The expectation of every parent is to see his or her child become a good ambassador of the family and the society. This is why majority of parents go the extra-mile to ensure that their children go to school, and acquire basic knowledge that would make them functional members of not only the family but the entire society.
No responsible parent would want his child to be nicknamed bad boy or wayward girl. Therefore, parents who relentlessly sponsor their children to seek education are not doing it for doing sake. Their expectation is mainly to train them to be good ambassadors and make them proud as parents.
In Nigerian society today, some parents have had their expectations turned down by their children, people have often said there are bad friends, I never believed that until I got into the university.
As a female student, I had set a dream to prove wrong those who have always held wrong perception about ladies. Some believe that when ladies enter universities, they become wayward and lose focus on what brought them to university by starting to live an ugly life. I didn’t personally agree until my first year in the university. Unfortunately, what I began to experience, especially in our hostels, was different from my perception.
I wonder if our hostels are made for love making. Every evening, I see students who are supposed to be in the class reading and preparing themselves for tests and examinations discussing love with their boyfriends. The meeting point has been jokingly termed “emotional market” by students. This is peculiar in most universities in Nigeria, many students don’t read until examination timetables are out.
Universities must not be seen as a place to acquire degrees alone but also to inculcate in the students the moral values that would make a better citizens and ambassadors of Nigeria.
It is clear that most graduates of Nigerian universities cannot defend their degrees because what they do is to memorize their notes just to pass examination.
We must not deny the fact that there is rising immorality in Nigerian universities. The university environment is no longer a learning environment; it has become an environment where most students lead wayward lives. Role models are hard to come by while some lecturers don’t inspire their students to study.
Imagine a teacher dating his female students. Although, I am not against a lecturer marrying his student but it is wrong to use them as sex objects in return for awarding them cheap marks.
Some female students dress indecently all in the name ‘fashion and civilization’. Some do it deliberately to attract the opposite sex. Surprisingly, most of them don’t wear those clothes at home until they arrive on campus.
Some students are also drug addicts, a habit usually induced by friends on campus. When they take these drugs, they become threats to other students.
It is obvious that parents should be able to monitor their wards even outside their homes. They should not leave everything to the university authority, otherwise their expectations will be dashed.
Fatima Nda-Ali,
Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University,
Lapai, Niger State
