AN OPEN LETTER TO All NIGERIAN PARENTS

 

AN OPEN LETTER TO All NIGERIAN PARENTS

Dear All,

I wish to start my conversation by adding the benefit of my time as a good Nigerian citizen and also resident in the Nigeria. Living in Akwa Ibom State. The first thing that I truly discovered about UK-born white, English undergraduates was that all of them did holiday or weekend jobs to support themselves including the children of millionaires amongst them. It is the norm over there regardless of how wealthy their parents are. And I soon discovered that virtually all other foreign students did the same except status conscious Nigerians.

Also, the very first day I watched Richard Branson (owner of virgin Airline) speaking on the biography channel. To my creates amazement, he said that his young children travel in the economy class even when the parents is extremely wealthy, he and his wife are in the supper class. Richard Branson is a billionaire in Pound Sterling. A quick survey would show you that children from Nigeria fly business or upper class some of them even own private jet to commence their studies in the UK. No other foreign students do this. There is no aircraft attached to the office of the prime minister in the UK. He travels on BA. And the same goes for the Royals. The Queen does not have an aircraft for her exclusive use.

These practices simply become the culture which the next generation carries forward. Have you ever seen the car that Kate Middleton, the wife of Prince William, drives? VW Golf or something close to it. But there’s one core difference between them and us, sincerely speaking, they, even the billionaires among them work for their money, but most of us steal ours.

If we really want our children to bring about the desired change, we have been praying for on behalf of our dear country Nigeria, then please and please let’s begin now and teach them to work hard so they can stand alone and most importantly be content and not having to steal wish seems to be the norm these days.

Honestly speaking we have a lot of Nigerian children who have never worked for five minutes in their entire life, but insisting on flying only first or business class and using the latest Phones, cars and fully paid for by their loving and caring parents.  

I was surprise during my National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) In Abuja when I heard some parents often calling, my son graduated two years ago and is still looking for a job, can you please assist!

I always ask myself a question where exactly is this child? Is my usual question. Why are you the one making this call dad/mum?

I am yet to get a real satisfactory answer, but between you and I, chances are that big boy is cruising his life around Abuja with a lot of babes dressed to the nines, in his dads sparking new SUV with enough pocket money, to put strange to hear a 28-years-old who has never worked for a day in his or her life in Nigeria but earns a six-figure salary from parents for doing absolutely nothing.

I only see them in office once in a while during my NYSC, 27 years old with absolutely no skill to sell apart from a shiny CV, written by his dad’s secretary in the office. Of course, he is driven to the job interview. We have a fairly decent conversation and we get to the inevitable question, so, what salary are you looking to earn? The answer comes straight out, £300,000.00. I ask if that is per month or per annum. Yes of course it is per month.

Really! why do you think you should be earning that much on your first job?

Well, because my current pocket money is £200,000.00 and I feel any employer should be able to pay me more than my parents.

No wonder corruption is our second name and continues to thrive. We have a society of young people who have been brought up to expect something for nothing as if it were a birthright, even though the examples I have given above are from parents of considerable affluence, similar patterns can be observed from Akwa Ibom to Port Harcourt.

Its time we wake up, it’s time we make things right, wake up, mum! Wake up, dad! This syndrome, my children will never suffer, my children will never face what I face when I was young, my children will not suffer what I suffered, is destroying your tomorrow. You are practically loving your child to death.

I realize the children of a former governor of my state with all the stolen billions of monies in their custody, still, go about with tight security escort as wrecks. They are on drugs; they collapse in places. The escort will quickly pack them and off they go. What a life! No one wants to marry them.

Just listen to what Henry Ford said, hard work does not kill. We are getting everything wrong in Nigeria now, including the family setting. It is time to prepare your children for tomorrow, the way the world is going, only those that are rugged, hard working and smart working that will survive. How will your ward fare?

Please, I want every parent to save our youth from unintended consequences of too much love and weak parenting. It is the only way out for our country. Let’s not leave everything to spirituality and say, God will help us. Either we like it or not, dump or work with it, it’s the truth. The need for reorientation among parents is imperative and urgently desirable.

I love my country Nigeria and I love all parents out there, please let’s save the youths for a better tomorrow. 

I write as a poet from my thinking room.

I am Eket Man

A Poet And Song Writer

Joe Dee

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