As the global community celebrates the 2023 International Day of Democracy, the National Association of Seadogs, popularly known as Pyrates Confraternity, has called for the review of the current school curriculum with the aim of strengthening the promotion of the tenets of democracy among the country’s youths.
The Katamaran Deck of the Pyrates Confraternity comprising Ijebu-Ode and Remo lands with Secretariat in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, in a press statement to commemorate the 2023 International Day of Democracy, stated that reviewing the curriculum has become imperative in order to sensitise and inculcate in the youths, who are the country’s future leaders, the tenets of democracy and good governance. The theme of this year’s International Day of Democracy is “Empowering the next Generation.”
It added that reviewing the school curriculum would enable the youths who are future leaders of the country to imbibe the culture of good governance at the local government, State and Federal levels of government, even as they grow up to eventually assume the leadership of the country in all sectors and at every level.
Capoon of the Katamaran Deck, Mr Olugbenga Otunba Payne, stated that for Nigerians to continue to enjoy the benefits of democracy, the coming generations of youths, who are the future leaders, must be thoroughly sensitised and educated on the concepts of democracy for good governance.
He said that the current education of the country’s youths must properly highlight their role in advancing democracy and also deepen their understanding as future leaders of the country.
Otunba Payne said the revised curriculum must focus on empowering the civil society, promotion of human rights and also encourage active participation of all youths in the country’s democratic processes.
The Confraternity, however, expressed regrets at the level of ignorance and the lackadaisical attitude exhibited by the youths in the country towards safeguarding the tenets of democracy for future generations.
Citing the unpalatable and dangerous events witnessed after the 2023 presidential election, where some young Nigerians not satisfied with the outcome of the 2023 presidential election took to the social media and others reportedly stormed the Defence Headquarters in Abuja, to plead with the military to take over political power from the elected politicians, the Confraternity noted that such aberations and crass exhibition of undemocratic antics constitute serious danger to the continued existence of democratic governance in the country.
The statement partly read, “This was a sad commentary on the pedestrian state of mind and shallow knowledge of the country’s youths with regard to Nigeria’s political history and the destructive role and havocs military interventions wreaked in Nigeria’s political trajectory in the recent past. Of course, many of them might not have been born during the dark days of military dictatorship in Nigeria. Their ignorance, we believe, was fueled by the current school curriculum that has failed to properly highlight our past political history as a nation and the role of individuals and institutions like the military.
“Of course, if today’s youths had adequate knowledge about Nigeria’s experience under military dictatorship and the prices paid by Nigerians for democracy to be restored, they won’t be deceived by anyone to go and beg the military to stage a comeback on the country’s political turf.”
The Confraternity, therefore, enjoined those in charge of the nation’s education sector to urgently take steps to review the current curriculum with a view to promoting, protecting and preserving the nation’s democracy and its various institutions in the interest of the future generations.
Doing this, it said, would make positive impact and great difference in the lives of the nation’s youths and the future generation of political leaders as well as the Nigerian nation itself.
