How well do your kids know Nigeria?

It’s Nigeria’s jubilee anniversary month as an independent nation. While reminiscing about the country’s gains and challenges in the last 60 years, educating and sharing basic knowledge about Nigeria to our kids is important.

With Western influence and the world becoming a global village, we seem to be losing touch with conversations about our culture and identity, says parenting coach and founder, Viviann Okoye Parenting Academy, Vivian Okoye.

According to her, when we talk about Nigeria, what easily comes to mind is all the negativity that is associated to the name, Nigeria but we shouldn’t forget that Nigeria is our identity – an identity that we cannot throw away. No matter the future we desire, our past and histories count. No matter the future we want for our kids, knowledge of their history and identity is a gift to them.

“Knowledge of history and identity is gradually fading away with everyone going urban and western but what I find interesting is that its increasingly becoming a popular to see our brothers in Diaspora embrace our culture by teaching their kids to do same, like speak their native language, cooking native foods and wearing our native fabrics.”

The convener of Parents Summit Africa stressed that it is troubling to see little children growing up in Nigeria and knowing little or nothing about Nigeria. The schools seemed to be doing this job for us but now that kids have been away from school for a while, leaving the parents with the duty of teaching the kids, how well have we fared?

Did your kids know about Nigerian independence?, Did you use the opportunity to teach your child about Nigeria? There are a lot of things you can teach your little children ranging from the History of how we became Nigeria, the colonist era, the different tribes, our food, languages, the geography of Nigeria, the national symbols, to mention a few.

The mum of two said that while many might consider this insignificant, research has shown that history is a very important gift that you can give to a child. It may not make much sense to you at the moment but history will help your child to better understand the world, give them a better understanding of their identity, help them understand why they do things in a certain way and others in another way. It eventually gives your child an understanding of change and evolution. These are very important gifts you can give to your child. Never think of it as a waste of time.

“The lost hope that many have in the state of the nation could be cited as the reason why many parents seem not to be teaching their kids about Nigeria. The truth remains that no matter where you go in the world, your identity still remains your identity and the knowledge of it, is never a waste. We should find a way to teach our kids about the only country of origin they have. This will also grow their hope and love for the nation.”

Okoye added: “As a parent, if the only thing you do for this country is to raise a wholesome child with massive love for her country, I am sure that would be enough. Let’s teach our little humans to love the only country of origin that they have and raise the next generation of better Nigerians as it remains the foundation for Nation building.”