THE BANE OF FUTURE LEADERS

 By; OREOFEOLUWATOFUNMI

“It is the duty of every wise person to seek out people with potential and freely guide them on the path of wisdom”. By doing so, the wise leaders of the world will have a chance to mend itself. 

However, the nation is retrogressing in producing future leaders’ sequel to the negligence of some parents. Going down the memory lane, the young lads and lasses chant this song 

"Parents listens to your children, we are the leaders of tomorrow, try to pay our school fees and give us sound education”.

It is pathetic that purported parents are not paying attention to the future leaders, UNICEF statistics shows that 70% of children are out of school across the nation. 

With the prevailing situation, how do we produce topnotch leaders that would pilot the affairs of the nation? 

Our very own country is on the brink of collapse as the anachronistic leaders are misplacing priorities in governance while 30% of children who have the opportunity to access the resources do not enjoy love and affection from their parents. Umpteenth of parents who should build their wards and offer them domestic training are busy with their jobs, especially those who work in the banking industry. The erroneous act has paved way for housemaid to subject kids to harsh treatment, wrong training and host of others. Many don’t listen to their children, while those who are stricken in abject poverty cannot fund the tuition fees of their children, only to send them to the city for hawking. 

Finding also showed that unwanted pregnancies increase high risk of producing future leaders. Some children are bereft of home training because their parents never paid attention to them. Others even drop their kids with guardians and neighbours. Won’t this be counterproductive on the future of the kids? Middle aged women who expected to work tooth and nail have sent their children to the street hawking without adequate mentoring and monitoring. No doubt, numbers of street urchins keep skyrocketing, while the society is becomes unsafe for innocent inhabitants who could one day become prey in their hands. 

Apart from being street urchins, the young children denied education gradually becomes robbers marauding the street. In the western world, their democratically elected authorities mandate parents to give their children both formal and informal education. The system is easier on their part because the government has data of all newly born children, who are monitored, hence, it reduced illiteracy, robbery, and street urchins their clime.

A sane society must work towards equipping future leaders, because they tend to help to build the nation. in the light of the foregoing, it is pertinent to note that the panacea lies in our hands. Government at various levels should declare free education, so that the principle of equity and equality will be resolved as every child will access same resources.

Also, parents should schedule time to stay with their wards as they are the future leaders who need attention.

Finally, government should give technical support to pilot and scale up interventions that promote on time enrolment, reduce drop-out, and provide alternative pathways to education.