ANOTHER year has graciously rolled over to celebrate children on their memorable and glorious day, May 27. There is no doubt that the founders of this day have done well in bringing recognition to children worldwide. On this note, I join all well wishers in congratulating children all over the world and particularly in Nigeria. All living creatures have continued to depend on their offspring for continuity and sustenance. Little wonder an African adage says “When a rodent gets old, it feeds on the breast of its offspring.” God had plan for children when he said in the Holy Book, “Be .fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”. With this clear statement, God provides all that is necessary for children to come to the family where they can be nurtured and tutored to fulfil God’s purpose for their lives and nation building. The topic of this article “children as the fuel of a nation” sounds metaphorical. Fuel is a material that produces heat or power. Heat or power is a stimulant to put something in motion or to its fullest action. When a child is likened to heat or power produced by fuel, it means that he or she should be full of vigour, energy, power, enthusiasm and agility. Children grow up to be youths.
Youths are very vigorous. They are not only strong physically, they are strong spiritually. They are not only agile in battle; they are also prepared to emerge victorious. Youths are blessed with ideas, strength, ability and agility to move their nations forward if they are encouraged, motivated and allowed to actualise their good and lofty ideas. Victor Hugo, the great 19th French writer, once wrote, “There is nothing as powerful as idea whose time has come.” In other words, children as the fuel of a nation should always be given a chance to prove themselves. It is therefore not an overstatement that children are the heartbeat of a nation. Fuel is a by-product got from natural crude oil and when used in an engine, care must be taken so that it is not allowed to dry up; otherwise, such engine will stop working or may even knock down completely, thereby causing loss of valuable time and resources to fix or replace. In like manner, children must not be allowed to go into adolescence beret of useful knowledge that will make them enviable citizens in our society.
As motorists take deliberate steps to care for their vehicles’ engines, parents, guardians and government at all levels have a God-given duty to nurture, care and train all children appropriately and adequately right all through their youthful and teachable age. There is no doubt that children and youths are the pillars of any nation. Their energy, inventiveness, creativity, ingenuity, prowess, preference and passion have direct relationship to the pace of national development. As the fuel of a nation, it is important to painstakingly look at families whose actions or inactions determine the fate of children in nation building. The stakeholders in the training of children include parents (first hand stakeholders), religious leaders, teachers and the government. These are largely in control of children’s development and consequently their fulfilment of God’s purpose for their lives. “Whatever a child achieves in life is dependent on the nature and nurture of that child”. What a child has inherited or imbibed from their stakeholders holds weight and matters a lot in moulding their lives. The nurture on the other hand has to do with the environment in which a child grows up.
It is widely accepted by experts in child development that the nurture or environmental circumstances play a more significant role in determining who and what a child becomes in life. This is the singular reason why all and sundry should not falter in training and nurturing our children for a better future and for nation building. The Holy Book puts it thus: “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” The exemplary life displayed by stakeholders at home, market, place of worship, school and work place, among others, is very crucial in the sociological, physiological and psychological development of a child. The unbecoming attitudes of many of our politicians, policemen and all other law enforcement agents; market women with unjust measures, unscrupulous persons as quack doctors, unpatriotic customs officials, indolent lecturers, motorcycle riders, motor drivers, men of God who are not after soul winning but after wealth, abusive husbands, disrespectful mothers, to mention but a few, speak volumes of the type of models we are passing over to the next generation. Children are very inquisitive, quick emulators and “copy cats”. Training and teaching children on good role models should be with passion and should start from home at a tender age or childhood.
For children to be effective, well shaped and well brought up. It should be the responsibility and duty of all and sundry in the society. It becomes imperative to be devoted to the physical, spiritual, psychological, sociological, educational and spiritual or religious needs of these children if they must be materials to build a virile nation in future. Addressing the psychological need of a child entails that parents should provide feeding, clothing and accommodation for every child. This ensures a child is brought up to be self confident. Meeting the sociological needs of children is the responsibility of parents and the government.
- Ogunbemi, a cleric, lives in Ibadan
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