Hello dearly beloved compatriots. I am here today to finish the conversation we began last week.

I will share with you the last two of the seven negative effects of Isolated Advocacy and wrap up this important piece, aimed at giving direction to those, who are interested in genuine advocacy in a Third World nation.

The sixth negative effect of isolated advocacy is the tendency of the advocate to become a tool in the hands of donor agencies. They begin to push narratives that do not produce immediate benefits for the seeming beneficiaries but resonants with the populist agenda of the donors. That is why we have many Non-Governmental Organisations today, who operate in Africa but do not represent the best interest of Africans. Their tool is sensational propaganda.

We often forget that every narrative/message has an agenda, every agenda has an agent, every agent has a principal/sponsor, every principal/sponsor has an eye on the profit(Individual or Corporate/Selfless or Selfish).

The seventh negative impact is that there are no genuine efforts to alleviate the entrenched idiosyncrasies and ignorance of the people. The foundation of every social problem is the belief system of the people. Any attempt to address a social problem without a commitment to begin from the individual or corporate belief system of the people is either an exercise fuelled by pure ignorance or a deliberate attempt to sabotage the people, the advocate claims to represent.

The truth is that we all need education. Both the people and those who desire to represent them need some level of education.

The advocate must understand as a matter of necessity that he/she has lost his/her right to advocate in isolation of the social, political and economic situation in Nigeria. All of our social problems emanates from who we are socially, who we are socially determines who we are politically and who we are politically determines who we are economically.

For example, I think parenting is a four-dimensional project, requiring the undivided attention of 4 institutions. To position and discuss it as a one-dimentional project, which only demands the commitment of one institution will not deliver any meaningful and enduring solutions to the parents of Nigeria.

We As a people, we treat children the way we see them. We see them the way the society see them and the social see them by the way we are socialized to see them.

This act of the woman, who maltreated a child and caught on video is seriously condemnable and she must be brought to book(whatever that means to a fallen system) but it must not be seen in isolation of how we see and treat our precious children as a people. It must be seen from the angle of our general reorientation of how we collectively see children and how we treat them.

Using a child as a househelp(if the child is a househelp) is a form of modern day slavery and Child Labor. The societies, who want to solve the problems are today busy looking at the root causes. They are addressing the core issue of Social Protection.

This woman may be arrested but we also know the disposition of the state, represented by the police to matters like these. I also make bold to say that those who arrested her are most guilty than her as they have woefully failed to create an enabling environment for the peaceful development of our precious children and that is the real issue.

In the Third World, we lament but in the First World, they look for root causes and fix same.

I rest my case. Yes we must deal with our emotions as a matter of necessity, but that is a personal matter. The real issue is this: if we live in a state what is the role of the state in protecting our precious children? What is the state policy on child discipline or child dehumanization as it is seen in the viral video? What are they doing to address the situation beyond waiting to effect an arrest?

I have seen the video a couple of times and would ordinarily not want to comment until my dearly beloved sister, Mrs. Ronke Adeniyi called my attention and felt the duty to share my views because she asked for it.

Why did I consider silence to be golden in matters like these? It is because I know that the system and those in charge of it want us to believe that this is the problem, they want us to isolate this case, call this woman and her actions evil and end the matter in the Supreme Court of the Social Media.

But I tell you, the real EVIL is those who abandon ‘the fountain of life’ as Gabriella Minstrel will refer to these precious children.

The action of the woman in the video is one of the symptoms of a society that has no respect for her precious children. The real issue is the fact that the Nigerian State doesn’t seem to care about her precious children and the citizens are simply following the example of the State.

Here I rest my case Sober on my knees on this LORD’S DAY and hopeful that with these few points of mine, I have been able to convince you and not confuse you that isolated advocacy holds no good for the Third World People.

Do have an INSPIRED rest of the year.

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