MY NAME IN THE BLACK BOOK: MEMO TO A NATION, WHO CASTS IT’S YOUNG

I was in class 2 in secondary school when my name found its way to the school’s black book.

I had defended myself, the way I knew best against a classmate, who had made me a focus of constant bullying. I had enough and I punched him on the nose.

It is important to report that the school did not have or never communicated to us the guideline for dealing with bullying. Yet, they demonized me for taking my defense into my hands.

We were not even told of the existence of a black book, the circumstances under which a student’s name will be written therein and guiding us to avoid our name being written therein.

Many destinies of our young people have been truncated by the way those who are charged with the responsibility to manage their destinies both at the primary and secondary levels.

We live in a society, which treats our young people’s experimentation with life, which is often based on the guidelines we provide for them as a sign of witchcraft for which they must not be allowed to live.

We fail to accept that our precious children in everything and at all times are beneficiaries or victims of our examples.

We live in a society that does not show the proper example as the symbol of the behavior they expect from their young.

We live in a society where we do not take the pain of teaching our young people the ingredients of the expected behavior and the value behind the same in the language that these young people understand.

We live in a society where those in most are always the first to cast the stone of condemnation, forgetting the struggles of their youth and forgetting the myriad of distractions young people face today.

Most institutions of learning today are trial thrones of young people’s destinies and gulags of their future, gagging the same unto frustration and irrelevance. They have converted from being schools to being full-fledged zoos and yet no one notices.

Barack Obama experimented with marijuana in his youth. He went on to become the president of the United States of America at the age of 47. The difference between the handlers of Obama and our people here is that they do not use the errors of their young people to judge their destiny. They use their destiny to judge their errors and work with them to find a balance for their souls, helping them to see a future larger and better than their present indulgence.

I laugh again when I remember this week that last last 4 Students of Kebbi College of Science were allegedly engaging In lesbianism. That is capital punishment right. Yes, it is a conclusion that a student is irredeemable and should be shown the way out.

If lesbianism is so critical a wrong for which students can be expelled, I beg to ask, what is the budget of the school on sensitization and orientation on the young people’s sexual orientation? Who cares to find out the making of these so-called lesbians? Were they abused young people, who need the help of society instead of being cast away?

This is where I rest my case and request your views.

Do have an INSPIRED week.