Message from Aisha: The Plight of the African Child? We are All to Blame!

Aisha is one of my brilliant postgraduate students and she is happy to share her response to an earlier blog post. Her message is both inspirational and a call to action and applies across Africa as we count down to 2013 Day of the African Child on the theme: “Eliminating Harmful Social and Cultural Practices Affecting Children: Our Collective Responsibility”. Many thanks Aisha for the wonderful thoughts:

The way I have always seen it is that every Nigerian is accountable for what happens in, and to Nigeria. I am to blame, you are to blame, the ordinary citizen on the street is to blame, and everyone is to blame.

In 1999, I graduated from a public school, the Federal Govt College Ilorin It was one of the best of its times, academics, athletics, infrastructure etc. 5-6yrs later, my parents made my younger brother apply to the Nigerian Turkish College in Abuja (the federal schools were no longer good enough).

In 1999, there was no option for me; it was either ABU Zaria, or ABU Zaria. The question was only whether I would be admitted to study medicine in the prestigious university I had dreamed of all my life, since my father had attended the same university. 6 yrs later, my younger brother was admitted to the Nigerian Turkish Intl University, Abuja. The public universities were no longer good enough. If your parents had the money, they were even less appealing.
How am I to blame? What if I mentored an almajiri, fed him three square meals, and facilitated his entry to orthodox school, alongside his Islamic school, mentored and trained him to acquire a degree, is that not one person off the streets? Knowing that literacy begets literacy, he is likely to send all his children to school, probably mentor one person as he was mentored, and thus a cycle of literacy begins, yet I haven't done it. I have thought about it in theory but I haven't done it, so I am to blame.

How is the ordinary man on the street to blame? Last semester, during a visit to witness firsthand juvenile justice proceedings, one of the offenders, a 10 yr old boy had stolen a laptop, however as the judge asked the father some questions, it became glaring there was NO parental supervision at all. Parents were divorced, child was with the father, and father worked from morning to evening and hung out with friends at night. Child didn't go to school. The father was to blame for not wanting a better life for his child, not making efforts to safeguard the future of his child.

How are professionals to blame? They go on strike for the wrong reasons. Doctors, teachers etc. they go on strike because of five naira, but do not lend their voices to topical issues.

Back to my song, it has to start from one person. We have to brighten our corner and guide someone across the bar.

What if the community came together to fix the school in that picture? They wouldn't lack artisans who could do it voluntarily. They wouldn't lack those who could chip in a kobo or two, for goodness sakes, they could construct a blackboard by themselves; they could construct desks and chairs with their own hands.

I am not even blaming the government now, because Nigeria's problems have far outweighed the capacity of government alone.

I think we as a people can do it, if we are focused, if we don't think of the personal or monetary gains, we can turn the lives of millions of children around.

We usually see community service as Oyinbo-ish, but I think given the right ingredients, we can do it and personally I think it is the long term solution to most of our current problems.

The Plight of the African Child? We are all to blame!!!p