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PARENTS ALLOWING YAHOO-YAHOO-IS EDUCATION STILL THE BEST LEGACY?

 I grew up not just hearing this saying and also believing it, but you know as you grow up you start to unlearn and relearn.

This question stems from my experience in the education space, especially the public schools. A colleague of mine spoke to me about her experience of a parent who came to school to warn the teacher who had seized the phone she bought for her son, on getting to the staff room she told the head teacher to warn the teacher in question never to seize her son's phone again as she got him the phone so he would start learning the ropes in the "yahoo-yahoo" (illegal internet fraud) business.

Winners of the first round of the Ijebu-Ode debate competition.
The woman even took her time to explain how her neighbor's son who dropped out of school is already building a house for his mum from the proceeds of the business and she wants him to tutor her son so that he would take them out of poverty since she was a widow with four children to cater for.

After we were done with this discussion, I couldn't help but wonder what type of  'Shege' will make a mom voluntarily tell her son to join a fraud business even when she knows the high negative possibilities.

I discovered due to the fact that most of these 'yahoo boys' parade their ill-gotten funds in their communities to the extent that they even begin to help their families lead better lives, they embark on community projects, give back to society, and at the end of the day begin to look legitimate in the eyes of residence of that community, children start to hope to become 'yahoo boys' when they grow up as parents begin to wish their children would start the business and help them out of poverty.

In such communities, hard work and honest living take a back seat as those who decide to stick to diligent work are laughed at and mocked.

Teachers in school have a hard time teaching children in these communities because they feel that the money they intend to get when they go to school and get a job is what they already enjoying right now so why should they listen when they can pay the headteacher of the school?

I just couldn't help but ask myself if parents these days still think that education is the best legacy they can leave for their children.

Comments

  1. Mr. E1 April 2023 at 18:06

    No be small thing. The extent of poverty in Nigeria has driven a lot of people to find solution even in fraud. This is not just in the education system, it’s in politics, economics, security, health etc. what can we do to raise citizens with honest living? I think it’ll take a cocktail of solutions but ultimately I think there is a right way to attain goodness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous2 April 2023 at 01:09

    It's really pathetic. Poverty should never be a reason for wrong living

    ReplyDelete

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