Very Rev Dr Levi Terzungwe Mayange is a senior lecturer at the Department of Counselling, Nasarawa State University, Keffi (NSUK). He is also a senior pastor in Evangelical Church of Christ (ERCC). In this interview with Dominic Akpensuen, the donsays inadequate guidance and counselling leads to bad leadership, corruption and political thuggery in the society. Excerpts.
Importance of guidance and counseling
The importance of guidance and counselling to Nigerian society are numerous. Counselling is a professional discipline. A counsellor offers the services to the society in different ways. The lifestyle of a counsellor invariably reflects the message he passes to the society, particularly the community he lives in. Therefore, where parents find it difficult to manage the affairs of their families, counselling comes in, in order not for the marriage to break up. Through proper counseling, youths are guided to attain their mission in life. When naughty children are properly counselled and guided, the hidden treasures of their lives are brought out. These are just a few out of numerous values of guidance and counselling as embedded in the national policy on education.
As a doctor of rehabilitation counseling, I blame parents for the negligence in the proper upbringing of their children. I am appealing to governments at both federal and state levels to take guidance and counseling as one of the core subjects in the curriculum.
Acceptance of guidance and counselling in schools
It is very unfortunate that the position and place of counselling in Nigeria has been lost. I said this because those who are professionally trained to render their services in the field are not given the opportunity as a professional to do their work. Let me share my experience with you. I have graduated several students in this discipline, beginning from diploma to degree and master’s levels, and the challenges are that people who are trained are not allowed freedom to play their role in the profession. Imagine graduates of guidance and counseling from our school system are sent out to the classrooms to teach. Is that the right thing to do? It is better for such trained personnel to be given counselling roles even though they could also teach. We shouldn’t make teaching their primary role. In Nigerian public schools, for instance, the position of counsellors is being abused because they are not allowed to do their work as professional counsellors would do. Therefore, the purpose of acquiring expertise in the field is lost. So, I recommend that counsellors be given the opportunity to mind the affairs required by their expertise. Thank God in Nigerian, guidance and counseling is run in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions as a discipline. This is because it is more important to teach children at these levels. At early age, children are vulnerable to all influences, so proper counselling will help them to acquire a good foundation in morality and patriotism.
Politicians’ use of youths as thugs
It is a general problem in our present society because at this particular age they are not properly guided and trained. Also they are not being given the core values of life, what it means to live. Definitely, they are vulnerable to politicians who use them as thugs. Parents should be guided on how best to bring their children up. When parents are themselves properly counselled, the impact will manifest in their children and wards instead of allowing them to be influenced by bad adults and peer groups. Children see thuggery as easy way to make name and fame. It is to them a lawful means of earning a living. Parents should wake up from their slumber and address thuggery in the society. They should see it as an anti-social behaviour. Parents should not allow politicians to use their children to achieve their evil desires.
Engaging the counsellor’s full potential
I commended the government for understanding that counselling is very important. Having known that counselling has an important role to play in the society, government should therefore allow it to play its role at home, schools, workplaces and most importantly, our communities. This can arrest most of the challenges we are having in our communities. Government should consider counselling in the curriculum as a discipline designed to train trainers by equipping them annually in terms of training and retraining, and give them the opportunity both at the primary and secondary schools. Taking the cue from the Universal Basic Education (UBE), which has given us a guide, government should allow counselling to take root in all aspects of life in order to eliminate thuggery in the society.
Neglect of guidance and counseling in private schools
I want to call on government policy makers whom the power lies in their hands to create policies which will be implemented to the letter as regards counseling. For instance, in Abuja where several of my graduates work, if you go inside those schools, you will find that most of my graduates are performing the full services of a counsellor. Fortunately, almost all the counsellors in the FCT schools are from Nasarawa State University, Keffi, and other universities. They take over counselling and placement of students at various levels. So if the federal government can enforce what is going on in FCT schools and implement it across all the 36 states in Nigeria, it will be good. For example, in Nasarawa state, guidance and counselling is yet to be fully taken as a course. It is there but they prefer to teach some subjects in classes. The former minister of education, Professor Rukayya Rufai once gave an order, having taken the statistics of schools in Nigeria and seen the role counselling supposed to play to fight societal vices, that the teaching of counselling be implemented in every Nigerian university. I now urge the federal government to revisit the pronouncement of the former minister.
