THE LOSS OF NIGERIAN CULTURE AND VALUES: MURDEROUS UNGUIDED EXPOSURE TO WESTERN CIVILIZATION

By Adeleke Azeez Olalekan

In the face of a vilely lot happening within the camps of our teeming Nigerian youths and disgustingly those whose age brackets are not factored into the youthful standards, I have found it, as a matter of weighty importance to use my ever patriotic pen to put up this piece of qualitative texts on this matter of national concern.

To rationalize my assertion on this matter, I objectively sampled about fifty (50) Nigerians who are youths and adolescents and asked them few questions:
Do you like Nigerian movies? Do you like Nigerian traditional attires? Can you communicate well in your native language? Do you know any Nigerian proverb? Do you prefer traditional foods to foreign foods? What can you say about your tribe?

As envisioned, about 70% of the responses were NO while only traditional foods attracted about 60% positive responses and about 90% of the respondents could not say a significant thing about their tribes.

Undoubtedly, there are many acts as perpetrated by our youths and adolescents that are alien to our cultural values and norms

Many questions are begging for answers: Why should a young girl dress in an uncultured way and still see nothing wrong with it? Why should a young child or Nigerian youth takes hard drugs? Why should the boy child rapes the girl child? Why should some young people be publicly parading themselves as gays or lesbians? Why should young Nigerians do crime? Why should they not be so concerned about the narrative of their society? Why so rude to elders? Why fornicating even at tender age? Why not care about the image of their country? So many other disturbing questions begging for unfeigned answers.

Of course, many factors could be responsible for all these; Failed system of government, unemployment, compromised religious activities, poverty, bad parenting and peer pressure.

We seem to have traded the activities and lessons peculiar to our societal context to western beliefs and norms. In our own way, we are moving with the trends of civilization while leaving our rich cultural values, beliefs and norms behind. The unchecked and unguided exposure to western civilization by the parents, community stakeholders, government players and other more knowledgeable agents in the society has birthed a lot of problems in the society as evident in the crime, rape, untimely deaths as a result of consumption of hard drugs, prostitution, cultism and other vices cases in the country.

Without mixing words or twisting the context of this write up, unquestionably, exposure to western civilization has developed the country and her people in a wide range. But it is high time the exposure is guided and integrated with the Nigerian culture and values to perfectly suit the social context rather than neglecting the Nigerian culture for it. Moving with the trends of western civilization should not be done at the expense of the country’s traditional values and norms across all tribes, otherwise, bigger problems loom.

Loss of traditional cultural values and norms is a missing link that is breeding moral decadence in the society. There is an urgent need to reactivate Nigerian norms and cultural values as part of the panaceas to feasibly fighting the menace in the society.

In the words of Omofehinse (2001), values can be material, spiritual, moral, aesthetic, communal or individualistic. He went further to state that values are standards which members of the community adhere to in their personal and communal interaction towards the achievement of the societal goals.

Core understanding of ones traditional values, norms and beliefs is fundamental to the type of behavior one exhibit as well as the type of lifestyle displayed by the individual which is reflected on the societal growth, status and economic development.

It is imperative that the Nigerian youths at large are made to understand, appreciate and promote their vast cultural values and norms to curb the outgrowing vices parading the country as a whole.

They should be fundamentally integrated into the society standards through the guided exposure to traditional cultural values, norms and beliefs for satisfactory and sustainable country for all.

Strengthening the promotion and guided exposure of Nigerian values and norms among the youths as a panacea to curbing the societal menace in the country, the following recommendations are put forward:

1) Education stakeholders as well as the government should factor “Nigerian Traditional Cultural Values and Norms” as a subject to be taught in the curriculum and made compulsory as a core requirement for gaining admission into tertiary institutions;

2) Parents should guide their wards towards exposure to western civilization

3) Exposure and the use of social media especially by young individuals should be guided by appropriate authorities as well as other more knowledgeable agents of the society

4) Regular Orientation Programmes on National matters and societal values should be organized for teens as they grow

5) Parents and guidance should encourage and engage in activities that promote respect, loyalty, good behaviors, tolerance and other core values at home including traditional language development.

To stop the fast rising societal vices in the country such as rape, abuse of drugs, kidnapping, crimes, lackadaisical attitude towards ones heritage and society, reactivating, promoting and strengthening the traditional values and norms over western beliefs is one of the, including other critical tools that demand ultimate attention by all concerned elements in the country.


Adeleke Azeez Olalekan,
Nigerian Writer and Youths Development Strategist.
adelekeolalekan2000@yahoo.com

Southern Nigeria.. we still value our culture and way of living