Culture has been conceptualized as an embodiment of the people’s ways of life, including their achievements in terms of wealth; and in spite of the fact that family, school, peers, workplace, media, informal social platforms, like the cyberspace, are critical culture transmission stations, traditional approaches to socialization, education and orientation have continued to retrogress.
The Head, Department of Political Science, University of Ilorin, Kwara State, Dr. Aremu Fatai Ayinde, stated this in a paper, titled, “An Overview of Contemporary Issues in Cultural Orientation in Nigeria,” he presented at the just concluded National Institute for Cultural Orientation (NICO) workshop on staff capacity building, in Ilorin, Thursday, 16th January, 2014.
The university don cited the 1960s and 70s, which were characterized by strong moral values, discipline, hard work and honesty, describing that period as, a “golden era,” with very little gap between the political elites and the masses, asserting that the critical turning point in morals were the austerity programme of the 1980s and the excruciating Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) of the 1990s.
Ayinde also examined the individual factor in generational cultural decline to include how an individual perceived the Nigerian state: responsible, united, weak, non-existent or even meaningless; an individual responsibility as a citizen like protection and preservation of public assets; patriotism and the attitude towards work, all of which have brought about monumental reversal of cultures, values and norms.
On the way forward, the university don was of the opinion that there was need to strengthen cultural orientation and re-orientation, cultural orientation and national development, cultural orientation and nation-building, as well as cultural orientation for peace and prosperity.
The technical session had 41 staffers of the Institute in attendance, including the Director of Admin and Human Resources, Barr. Abayomi Oyelola, mni, who represented the Executive Secretary, Dr. Barclays Foubiri Ayakoroma.
Naseer Saeed Ategba
NICO NCZ