they don’t ever anticipate their parents weaning them from their pampering attitude and allowing them to face their own life. May be because Africa is still observing sane family relationship that goes beyond nuclear family.
I watched a small boy being dropped at a bus stop without minding whether he will get lost or not simply because a court process that allowed the divorce of mother and father instructs that they should not see each other again but they could be sharing the moments of keeping the child as they pick him on an agreed location and return him on agreed dates for the relay mission till he gets to 18. This is where growing to carry your own cross comes in and it require balancing the educational process with morality. Extended family in Africa will frown at dropping a child but the educational system in Africa that creates more of Almajiri children would not be seeing it as dropping the child for the vagaries of rough weathers that could lead to having a grown-up that could be hardened.
Some of the children in that Kodi programme expressed the intention of getting to adulthood very quick; and, in their opinions it is either they have already sighted or observed a model they want to emulate like Engineers, doctors, pilots, etc. or that they want to be independent of their parents who are always sending them on errands or watching their movements. Here, again, is the confluence of morality and education for a sustainable society or humanism.
Childlike innocence is interesting to live but the reality is that society and its moral base could make it dangerous for the child that must enter adulthood. Most of the queer attitudes observed in what the West expect to be seen as politically correct to be called ‘minority’ or ‘exceptional’ groups are what educational process has failed to see in matching moral quotient with brain capacity.
There are lots of confusion among the youths if the right educational process is not put in place to check further drifting of moral quotient and knowledge pyramid of mere information acquisition that cannot reach understanding and right application levels, not to talk of interpreting and synthesising for greater moral application. It is right to provide for a child so that he or she avoids coveting or stealing. It is as well wrong if he or she is not taught how to fend for themselves for a sustainable society.
That confusion was observed when I met six ladies from Taiwan who claim they believe in themselves as their parents still believe in isolating themselves from China. The language is ‘believe in themselves’ to remove totally religion and parental guidance. It seems to be what China had taught them as they envy the state of prosperity in China and clamour for the annexation of Taiwan by China. Our discussion centred on education and I discovered that they were educated in a way that made them abhor the communist system but could not reconcile the prosperity they are seeing there that dwarfs their own Taiwanese education. It is the same way some youths are viewing educational system that does not guarantee prosperity.
However, what is missing in all is the morality quotient as they, like children of the Kodi show, see in the parents as no more capable of providing or are stupid in not knowing how to dissent and key in to the new prosperity without minding the moral basis of that new prosperity.
The moral basis is that authority must not be questioned and the only political party must direct in tandem with selected/elected leaders that must make sure that the people are working for the collective wellbeing devoid of any loyalty to any religion or believe system. Quite in opposition to saying ‘you believe in yourself’ when you can never live in isolation and you are to observe certain rules that amount to ‘ghost belief system’.
Youths are not capable of believing themselves in a world that is social and in a social that is culture driven and cultures that are ever dynamic and always seeking moral signposts to hold on to if, indeed, harmony and societal sustainability is to be attained. Technology has interfered in humanistic morality and world education summit is needed to instil harmony. Like climate change like morality change and only education with some minimalist blueprint drive can save humanity.
Ariole is Professor of French and Francophone Studies. University of Lagos.