Renowned author and activist, Reno Omokri, has warned about the growing trend of Nigerian youths hooked to entertainment, particularly skit videos, at the expense of skills acquisition and mental development.
In a short essay he penned with the title “Nigeria Is At Serious Risk of Becoming a Cruise-Only Nation,” Omokri advocates for an urgent shift in the focus of young children towards productive and intellectually stimulating activities that challenge their creativity and imagination.
“How many skit videos do your children watch daily? Be honest. Probably tens or even hundreds. How many books do they read daily?”, he asks. “Probably none….Nigeria is producing a generation addicted to pleasure and entertainment”, he warned.
Omokri – who was a former presidential staff to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, said there was a need to diversify the aspirations and activities of Nigeria’s children to positive alternatives that will Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global marketplace. “Skiting is not the only other alternative to Yahoo and Yahoo Plus. There is blockchain. There is coding and game development. There is the stock market and forex trading,” he asserts.
“How are our children going to compete with Chinese and German children, who are not allowed to watch these videos but are given free devices to watch science, technological and educational videos? TikTok is about to be banned in America. But we just allow it to be proliferated without regulation in Nigeria”, he wondered.
He said Nigerian children are inundated with entertainment from TikTok, and yet their counterparts in China which owns the platform are prohibited from accessing it. “If I sell something to your child, but me, the manufacturer, refuse to consume it or allow my child near it, then I know something that you don’t.”
In conclusion, the Christian preacher said he was in favour of a balanced approach to youth empowerment, but Nigerians needed to nurture the talents and skills of their children to align with future demands, particularly in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) for the security and prosperity of Nigeria’s future.
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