ELECTION DAY REFLECTION: How Intentional Are You About The Kids Around You?

Today's the 25th of February and Nigerians are on the verge of voting in a new leadership. There's so much anticipation and hope in the air. Today we decide who runs the country for the next four years if we do it right? Of course, we know it's not magic but we expect huge changes and if we do it wrong then, we're either going to be stagnant as a nation or at worst retrogress more than we already have.

Reflecting on the elections and all that, got me thinking of a child in my class who stood up one day in the middle of our discussion to say that all he wants to do is travel abroad and just leave the country because according to him Nigeria is "spoilt pkatapkata" this boy is 10 years old. When I asked him where he got the idea from, he said his parents and siblings are always saying it.

Agnes Onyekwere and Reshi at the END SARS protest 

Hearing that made me really sad because I too had the idea of traveling and living abroad some day but hearing this from this boy made me feel like we have all failed and we are doomed, if our ten-year-olds who are the next generation of Nigerians are speaking like this, then, we actually don't have hope.

I fear that in the future, every country abroad will red flag Nigerians seeing that our biggest ambition is to empty the entire country into other countries who are standing their ground to fight the issues we are running away from.

Our country is bad, ehen, so? Are we the only country with so many issues and tantrums? No! The only problem now is that Nigerians expect a Messiah to come and fix the problems or they run away from the problem-this is a subject I am very guilty of and it took a child's opinion about our country for me to see how guilty I was too.

Nobody is coming to help us, and nobody is coming to solve the problem of bad government or corruption if for anything, we are the ones who are helping to perpetuate it so we are the only ones who can find ways to help solve this problem even if it means setting structures in motion that will help solve the problem in years to come, we just need to take responsibility!

I played an analogy in my head and it's just like a man who has suffered a lot of looting in his house through the years and sometimes a lot of things get spoilt and everything seems to just go wrong with the house but that's the only house he is entitled to and will have for the rest of his life-will he raise his children to become survivors and fight for what's their own or he'll raise them to always look for the houses that are good and then go there to play second fiddle for the rest of their lives?

Personally, I am not against the idea of traveling abroad but I have serious issues with the fact that we are bringing up our children to hate Nigeria. This in itself is wrong because you are not trying to do anything about what's going on and you are stopping the next generation before they even begin.

We all know the country is beyond bad right now but let's be conscious about how we portray it and our perceptions in front of our children.

Agnes Onyekwere in class with her pupils

Ask yourself today, my actions, in actions and words, what are they telling my children or the kids around me, I'm I setting them up to be the worst set of Nigerians in history, or am I setting them up to be the ones to try their best to make their country a better place?

Please don't let them believe that Nigeria is finished and all hope is lost. Make them believe they could be the heroes Nigeria has been waiting for, and tell them they could make it to the history books by what they do in their time. Tell them they could be the Mandelas and Lees of their time. Don't break their spirit before they are even fully formed!