May 27 is traditionally the children’s holiday in Nigeria. First established by the United Nations in 1964, the day remains important in the lives of many Nigerian kids.
On this day every year, children are granted a holiday while several social activities are centred on them. Excused from school, most kids converge at stadiums and centres to commemorate the event.
It has also become the habit of some government officials and media organisations to honour some children with leadership opportunities. Certain radio and TV stations do this by featuring child broadcasters on air and letting them anchor their programmes for the early part of the day. Similarly, certain government officials allow a child to shadow them as ‘state governor’ for a major portion of the day.
A child governor who will go about the day job in the governor’s stead is chosen and conferred with representative authority. The young governor is therefore equipped with an entourage and guiding committee. It is expected that the honorary governor spends some of his time visiting the less privileged, attending special functions and fulfilling a few of the regular public roles of the state governor. This rare opportunity clearly raises the hope of some of the children. By seeing their colleague act as the governor, they are inspired to truly aspire for such positions in future.
As Nigeria celebrate another children’s day amidst the ravaging covid-19 pandemic,, parents should sincerely evaluate their parent-child relationships. If in doubt with respect to the efforts (input) or feel that the children are heading in the wrong direction, they should make proper amendments- beacause vagabonds do not grow from the soil and neither do terrorists fall from the sky.
Be Good citizens stay safe, stay healthy…….HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY