Opinion

Reforming Nigerian Youth (I)

Published

11 years ago

September 29, 2014

There is no gainsay
ing the fact that youth of a nation represent and stand as the pillar and the future leaders of that nation.
If the youth of a nation have failed in their responsibilities and are weak, what then, do that nation hold for a better tomorrow?
According to the wall Street Journal (April 6, 1990), one may define the Ideal Youth as a balanced individual exhibiting a highly spiritual life, informed by absolute moral values and whose behaviour demonstrates qualities such as righteousness, honesty, humility and conscientiousness in everything he or she does. It is clear that the above attributes are contrary to the attributes seen in 70 per cent of our youth today.
It is obvious and unarguable that today, our youth are facing a lot of challenges which include identity crisis. Identity is one of the vital things any individual should have one without identity, is lost. It is obvious that most of our youths have lost their identity directly or indirectly, most especially in terms of our culture and tradition.
It is regrettable that our today’s youth now practice and prefer the western, culture, abandoning our own culture, Traditions are no more valued in our society today. How many of our youth can proudly speak their dialect. How many of our youth know about the customs and traditions of their people? Strange enough most of them are not even interested in having a view about it.
Today, our youth no longer value the traditional marriage. When they are just able to do the white man’s tradition, white wedding as they will call it, they won’t bother again about the traditional ceremony in as much as they have seen the bride’s parent.
Unknown to them that our traditional marriage have greater significant than the white wedding because that is the white man culture.
This is critical in our country because we consider the whiteman’s culture to be superior and we have taken all their words hook, line and sinker. They use the name of Christianity to term our culture evil and bad. Yes, there are some repugnant culture that should be abolished, but there are basic culture that easily tells where one hails from.
How many people or youth still value our native attire? How many people still offer cola nut as a mark of welcome to visitors?
How many of our youth still bow when greeting their elders?
Much as it seems, parents contribute greatly in pushing our culture away from our youths and children. Some parents want their children to learn the whitemans’ language before their dialect. If by tomorrow the children cannot speak their dialect how then can they teach their own children their dialect? If parents still practice and teach their children their basic culture and tradition, most of these atrocities committed by youths will not be in the increase.
Government should ensure that our Nigerian Languages and culture are strictly taught in our various institutions, from nursery to tertiary. On their own part, young parent should not stop the flow of our culture and tradition to their children. Our culture is our identity, and our identity is our pride and it should be valued.
Another area is moral conduct. Our today’s youth lack morals in terms of speech, behaviour and dressing. Foul language has become the order of the day. They lack respects.
Today’s youth, especially boy no longer prefer to feed on vegetables, foods. Rather, they spend their whole money to feed on drugs, alcohol and cigarette even when they are aware that these habits are detrimental to their health. And this is why Nigerian youths die young.
But giving this case a closer view, one will agree that taking drugs alcohol and cigarette is not bad, but what makes it bad is when it is abused.
You will agree with me that to an extent the Nigeria military force have hand in this together with some top officials and eminent people in the society. The military men started misusing it and are still doing so, they take it to get themselves high, so they can freely intimidate civilians without fear. When some civilian youths who look up to these military men as role model find out the secret, they freely gave in to the behaviour.
It is all too well known that drugs like cocaine have been banned in this country, so how then do some youths still get access to them. It is obvious that some custom officers and other security personnel are not doing their work loyally.

Ikejemba, writes from Tansian University.

Now government is using force to stop these immoral conducts. How can they be tackled when thye themselves are the law breakers?
Something is dirty we use water to wash it. When water is dirty what shall we use to wash it? So the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) should look out and lets call a spade a spade.
In the aspect of dressing, most youth are yet to realize that there is more to decency. Skimpy, wears, nude dressings and sagging have become the order of the today’s fashion.
Little do they know that it exposes them to sexual harassment and depicts irresponsilities. It is said that the way you dress shows who you are and determines the manner of approach to you.
If you are not a prostitute and you dress like one, people will definitely address you as a prostitute. Similarly, if you are not a criminal and you dress like one, obviously, people’s eyes will be on you.
It is sad that some parents are the ones encouraging these. Even fashion designers are themselves not helping matters at all. They unveil designs neither they nor their children would wear.
Are nude dressing and fashion pant of civilization? Government should check the activities of fashion designers in Nigeria.
Some lecturers in some of our various institutions permit any kind of dressing code into their lecture hall. Yes, it is a university and everybody has his/her own life to live the way they want. But they are still student. So a student should dress like a student when coming from lecture and not dressing like a party order. If some parents could not pass such conduct to their children, institutions should help as they are citadels of learning.
Worse still, is the negative impact of electronic and social media: Entertainment. No doubt that the birth of technology and social media have brought about transformation and globalization. In our country and the world at large. But is has done more harm than good in our society.
Most youths have allowed themselves to be addicted and drawn into social media activities like chatting, hacking and frauding online. More than average Nigerian youths spend nothing less than 12 hours of their time doing nothing, but chatting online with friends while others are on pornography movies and photos.
According to John McCdwels view on the negative impact of technology that we are witnessing a phenomenal advancement in technology over the last three decades, and our citizens are expressing remarkable social and cultural change.
That technology has influenced the way we think about life in general and interpersonal human relations in particular. Certainly, religion should influence all aspects of our life. It regulates our relationship to God and fellow human beings.
Also that television in particular has gone beyond it mandate to assist the family and the school in providing visual aid and education to the young. It has taken upon itself to the destructive and distingrative instincts, to provoke greed, unlimited self-gratification, and absence of moral restraint in its young audience.
There is a need for Muslims to join other religious groups in the quest for more responsible TV programming.
Religious groups must create alternate avenues for recreation and social interaction. There should be avenues where spiritual and social activities combine to make the average child a whole human being whose life is directed to God.
In accordance to Mrs Adebisis on an interview, she said that the major problem is that most youth have turn away from the part of God and that most youth have deviated from righteousness. And that if youths amends their way and change their mind setting towards the way of God, that definitely half of these challenges will be tackled. So she is calling on all the youths to follow the way of God and do the right thing at the right time.
In conclusion, it is time we realize that we have challenges that we must face. All hand msut be on deck to tackle it. Let all the youth know that the nation and society needs their strength and ability. The youths should give the nation and society hope for a better tomorrow and not to make them think we are lost generation.
Ikejemba, writes from Tansian University.

Chianugo Ikejemba

Opinion

Agony In Ivory Tower

Published

2 days ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: A university that tolerates missing scripts, result manipulation and ‘sorting’ is not merely failing students—it is quietly destroying the moral foundation of education itself.”

The sad cases of missing scripts, compulsory Sorting, inputting of wrong results and other obnoxious practices in some public universities, leave much to be desired. One cannot imagine how a student will be compelled to suffer consequences of the flagrant negligence of a Head of Department, a lecturer, Department staff or an ICT staff.Many academic and non academic staff in several public universities seem to be performing far below standard, thus unproductive to the university system. The unacceptable cases of sorting, missing scripts, missing results, inputting of wrong grades to students, should not be mentioned in a university, not even in any academic community. This is because people who are employed to work in various positions should have cognate work experience and unquestionable competence. They should not be seen as certificate welding illiterates but people who have been proven to be worthy in learning and character, diligent and competent to carry out assigned responsibilities with minimal or no supervision.

The university as a citadel of learning should boast of men of integrity, people who are repositories of applied knowledge and competence to drive the much desired holistic development in a nation that functions on quality teaching and learning. A situation where a student having gone through the crucibles of learning and written a prescribed semester examination or class-based evaluation test, is told that his or her script is missing or that he or she did not participate in that academic exercise, or must sort to pass, is an unpardonable error and a height of callousness. In fact some lecturers and staff of Departments are using the seeming systemic defect (which is their architecture) as an opportunity to extort students. Sometimes it is discovered much to students chagrin that the supposed missing script was later discovered when a ransom was paid.

Since a lecturer, or Head of Department has in their disposal both Yam and the knife and determines who takes what (if they wish to give without strings), students have no alternative but to submit to their importunate demands in order to graduate at record time.Such practices should be unheard of in an institution that should be a vanguard of moral and ethical values and conduct. What people learn in school constitute their behavioural patterns in the society. Where the school as an agency of socialisation cannot drive positive change first in its immediate environment, then the objective of education as a bedrock for the development of society, is inevitably compromised and counter-productive. The German Reformer, Dr. Martins Luther was quoted as saying, “I advise parents not to put their wards or children in any school where the Bible is not being used as a rule of life because such institutions will unnecessarily be corrupt”.

Gleaning from Luther’s sentiment one can deduce that the lack of respect and regard for values as well as the absence of the fear of God is the greatest undoing of most public schools. Another major challenge is that lack of Information, Communication and Technology literacy or compliance on the part of some lecturers and heads of department, may have informed the decision to give students’ scripts to secretaries to compile and input students results thereby making the secretaries the determinants of students’ fate. It is not saying a new thing that some of the secretaries in the process of compiling results have inputted wrong results, omitted names or down graded some students or given unmerited grades to others.Society today is ICT-driven and ICT-literacy enhances efficiency, speed and a reasonable degree of accuracy if the person behind the computer is level headed, articulate, competent, alive to responsibilities and is aware that negligence on his or her part is not only tantamount to a disservice to the university but to the students who may not graduate at record time because of his or her (computer operator’s) gross ineptitude or carelessness.

The ICT era makes the carrying of hard copy of results obsolete as lecturers through the Heads of Department can log on to the central server of the Exams and Records (if any) or ICT unit and input students’ results directly. By so doing the incessant cases where result on spread sheet is different from the one published online, more often than not, caused by abject negligence, will be avoided. The process will also end the intermediary services of some staff in the universities’ Information, Communication and Technology Department which has become a money spinner-a lucrative source of income to many of them. In fact some ICT staff reserved the power to award grades to students depending on students’ degree of compliance to terms and conditions. They can dubiously make or unmake a student. The university community should be considered too lofty to have careless, negligent, immoral and academic or professionally deficient people as academic or non-academic staff.

The Governing Councils and Senates of universities should be proactive in addressing the menace of missing Script, inputting of wrong results and sorting. This is necessary to end the slogan “Education is scam” so the system can produce quality students who are truly found worthy in learning and in character by operators who exemplify diligence, moral and ethical values. The much-needed reform must begin within the institutions themselves, because the future of any society is shaped in its classrooms.

By: Igbiki Benibo

Opinion

Strength of Emotional Equality

Published

2 days ago

March 9, 2026

The Tide

Quote: “Love thrives not when one gives more, but when both give fully — not in competition, not in performance, but in partnership.”

In every healthy relationship, there exists an invisible balance. It is not measured in grand gestures, expensive gifts, or public displays of affection. It is measured in something quieter and far more significant: emotional equality. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, love becomes less of a negotiation and more of a partnership. Emotional equality does not mean both individuals express love in identical ways. It does not require matching personalities or mirroring temperaments. Rather, it speaks to balance — a shared willingness to invest, to communicate, to be vulnerable, and to grow. It is the difference between two people walking side by side and one person constantly trying to catch up.

In many relationships, imbalance begins subtly. One partner initiates most conversations. One apologizes more frequently. One carries the emotional labor — remembering important dates, managing conflicts, sensing tension, and attempting reconciliation. Over time, this uneven distribution of emotional effort breeds exhaustion. The partner who gives more begins to feel unseen. The one who gives less may grow comfortable in emotional passivity. Love, in such a space, starts to tilt — slowly at first, then significantly. Resentment can creep in quietly, disguising itself as patience. Silence may replace honest dialogue. What once felt effortless begins to feel heavy.

When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, responsibility is shared. Both people are accountable for the health of the relationship. If conflict arises, neither hides behind silence nor dominates through control. Instead, they engage. They listen. They speak honestly without weaponizing words. Equality creates safety — and safety strengthens intimacy. It allows both individuals to express needs without fear of ridicule or rejection. One of the most overlooked aspects of emotional equality is vulnerability. True connection requires courage. It demands that both partners risk being misunderstood. But when vulnerability is one-sided, it becomes exposure rather than intimacy. If one person consistently opens up while the other remains guarded, trust cannot fully deepen.

Equality ensures that emotional risks are mutual. Where one shares fears, the other shares too. Where one admits weakness, the other responds with openness rather than judgment. In such a space, authenticity flourishes. Another crucial element is validation. In emotionally balanced relationships, both partners feel heard. Their concerns are not dismissed as “overreactions.” Their feelings are not minimized or compared. When couples operate on equal emotional ground, they acknowledge each other’s experiences as legitimate. They may not always agree, but they always respect. Validation does not mean surrendering one’s viewpoint; it means recognizing that another’s emotional reality matters.

Equality also protects individuality. Contrary to popular belief, healthy love does not erase personal identity — it enhances it. When both partners are emotionally secure, they do not feel threatened by each other’s independence. Personal ambitions are encouraged, not resented. Friendships are respected, not restricted. Growth is celebrated, not feared. Standing on equal emotional grounds means neither person shrinks to accommodate the other. Instead, both expand, knowing the relationship is strong enough to hold their evolution. Power dynamics often expose emotional inequality. When one partner controls communication — appearing and disappearing unpredictably, withholding affection, or using silence as leverage — imbalance emerges.

Emotional dominance weakens intimacy. It creates anxiety instead of assurance. But when couples share emotional power, there is consistency. There is clarity. There is no need to decode affection because it is offered freely and intentionally. It is important to understand that equality does not imply perfection. Couples will still disagree. They will face stress, miscommunication, and moments of frustration. However, when emotional footing is equal, conflict does not threaten the foundation. Instead, it becomes an opportunity for understanding. Both partners approach challenges as teammates rather than opponents. They choose resolution over ego and repair over pride.

Time often reveals whether emotional equality truly exists. In the early stages of love, intensity can disguise imbalance. Enthusiasm feels mutual. Effort appears equal. But as routine settles in and novelty fades, the structure of the relationship becomes clearer. Who still initiates? Who still invests? Who still shows up consistently? Sustainable love requires sustained balance. It is built not merely on attraction, but on deliberate reciprocity. Standing on equal emotional grounds requires intentionality. It demands honest conversations about needs and expectations. It requires both partners to examine their habits — whether they withdraw during tension, avoid accountability, or rely on the other to carry the emotional weight. Emotional maturity is not about avoiding conflict; it is about handling it responsibly and returning, again and again, to shared ground.

Perhaps the greatest benefit of emotional equality is peace. There is no constant anxiety about where one stands. No guessing games about commitment. No fear that affection may suddenly disappear. Instead, there is stability. There is reassurance. There is mutual effort. In a world where relationships often blur the lines between attention and commitment, equality offers clarity. It reminds us that love should not feel like competition or performance. It should feel like partnership. When couples stand on equal emotional grounds, they build something resilient. They build trust that does not fracture easily. They build respect that does not depend on mood. They build a connection rooted not only in passion but in balance. And in that balance, love finds its strength — not in who gives more, but in how both give fully.

By: Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi

Opinion

NDDC: Time To Illuminate Homes

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

The Tide

Quote:“Twenty-five years on, the Niger Delta cannot celebrate illuminated streets while families sit in darkness. Development must begin inside the home — where children study, businesses grow, and lives are built — before it glows on the roadside.”

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) was established in 2000 with a clear and urgent mandate: to facilitate the rapid, even, and sustainable development of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region. The creation of the Commission followed decades of agitation over environmental degradation, infrastructural neglect, and socio-economic marginalization in the region. Its core mandate included the development of roads, bridges, electricity, water supply, health facilities, education, housing, environmental remediation, and economic empowerment initiatives. At inception, expectations were high that the Commission would transform the Niger Delta into a model of regional development. Over the years, the NDDC has indeed implemented numerous projects across the nine Niger Delta states. Roads have been constructed and rehabilitated in several communities, easing transportation challenges.

Schools have been renovated, and new classroom blocks have been provided in underserved areas. Health centres have been built or upgraded, improving access to primary healthcare services. The Commission has also awarded scholarships to students, including foreign postgraduate scholarships, empowering thousands of youths academically.Skills acquisition and youth empowerment programmes have helped many young people gain vocational competencies.Through various interventions, the NDDC has contributed to job creation and local economic stimulation.Solar-powered street lighting projects have been widely implemented in urban and semi-urban communities. These streetlights have improved visibility at night and contributed to enhanced security in some areas. Markets, highways, and public spaces illuminated by solar lights have experienced extended business hours.

For these efforts, the Commission deserves acknowledgment and commendation. However, development must always align with foundational mandates and pressing grassroots realities. A growing concern among residents is that while streets are illuminated, many homes remain in darkness. Rural electrification and household power access remain inconsistent and inadequate across large parts of the region. In riverine and remote communities, families still rely on generators, kerosene lamps, or complete darkness after sunset. The irony of brightly lit streets juxtaposed with powerless homes cannot be ignored. Electricity at the household level directly impacts education, health, and small-scale enterprise. Students cannot effectively study at night without reliable indoor lighting.Families cannot preserve food or power essential appliances without stable electricity.

Micro and small businesses struggle to grow without dependable energy access. While street lighting enhances public aesthetics and security, it does not substitute for domestic electrification. The proverb “charity begins at home” is especially relevant in this context. True community development must first empower households before beautifying public spaces. The Commission’s original mandate emphasizes integrated and sustainable development, not isolated infrastructural gestures. Balanced development requires that energy interventions prioritize homes alongside streets. Solar technology presents a unique opportunity for decentralized household electrification in off-grid communities. Extending solar solutions to individual homes would have a transformative social impact. Home-based solar systems could power lights, fans, small appliances, and communication devices.

Such interventions would reduce poverty, improve living standards, and stimulate grassroots productivity. By broadening its energy focus, the Commission would better reflect the spirit of its founding legislation. This is not a call to abandon street lighting projects, which have their merits. Rather, it is an appeal for balance, inclusivity, and alignment with core developmental objectives. Strategic planning should ensure that rural electrification and household access form a central pillar of ongoing interventions. Community engagement and needs assessments can help determine priority areas for household solar deployment. Twenty-five years after its establishment, the NDDC stands at a reflective moment in its institutional journey. The people of the Niger Delta say: thank you for the efforts so far—but not very much—because true appreciation will come when development begins at home and radiates outward, not merely when streets shine while houses remain in darkness.

By: King Onunwor