Photo: Business Day
Greatness is the quality or state of excelling above one’s equals and peers in terms of size, skill, academics, sports, politics, and power.
On the other hand, the term “laziness” refers to a state in which an otherwise capable individual lives a life of indolence and slothfulness.
In Nigeria, the beginning of a child’s development toward a life of hard work includes performing chores around the house and working on the family farm.
However, there are some households in which the parents have lowered or pampered their children’s expectations, and as a result, the children have successfully failed to meet those expectations in their performance.
Researchers have noticed this developing pattern, particularly in Western societies, where children are more likely to be consumers than contributors to society.
Sadly, even at the nursery levels, pupils are literally forced into the so-called extra lessons; the primary purpose of which is to generate further incomes for the schools; this shields and shelters some unmotivated parents from facing the realities of proper parenting and the necessity of camaraderie among siblings.
Obviously, a renowned child psychologist Steven was worried that these days children are left alone to play video games, gamble with smartphones, surf the Internet, and watch TV and so, very little is expected of them.
It is heart-warming, as one walks through the streets of the computer village in Ikeja, Lagos State, beholding with excitement some hardworking youths repairing laptops, and handsets, designing integrated circuits including websites and social networking to earn a living and make a name for themselves.
Equally, as one strolls the spare-part site, in Coal-camp in Enugu state and Nnewi in Anambra State, one would sight legions of young men and women diligently re-casting, re-modelling, re-creating and modifying scraps of motor part into amazing useful products.
The same can be said for other cities such as Jos and Port-Harcourt, amongst many others, where thousands of young people engage on a daily basis in one form or another of commendable entrepreneurial expertise.
There are also young people working on college campuses, designing or writing computer codes, websites, and software packages to solve the nation’s industrial needs. Some of these young people are also working in hairdressing jobs, bricklaying jobs, digging boreholes, tailoring jobs, and even entertainment industry jobs to help pull themselves and possibly their siblings out of the severe economic hardship.
Squander valuable time
In spite of these factors, a significant portion of the nation’s young people continues to squander their valuable time on the blogosphere, which includes social media platforms. On a daily basis, they exhibit a complete lack of regard for even the most fundamental standards of ethics and ethos.
Some guardians and parents do not permit their wards and children to perform the typical household chores and apprenticeships that are designed to motivate or harness entrepreneurial skills and expertise.
Students are misled into believing that they should memorise notes that have already been created for them, rather than being taught how to think creatively and innovate. This makes the situation even more difficult.
This explains the reason a good number of students cheat during examinations because in their formative stages, they never had the privilege of being innovative and creative.
These unfortunate products favour dishonourable activities like political thuggery, online hacking, scamming, kidnapping, and banditry because they perceive these activities as simpler routes to earning quick cash.
They are quick to either forget or realise that such behaviours will finally boomerang and translate to a life of ruins and regrets in the future; however, they continue to act as if they are unaware of this fact.
The fact still remains that working honestly and diligently results in a sense of having made a contribution to one’s family as well as to society in general.
Children gain the ability to deal with the difficulties of real life when they are given responsibilities at an early age.
Therefore, Youths who partake in honest hard work are a panacea to the challenges facing the nation.
Writing by Dr Alex Ezeano of the Department of Computer Science, Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic, Unwana, Ebonyi state; Editing by Saadatu Albashir