By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

Being aware that our today’s children will become tomorrow’s political leaders, Chief Emeka Anyaoku used his Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre during the Children’s Day celebration to encourage school children to take their education seriously. The children, who were hosted at the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, were told the life story of Chief Emeka Anyaoku, which inspired them to work hard as pupils and students.

The Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre was built to revive the dying culture of reading among the Nigerian people, and re-direct our children to the path of positive morality.

Children are precious and priceless gifts, which we’ve received from God. And it is stated in the Bible book of Psalm 127:3 that, “Lo children are a heritage of the lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”

Children who are impressionable young people could be likened to yams’ tendrils that need sticks on which they will twine. In order words, we should teach children good morals and give them good education in order that they should grow up to become well-adjusted adults and responsible citizens of their countries. So the Bible book of Proverb 22: 6 says this about children’s upbringing: “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”

But in today’s Nigeria, children are neglected and abused, both sexually and physically. Pre-teen children who are from poor homes engage in commercial activities to augment the meagre salaries and incomes of their poor parents.They hawk goods on busy roads, jaywalking through traffick, which endangers their lives.

And, in addition to being coerced to engage in child-labour, which is outlawed in many countries, children are victims of rape and other types of sexual abuse. Paedophiles, who abound in Nigeria, trail and stalk children to have carnal knowledge of them. So, countless children, who are victims of defilement, statutory rape, and rape, are infected with such diseases as HIV, other STDs, Vesicovaginal Fistula, and traumatic challenges.

Again, millions of Nigerian children of school ages are out of school because their parents are too poor to keep them in schools. Others are the latchkey kids, who are always left in the care of morally-depraved house maids. Most parents, nowadays, have prioritized their careers over their children’s moral wellbeing. But can maladjusted and uneducated out-of-school children and morally-bankrupt latchkey kids grow up to become responsible citizens of Nigeria in the future?

In spite of the fact that millions of Nigerian children are beset with multifarious problems, the Nigerian government is helping our children to surmount the problems placed on their paths in order for them to realize their potentialities and achieve their manifest destinies. For example, in Anambra state, there is an existent educational policy that bars school children in public primary schools and those in public junior secondary schools from paying school fees. The formulators of that educational policy are not unconscious of the fact that education is the cornerstone of national development.

Again, some notable Nigerians have aligned with the government’s policy regarding the revamping of our educational system so as to make it functional. Some rich Nigerians have been offering scholarships to students from poor homes and building classroom blocks for schools across Nigeria. And since the time the educational sector was deregulated, well-heeled Nigerians have been building schools to offer millions of Nigerians access to quality education.

And, in Anambra state, Chief Emeka Anyaoku had built the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, which is located at Obosi, a semi-urban town that borders Onitsha. The monumental and magnificent Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, which has a library and museum, is a testament to Chief Anyaoku’s love of education.

So not unexpectedly, the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre hosted a party and organized a quiz competition for school children in Obosi, who celebrated the children’s day. The children’s day party, which was complemented with quiz competition, was aimed at reviving the children’s waning interest in reading cum education. We should not forget that some parents have, unwittingly, turned their children to philistines by coercing them to engage in child labour at the expense of their acquisition of education.

Consequently, not a few young people have become averse to acquiring basic education. Rather, they are striving to acquire wealth through unlawful and fetish means like internet crimes, money-making rituals, armed robbery, and abduction of rich people for ransom. They detest any form of intellectual engagements. But this ugly state of thing does not bode well for our country’s development.

So during the children’s day party and quiz competition that took place at the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, Obosi, the Director of the centre, Miss Oluchi Nguzoro regaled the children with story regarding how Chief Anyaoku surmounted the hurdle of poverty to acquire education and pass his examinations at different educational levels with flying colours. Chief Anyaoku, she told them, later rose to become the secretary general of the commonwealth, having got a job in the commonwealth.

“Chief Anyaoku was a diligent and well-behaved student, who was dedicated to his studies. And he always burnt the midnight candle as a student.

“And as he is not from a rich home; sometimes, there were no money for his school fees. And money would be borrowed from other people for the payment of his school fees.

“So if Chief Anyaoku, who rose from humble beginnings, achieved success, which resounded outside Nigeria, you, too, can, “ Miss Nguzoro said.

School children selected from five primary and post-primary schools in Obosi participated in the children’s day quiz competitions, which were based on their knowledge of the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre and the Bible. Gifts of books -copies of the Bible inclusive- were given to the school children, who performed well in the quiz and dancing competitions.

Bringing back the books to our school children so as to rekindle their interest in reading is a certain and well-traveled way to dismantle the pervading culture of philistinism in Nigeria. As the children will become our country’s political leaders in the future, and as readers are leaders, inculcating the habit of reading into our children is a wise decision.

Based on this, the Obosi Development Union(ODU) President General, Barr. Chimezie Obi, thanked the Director of the Emeka and Bunmi Anyaoku Foundation Centre, the youngish and prepossessing Miss Oluchi Nguzoro, for using the centre to promote the culture of reading among the people and inculcating good morals into our children.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654.

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