The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Children

  • PMB and his crafty ‘children’ 

    SIR: “How can anyone go to bed and sleep soundly when workers have not been paid their salaries for months? I actually wonder how the workers feed their families, pay their rents and even pay school fees for their children.”

    These were the words of President Buhari while receiving a delegation of Nigerian Governor’s Forum in Abuja recently. These words, as heart touching as they are does not seem to hold true for many of his visitors – the governors. Their attitude certainly leaves much to be desired.

    According to budgIT, the Federal government under President Buhari has so far released the sum of N1. 75tn in four tranches as extra statutory allocation (bailout) to at least 23 states to enable them discharge their obligations to workers, pensioners and undertake life-touching projects and programs.

    Sadly, the situation has continued to be characteristic of “the more you look, the less you see and the more confused you become”. Complaints upon complaints by workers and pensioners, accusations and counter accusations by some brave labour leaders against state governments continue to fill the atmosphere and there appears to be no end in sight.

    It is also in the public domain that the federal government has also released the sum of N760.17 billion to states between December 2016 and July 2017, being their share of the Paris Club refunds in two tranches with a special appeal to governors to clear backlog of entitlements to workers and pensioners.

    How far the governors went in honouring this Presidential appeal is also in the public domain because many states are still heavily indebted to workers and pensioners. Allegations of diversion of these funds have continued to fly at a phenomenal dimension while investigation agencies labour to unmask the perpetrators.

    Does it mean the crafty children have developed this ungodly habit of always playing pranks on their solicitous father without his notice? Yes, the Paris Club refund belongs to the states but it came to serve an urgent need – salaries and pensions. Citizens must stay alive first, before they enjoy the super infrastructures.

    Frankly speaking, using millions of naira for instance, to erect a Zuma statue when entitlements are being owed is extremely offensive and defies all logic and common sense.

    The state houses of assembly should do more to protect the interest of the ordinary Nigerians and defend their right to quality governance. Labour unions should discourage themselves from being an appendage of their state governments if they desire to see any positive change in the welfare of their members.

    The President should do much more and go beyond just lamenting to empowering appropriate financial investigation agencies to keep an eagle eye on the disbursements of these funds by states to prevent future reoccurrence. It is time to halt this unfortunate slide.

     

    • Uwemedimo Udo 

    Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. 

  • Let’s talk single parenting

    Let’s talk single parenting

    Single parenting is one that involves either a man or a woman independently raising his or her child (children) without the financial, emotional or moral contribution or assistance of the other party.

    An individual can become a single parent as a result of the following: death, artificial insemination, divorce, abandonment etc.

    From statistics, single parents are more susceptible to psychological breakdown like clinical depression and other emotional traumas.

    A typical family is one that comprises of man (husband), the woman (wife) and their children; however, due to the increasing rate of divorce, death etc., there are more single parents than what existed in the days of yore.

    Usually, parenting goes beyond emotional availability but also involves financial responsibility. This can sometimes become a burden; especially for the single parents who have no other person to support financially.

    Single parenting affects a lot of children in many ways. They sometimes fall victim of emotional instability if parent do not create enough time to bond with them properly. The lack of proper parent-child bonding could lead to frequent feuds and misunderstandings between them.

    Most single parents can go the extra mile for their children regardless of the what  it would cost them physically, emotionally and financially; even though things don’t always go the way they want.

    It is very easy for children to fall into states of loneliness and depression, especially when they don’t get the kind of premium attention they deserve from their parent.

    They also suffer emotionally from abandonment and neglect; they in turn find it very difficult to connect with other individuals as a result of lack of confidence.

    It is advisable that couples try as much as they can to ensure that other causes of single parenthood asides death (which is unpredictable and uncontrollable) are avoided because the sundry roles of the other parent cannot be over-emphasised.

    “If a thing is broken, you do not throw it away, instead you fix it”. This is a mindset that can help couples stay together for decades and still retain the tensile strength that existed like the first time they met.

  • 17 children die of whooping cough, measles in Kano

    An outbreak of whooping cough and measles has claimed the lives of 17 children in Kiru local government area of Kano state.
    The affected children  are under the age of five in the two communities of Kiru, where eleven died of whooping cough and six of the outbreak of measles.
    The incidents happened in Kankwana and Dashi communities in Dangora ward of the local government local.
    A council health official Mallam Hassan Adamu confirmed the development in the community.
    According to him, “efforts are in the pipeline for immediate medical support to the affected communities.”
    A World Health Organisation (WHO) representative, Mallam Yakubu Sani attributed the outbreak of disease to poor routine immunization and inadequate health mobilization activity.
    A ward local person in the village, Abdullahi Rufai Kiru who also confirmed the incident, saying, “over 40 children are on the line list that are affected.”
    There are also indications that an outbreak of measles has claimed the lives of six children in Dashi community of Kiru local government area.
    The district Head of Kiru, Alhaji lbrahim Hamza Bayero has paid a condolence visit to the family of the deceased, urging the state government to deploy medical personnel to the affected areas for immediate intervention.

  • Foundation enlightens children on cleanliness

    The founder of Prince Children Foundation, Segun Fadayiro, has stressed the need to inculcate in children the habit of cleanliness and proper integration into the society to save the environment and unite the nation.

    Fadayiro, during the Sallah edition of the foundation’s sanitation and empowerment programme in Lagos, said Nigerians needed to take an interest in the welfare of other children around them apart from their biological children and relatives to create harmony.

    Prince Children Foundation is an NGO that deals with the empowerment of children.

    He said the organisation, which began two years ago, is aimed at teaching children the virtues of cleanliness and proper ways of disposing refuse to address issues affecting the environment.

    Fadayiro said the foundation was concerned with the unity of the children, hence bringing them from various classes together to interact in training and social programmes aimed at removing class and ethnic differences.

    He solicited support for programmes that unite children of all classes and ethnic groups, to further strengthen the nation’s unity while tackling problems of environmental degradation and pollution.

    He said they usually went round neighbourhoods to attract children of all ages to be part of the organisation’s programmes.

    “We go round various neighbourhoods, play music to attract children to join us then we teach them practical cleanliness by making them clean their surroundings, teach them how to properly dispose refuse while we teach other skills not leaving out the social aspect, we teach them to dance.

    “We educate and entertain them and we want more people to join us and support us because we have funding constraints.

    “Everybody wants to take care of their own children and not others; people should give more to the welfare and happiness of other children.

    “None of these children can throw refuse into drains or on the road or anyhow because of this training” he said.

    He said no less than 250 children participated in the Sallah edition, adding that the foundation has empowered and brought happiness to thousands of children in Ojodu, Anthony Village and Egbeda, and was spreading its campaign to other communities in Lagos.

    “Soon, we will have a database of participating children so that we can follow up on their progress,” he said.

    Miss Adepeju Adebayo, one of the coordinators,  said children were admitted into the club from six months to 20 years of age, to begin impacting positive values of cleanliness, sharing joy and togetherness in them early.

    “We want children to learn equality and that is why we sweep the streets together and learn all our skills in unity not minding anybody’s social status,” she said.

    She said the foundation usually held programmes for children after festive periods, adding that the programme was holding a week after Sallah so more children could participate.

    “We are trying to empower them in different skills and today we are learning how to make menthelated spirits and cleansers,” Adebayo said.

    Miss Colabo Falebo, a nine-year-old member of the club, said she would use her new skill to help people in her neighbourhood.

    “We learnt how to make spirit and cleanser, we also learnt how to use mini first aid box.

    “Now I can help people who have small wounds and I will advise people around me to use cleanser after shaving,” she said.

    Also, Miss Joy Akinwunmi, a two-year-old member of the club,  explained what she was doing in her own way “they are teaching everybody and I am dancing”.

    Mrs. Esther Irabor, one of the skills instructors, said the ability of children should not be underestimated as she noted that they would use the lessons learnt to impact on the larger society.

    The children swept Oluwole Oladejo Street in Ojodu, after which they gathered round an instructor to mix re-agents for the skills they were being taught.

  • Policeman kills wife, children, self in marital dispute

    A French policeman shot his wife and two children dead on Sunday and then killed himself after the woman told him she wanted to leave the family home, the regional prosecutor said.

    The shootings took place at the railway station in Noyon, northeast of Paris, prosecutor Virginie Girard said.

    The incident took place after the wife had earlier called gendarmes to her house following a dispute during which she had told her husband she wished to leave him.

    The officers observed that the husband, who had left, but returned while they were present, was “perfectly calm.”

    He did not object to the wife taking their five children to the house of a neighbour, who was due to give them a lift to the station in two groups.

    However, as the mother and the three youngest children waited on the station platform for the neighbour to bring the two eldest children, her husband reappeared and opened fire on his wife and two of the children, wounding them mortally before killing himself.

    Investigators were checking whether the policeman had used his service weapon and ammunition in the killings, Girard said. (dpa/NAN)

  • Okowa to parents: encourage your kids to embrace agric

    Okowa to parents: encourage your kids to embrace agric

    Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa has advised parents to encourage their children to key into the state government’s agriculture revolution programme for food sustenance in the state.

    The governor gave the advice yesterday at the inauguration of Mega Fish Farmers Cooperative Union at Okelle Farms in Ugbisi, Udu LGA.

    He said youths could take advantage of the abundant arable soil in the state to boost food production.

    He said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) through its Anchor Borrowers Programme had assisted 682 fish farmers in the state boost production.

    He added that the fish farmers now had   combined staff strength of over 2,000.

    “The oil economy appears to be going down and it is time for us as parents to talk to our children to embrace agriculture;

    “We are very glad that the number of our people engaged by this anchor programme has helped to swell up the number of entrepreneurs we have created in the last two years.

    “When you add the 682 beneficiaries in the first batch of the anchor programme to the over 3,000 that we have through Youth Agriculture Empowerment Programme (YAGEP), you will agree that our efforts at diversifying our economy through agriculture is on course.

    “Government cannot continue to employ people into the civil service; so we are happy when the CBN introduced the Anchor programme which has supported aqua-culture, rice production, among others,” he said.

    Okowa said that his administration decided to key into agriculture to reduce unemployment and enhance the culture of food sustainability.

    He commended the Mega Fish Farmers Cooperative Society for the successful commencement of sale of fish.

    Responding, the Chairman of the Cooperative, Christopher Egwuyenga, said that the farmers turned out 2, 046 tons of fish in their first batch of harvest.

  • Agonising mothers and traumatised children

    It is cries of woe and unending agonies all over the place. Mothers running helter-skelter as they scamper into safety dragging their helpless children along with them. The images we see every day on our screens are distressing and the narratives that accompany such pictures are heart breaking. From Iraq to Yemen to Syria to Libya to Egypt to Pakistan and to the recurring Afghanistan is the same gory tale of bloodbath and bloodshed.

    Do people who created these unending agonies for mothers have mothers? Do the blood thirsty world leaders who torment mothers and children have mothers? Were they born by women? Do they have sisters, aunts, nieces and children? If they do not have biological children of their own don’t they see their neighbour’s children? Don’t they see chicks following their mothers?

    When you see the harrowing images of children being daily consumed by cholera in Yemen your heart almost bleeds for those innocent children who are being punished by their country’s selfish and senseless leaders who allowed the notorious CIA to plunge their country into Civil War. Fathers and mothers are not spared by this ravaging cholera that claims a life every two hours! To date 260,000 are reported to have succumbed to the ruthless cholera majority of the victims being children.

    The story of Mosul in Iraq is not different. Blood thirsty and vengeful George Bush woke up one day and thoughtlessly decided that Iraq, the cradle of human civilization must be destroyed. Stories upon stories were invented to deceive the usually ignorant citizens of the USA that President Saddam Hussein, created by the same USA, harboured Weapons of Mass Destruction. To start with the USA has the largest variety of Weapons of Mass Destruction in the world. In fact her own arsenal is larger than that of all the countries of the world combined. The USA has no moral right to question any country’s right to self-defence.

    Iraq before the unprovoked invasion by the USA had the fourth strongest military in the world according to military sources, and she also had one of the best living conditions in the world thanks to her oil money and the socialist policies of Saddam. Bombs upon bombs were ruthlessly emptied from the skies on that country and buildings, rare historical sites were destroyed. Throughout the campaign of bloodletting, mothers and their children went through hell. Hundreds of thousands of children were killed; thousands of women were gang-raped while some had their husbands slaughtered right in their presence. Such was the terrible plight of mothers and children throughout the brutal campaign which continued for several years after the cessation of hostilities. But the war sprang up again with the emergence of ISIS also a creation of the CIA and mothers and their children once again came under the hammer.

    What a horrible sight to behold in Mosul the so-called stronghold of ISIS which was destroyed beyond recognition. However hardened a heart may be, it would melt if confronted with the human tragedy of Mosul. Buildings where mothers and children sought refuge kept tumbling down on their heads killing hundreds and inflicting life threatening injuries on many. Hospitals were destroyed and mothers watched their children die slow painful death due to lack of health care delivery services. Malnutrition and starvation has taken over in Mosul.

    Libya is a sorry tale. That oil rich country had the highest and best living standard in the whole of Africa in Gadhafi’s time. But Gadhafi committed the same ‘sin’ Saddam committed by asking to end the monopoly of the US Dollar as the standard currency of trade. The CIA raised an opposition against him; armed the opposition to the teeth and Barack Hussein Obama completed the dirty and inhuman job by assembling the so-called allies to rain tons of bombs on the beautiful country until every treasure was completely destroyed. In all of these, it is the women and children who suffered the brunt. You can imagine children who hitherto were well fed, mothers who received the best care from their government now scavenging for food in dustbins!! Hundreds of thousands of both Iraq and Libya women are now widows while their children are exposed to a blank and hopeless future.

    It is the same story in Syria where a once powerful and prosperous country is being reduced to rubbles because of the crazy policy of regime change which has been the bane of the US policy since time immemorial. Children and mothers in Syria are a sorry sight as they keep running from one refugee camp to another. A huge number of Syrians now form the bulk of refugees worldwide suffering humiliation and outright rejection in some countries.

    Afghanistan has been serially unlucky. She was for many years the punching bag of the Cold War between USSR and USA. The Taliban took over and the ubiquitous USA believed it was their birth-right to export suffering, humongous suffering to the mothers and children of the God-forsaken country. Women and children of Afghanistan have not known peace in decades. Their woes have also taken root in Pakistan where suicide bombing is a daily occurrence.

    Palestine is in a class of her own. It will be 70 years next year when some Palestinians have been living in refugee camps! Just imagine a life in refugee camp and imagine raising children in such deplorable environment for 70 years!!!

    All the conditions we have been talking about were created by human beings; heartless leaders who stumbled on power and did not know what to do with it. Human cruelty that created hell for our innocent mothers and their children had been predicated by either political drunkenness or some fanatical dogmatism or some myopic racism or a combination of all those silly abstractions.

    While the mothers, wives and children of the wicked ones who export suffering and inhumanity to other lands and other people are enjoying out-of-this-world pleasures, the candidates for hell fire are destroying the lives of others.

    Just imagine for a second the troubles women go through for just being women; they take care of the home, take care of husbands and in-laws, get pregnant, give birth and raise children and remain prayer warriors for their families for life. Imagine what most women go through to have children without mentioning the physicals of carrying the weight of some potbellied partners and inhaling some foul air of drunken husbands, the nine-month of weight carrying and the near-death point of child delivery. Some women go through serious medications just to conceive and after all that some crazy individuals in some crazy country would send bombs to annihilate the women, their husbands and their children

    The questions are worth repeating: do these heartless blood-thirsty leaders have mothers? Do they have wives? Do they have children? Should our dear God the Almighty look the other way while some crazy power drunk monsters destroy His creation?

    Children do not deserve the wicked treatment being routinely meted out to them by the so-called people in power. If the USA wants regime change, she could as well assassinate the leader of the country than destroy the entire country including the innocent citizens of such a country.

    Although a lot might have been destroyed before the wicked suffers the Karma and wrath of the Divine, it is a truism that the wicked shall not go unpunished. Where is the Roman Empire?

  • Tell the children the ugly truth

    Sir: Nigeria is blessed and endowed by divine providence with great natural and human resources that are the envy of her neighbours and friends alike. Nigeria is also a country where opportunities for personal growth and development exist abundantly. Given this reality, it is instructive to state without equivocation or fear of contradiction that Nigeria is one indivisible nation, though diversely cultural and variegated in ethnicity but I strongly believe that what unite us as a country are more than the few things that tend to engender division.

    This diversity should be a veritable source of strength and never that of weakness. The United States of America is the strongest country in the world today, not because of its great population per se but because of the strength in diversity of their population.

    It is imperative for national unity and cohesion that parents should tell their children the truth; not a version of the truth that tends to promote selfish, parochial and sectional interest. And truth reduces the burden of conscience and we are told also that the conscience is an open wound that only truth can heal.

    It is difficult and virtually impossible for individuals or a group of people to threaten the sanctity of the unity of Nigeria, no matter the guise, pretence or pretext. Previous efforts made to break, divide or segregate Nigeria before failed tragically and future misadventure will not only fail but also with disastrous consequences; it is divine providence, not by might or power.

    There is no misunderstanding, agitation or protest that cannot be discussed in an atmosphere free of rancour and acrimony and resolved amicably and peacefully to the satisfaction of all and sundry.

    Love Nigeria, defend and cherish her for it deserves no less.

     

    • Usman Mohammed,

    Lapai-Niger State.

  • Why youths and children don’t dream

    SIR: The leaders of the bygone era didn’t wait for opportunities to be thrown at them. They took them. The difference between theirs and this generation is that while the old generation read widely, interacted widely and consulted widely, the new-fangled generation do not. They love being mummied after which they go on blaming everyone but themselves for failures.

    Books on ‘character building’ are missing in school bookshops in Nigeria. What we have are laced with religious stories. Unfortunately, these books have had little or no impact. Some parents want their children whose mental ages are fit for primary one to be placed in primary three. In the good old days, children completed primary 6, proceeded to secondary school, submitted efforts for WASC/GCE ‘0’ level, gained admission to the Higher School Certificate (HSC) class and studied for two years before going to university.

    The culture of sending children for internship/work for a year or two so that goodly character can be formed before they gain admission to study in ivory towers, is no more.

    How can youths dream in a country where not many people have heard of or even read the powerful speech by Dr. James Emman Kwegyir Aggrey of Achimota college Ghana, titled ‘The lost Black and White Keys’? Where are the leaders to share such knowledge with them? Such much-needed leadership would address intemperate behaviour, intolerance and brinkmanship until they vanished out of our national life.

    A nation is built when children are taught by forebears to not only build themselves up but to also help build up others.

    Pat Utomi, at 27, couldn’t have been an adviser to President Shehu Shagari if he was a man of straw. President Shagari chose him because of his policy of surrounding himself with the best people. Utomi never bothered working for a Fulani. The youngsters of today work within borders. Pat Utomi was ready when the opportunity came. He didn’t pray himself into the job.

    I see massive disrespect from youngsters for elders and can’t help but wonder, are these the crop of people to lead Nigeria? These people who show no respect and can’t communicate?

    Young men have been taught to denigrate “those people” and are never willing to travel to the lands of “those people” to win friendships and promote goodwill.

    Take a walk to the university community and see for yourself how students dress and talk. Look at congress, called upon by union leaders, and hear curses against school management and you wonder if they know what it takes to work with the community as a whole.,

    Education in Nigeria is a stand-alone type of education which does not teach graduates the importance of having a sense of duty to the country. This is made worse by the fact that we believe too much in material and not non-material objectives. Further, we rely on the acquisition of certificates and not emphasis on self-education.

    Children of the rich and youths don’t dream because they are future-blind. How can they convince the dotage, their peers, to be given the chance to move Nigeria in a new direction for greatness?

     

    • Simon Abah,

    Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

  • ‘Build peaceful homes’

    Parents have been charged to create peaceful homes for their children as any environment where parents are in conflict will hinder the learning process of their offsprings.

    Lagos State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Dr Lola Akande, gave the advice at the Karis School nineth Graduation in Magodo, Lagos.

    Dr Akande said many children’s education were in jeopardy because their homes were a war zone.

    She said the government was doing all it could to ensure healthy growth and development of all children in the state.

    “To this end, the state government has put in place many measures to protect the rights of every child in the state – the yellow card to warn child’s rights violators of the consequences and to deter offenders from committing such crimes and the red card which is also available and given at every prosecution stage”, she warned.

    Dr Akande also spoke on the importance of parental involvement in education, saying it had positive effects on children’s learning ability.

    While she said mothers play the largest role in a child’s education, she however said children needed the support of both parents to reach their academic potential.

    “As we all know, a father’s involvement in his child’s education leads to more learning, healthier and better performance in school. In addition, students whose fathers play active role in their education typically enjoy schooling better; they have more positive peer relationship and become responsible adults,” she said.

    Addressing the pupils, the commissioner advised them to take their education seriously as education is the key to success in life.

    Speaking on the school’s goals for the next academic session,  its Executive Director, Mrs Nolly Nwaje, said the school would introduce inquiry-based and project-based style of teaching to enhance the problem solving skills of the children.