Press Release

Kebbi State Governor, Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, has harped on the need to have morally sound youths in the society

This is even also as he has strongly spoken in support of embracing emerging technologies and the resultant challeges in the society .

These, Bagudu,further added, were orchestrated by the incursion of the Social media , globalisation and other formidable extraneous factors.

The Kebbi State Governor spoke this Saturday,in Birnin Kebbi, at a one-day Leadership Summit, with a Theme:” Generation Gap, Moralistic Hurdles of Western Decadencies .”

The Summit had as its sub theme :” Challenges Towards Building The Most Reliable and Morally Healthy Society .”

According to the Governor, there was the need to reinvigorate the time-honoured universally accepted values ,if the society must move forward.

Bagudu enumerated some of them to include honesty, hard work,piety, dedication and patriotism,among others.

The Chairman of the APC Governors’Forum further noted that, the nation’s education sector has great roles to play in the above direction.

Bagudu also noted that, yet the nation must embrace the change sweeping the globe, just as he stressed the need to embibe technologies.

He said: ” The nation must assess the extent of development of those countries that have embraced such technologies, as well as juxtapose their level of development with ours.

” This is to understudying such developments, hence, emulate the positive strides, as such, be at par with them or even surpass them.”

Bagudu charged youths to be hardworking and shun laziness, saying laziness has no place in our state ‘ laziness can only come from choice , to be successful, practice, practice and practice ‘, he maintained.

Bagudu commended the Organizers of the event, the Kebbi State Civil Societies Forum, and described it as reliable partner in progress .

He expressed happiness that, the forum has been robustly complementing the efforts of his administration, to ensure the even socieconomic development of the state .

In his paper presentation titled ‘ Maintaining Morality and Ethics in the Context of High Corruption’ the Generation Gap Experience, Professor Taofic Aminu from Federal University Gusau , Zamfara State said the discussion was timely in view of the numerous challenges facing Nigeria.

Youths according to him are part of the major challenges in Nigeria from generation to generation and each generation was characterised by its peculiar characteristics .

After giving the classification of different generations , he also pointed out that Corruption was most dangerous and rooted in our society.

The Professor suggested that in order to maintain good morality and ethical values, the parents and the Community must engage into rapport with the children, inculcate clean culture and values as well as avoid infiltration of unwanted Western culture .

‘ We should copy only the good aspect of Western culture but not their entire culture in totality.

The second presenter, Dr. Umaru Hussaini from Waziri Umaru Federal Polytechnic, Birnin Kebbi delivered a paper titled ‘ Towards Value Re-Orientatation of Nigerian Youths for Good Governance lamented that moral values were decaying in Nigeria and youths were disoriented as well as drifting away from the moral rules of the society.

He said that the growing rate of moral decadence among youths and some adults has reached alarming rate and became a source of worry.

Dr. Hussaini further lamented that real values such as truthfulness, hardwork, dedication, respect for elders,loyalty,decent dressing , integrity, fairness and discipline among others seem to be gradually diminishing in our society.

While such socially unacceptable behaviors like dishonesty, laziness, disrespect, injustice, pride, indecent dress, indiscipline, rape and prostitution were becoming order of the day .

He wondered why people with questionable character of corruption and mismanagement of public funds were not prosecuted but celebrated in our society.

‘ This account for the reason the youths emulate the adults and leaders who acquire wealth through unscrupulous means and grow their quest for quick money through any available means ‘ he averred.

The failure of parents to inculcate correct values in children,impunity, wealth accumulation through unlawful means,the ‘get rich quick syndrome’, corruption in high places and love for affluence living and materialism are all causes of moral decadence in our society, he attributed.

The presenter called for value re-orientation amongst the youths and the need for all stakeholders to ensure that positive habits are inculcated into the lives of children and youths in order to guarantee their development into responsible adults.

Earlier, the President of Kebbi Civil Society Forum ( KECSOF), Muhammadu Bello Abubakar in his welcome address said the CSO has been a formidable force for Social transformation formed for reawakening of the society.

Abubakar opined that the forum resolved to organise the program with the aim of bringing together relavant organizations, Community and religious leaders to deliberate on attitudinal decadence and its consequences with a view to profering genuine solution.

He stressed the need for the family as the foremost and oldest institution of moulding and instilling discipline in children to live up to its expectation.

The President assured the governor that KECSOF would continue to engage the family, community, religious and traditional leaders as well as relavant organizations to drive the process of changing the mindset of our children and youths for a better society.

He commended Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu for what he described as purposeful leadership and giving the youths opportunity to prosper .

The Commissioner for Youth and Sports Development, Hon Gidado Aliyu Kaliel expressed delight for his ministry to be associated with the activities of KECSOF which centralised on youth orientation and development.

According to him youth are the legacy and greatest asset of this country and as such should be supported.

He commended the organization for carefully selecting the topics taking cognisance of the present situation.

Kaliel also commended Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu for according priority to issues concerning the development of youths, a situation he said has greatly motivated youths in Kebbi State .

‘ Kebbi State has no history of youth unrest or violence largely because of the proactive effort of the governor complemented by activities of NGO and CSOs such as KECSOF ‘ he said.

Highlights of the event featured questions from the participants including school children and response by the paper presenters.

Signed,

YAHAYA SARKI,
Special Adviser (SA) Media to Kebbi State Governor
20/3/2021