TALLENISM

 

By Shabul Mazadu

On the planet earth, there are people who are determined to bring a positive change to the society they live in. And by so doing they curve a niche for themselves which later on culminates into school of thoughts and make them authoritiesof their vision. Such people are original scholars who rely solely not on decadent educational system for the attainment of their goals. 

Of such are; Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe popularly called the Great Zik of Africa, and Front-line Nationalist, whose ideologies have been bandied into a school of thought known as Zikism. 

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, whose ideologies and achievements have been bandied into Awoism.

Zik's ideologies hinged on emancipation of Africa from colonialism, and he along side others liberated some African countries from colonial rule, Nigeria inclusive. 

Awo's feat aside the fight against colonialism, he enthroned free formal education in the West. 

There are living legends whose feats are yet to be made into school of thoughts such as: Bola Asiwaju Tinubu, Dame Pauline Tallen and others. A late legend whose ideologies are yet to be bandied into school of thought on the Plateau is J.D.Gomwalk. 

Pauline Tallen, the Minister of Women Affairs, has curved a niche for herself yet to be equalled by any on the Plateau. 

Tallen has brought into view the best way to sanitize the society from vices and she is relentlessly working towards enlightening Nigerians until it becomes a norm.

While those in the corridor of power and great minds in the society opine that youths should be empowered, Tallen holds that opinion as an immediate remedy with a deeper revelation of empowering women and girl-child as a long term panacea of a rotten society.

Her concept is, if the girl-child who is tomorrow's mother, is developed and empowered she will have the necessary tools of nursing the foetus in her womb and giving birth to healthy and sound baby, whom she will bring up in a sound way by giving it all the proper attention and grooming being knowledgeable of what it takes. 

If all mothers will do that she said several times, it will drastically curtail the trend of having our streets littered with touts, thugs, out of school children and beggars who are easily used as instruments of crime and violence in the society. 

Having this at the back of her mind, she kicks against child marriage which most times impoverishes the mother, leads to VVF, divorce and remarriages where many children born with different parents living at different homes have no home training and love from their parents. Michael Jackson said, "I realise that many of world's problems today from inner city crime to large scale wars and terrorism, and our over crowded prisons are a result of the fact that children have had their childhood stolen from them" Luciano the reggae artiste sang, "If you wanna save the world, you got save the children. Set an example for the children to follow make a brighter tomorrow." 

Tallen's view hinges on treating women well to make them good house wives being the early teachers of children through informal education. And once they groom the children well, children will be happy at home. And once they are happy, they can easily learn in school. And once they learnt. They don't need exam malpractice to pass their common entrance examination. They don't need exam passing centres to pass their SSCE or WAEC. They don't need to bribe lecturers with cash or sex to pass their exams at the tertiary level. At the end it will be inculcated in them that corruption is a vice and cannot be dragged into the system. And also happy home is panacea for frustration, laziness and indiscipline.

If women are raped, impoverished and domestically brutalized, they will be psychologically affected negatively. This will badly affect their grooming of children, and it will in turn give the children a negative perspective of life. And being tomorrow's leaders, the future will be full of negative uncertainties. 

A clear example is the #EndSARS protesters demanding throwing away the baby with the bathing water. Take America for instance, they protested against the police brutality, but did not demand an end to any of the Police unit, or an end to White Police men. Well groomed people know how to sieve the wheat from the chaff. 

Look at the colossal destruction of lives and properties done by the EndSARS protesters, well groomed people will not burnt what will be of benefit to them tomorrow and their children when venting their anger. 

The loses incurred during the EndSARS protests, attested to the fact that our tomorrow's leaders don't know they are leaders of tomorrow, and all the infrastructures put in place are there for them to use when they mount the saddle of power, and for every property destroyed, it's a set back. Thus; they will not burn or vandalize their properties. Harry Belafone said, "The economic benefits of investing in children have been extensively documented. Investing fully in children today will ensure the well-being and productivity of future generations for decades to come. By contrast, the physical, emotional and intellectually impairment that poverty inflicts on children can mean a lifetime of suffering and want and a legacy of poverty for the next generation."

Carol Bellamy said, "In serving the best interest of children, we serve the best interest of humanity."

In Nigeria today it is said we have over 13 million out of school children roaming the streets. This is a serious potential danger to the already existing security challenges of the Boko Haram insurgency, kidnapping and banditry.  

Tallen's ideology of giving serious attention to children and women for a better future which she started by establishing a school in her home town, Shendam, supporting orphanages and vulnerable women and a strong fight against child marriage, rape and domestic violence, is a school of thought given by no other on the Plateau. 

Today she is gaining grounds as states have started implementing the Child Rights Act, and enacting laws against rape with stringent punishment to violators. Her ideology is no doubt Tallenism!