The article below was written by Tolu Ayorinde.
Friends, Let me add the benefit of my time as a student and then
resident in the UK - and I live in Lagos now. The first thing that I
discovered about UK-born,white, English undergraduates was that all of
them did holiday or weekend job to support themselves - including the
children of millionaires amongst them. It is the norm over there -
regardless how wealthy their parents are. And I soon discovered that
virtually all other foreign students did the same - the exception being
those of us status-conscious Nigerians.
I also watched Richard
Branson (owner of Virgin Airline)speaking on the Biography Channel and,
to my amazement, he said that his young children travel in the economy
class -even when the parents (he and his wife) are in upper class.
Richard Branson is a billionaire in Pound Sterling. A quick survey would
show you that only children from Nigeria fly business or upper class to
commence their studies in the UK. No other foreign students do this.
There
is no aircraft attached to the office of the prime minister in the UK -
he travels on BA. And the same goes for the Royals. The Queen does not
have an aircraft for her exclusive use. These practices simply become
the culture which the next generation carries forward. Have you seen the
car that Kate Middleton(the lady soon to marry Prince William) drives?
VW Golf or something close to it. But there's one core difference them
and us(generally speaking). They (even the billionaires among them) work
for their money,we steal ours!
If we want our children to bring
about the desired change we have been praying for on behalf of our dear
country, then please, please let's begin now and teach them to work hard
so they can stand alone and most importantly be content, and not having
to "steal", which seem to be the norm these days. "30
is the new 18", which seem to be the new age for testing out the world
in Nigeria now. That seems to be an unspoken but widely accepted
mindset among the last 2 generations of parents in Nigeria. At age 18
years, a typical young adult in the UK leaves the clutches of his/her
parents for the University, chances are, that's the last time those
parents will ever play "landlord" to their son or daughter except of
course the occasional home visits during the academic year.