The only disability in life is a bad attitude – Scott Hamilton
When Jeff Keller, a lawyer and motivational speaker wrote his famous book Attitude is Everything (Change your Attitude…Change your life), he may not have had the young people in Arochukwu in mind. However, a cursory look at Arochukwu would reveal that our young ones require serious lessons on attitude.
According to psychologists, attitude refers to a set of emotions, beliefs and behaviours towards a particular object, person, thing or event. And, as Kendra Cherry explained in one of her numerous write-ups, attitudes are often the result of experiences or upbringing and have serious influence over behavior. It affects how people act in various situations. It is the product of direct experience, formal education, conditioning processes and social influence.
Attitudes are either positive, negative, neutral or sikken. Society worries more over negative and sikken attitudes because they reflect an enduring state of negativity and aggressiveness.
Attitude may also be categorized as good or bad. It is good when it is positive and purpose driven, and bad when it incentivizes negative behaviour.
How can one describe the situation in Aro? While it will be fallacious to generalize, a cursory discussion with any discerning adult Aro person reveals clear exasperation at the attitude of the average Aro boy or girl growing up in Aro. They exhibit empty arrogance, rudeness, unwillingness to help, monetization of every service no matter how rudimentary, ingratitude, entitlement mentality, lack of vision and confusion.
Many of them desire success but do not know how to get it or the patience to work for it. They also lack humility, one of the building blocks of success. Their rudeness discourage well meaning members of the society who may wish to advise or correct them. They appear to have outgrown the control of their parents and hardly listen to them. The situation is not helped by the increasing phenomenon of teenage pregnancies and single parenthood. They have eyes only for the nouveau rich and are excited by riches without enterprise.
The situation is a time bomb that if not diffused will spell doom for the Aro society. Attitude is so key in life that it determines virtually everything. A bad attitude has been likened to a flat tyre. You can get nowhere with it. Attitude determines success or failure and a positive attitude often guarantees desired outcomes.
The good news, however, is that attitude can be changed. It requires conscious effort on the part of parents, teachers and mentors to encourage the children to learn and imbibe the right attitude. Developing the right attitude by the young and impressionable places a burden on all agents of socialization- peer groups, faith- based organisations, educational institutions and cultural icons. It is therefore, important that any society that cares about the future of its young ones must invest in programs that encourage young persons to develop the right attitude and values.
This is why we must commend the iLead programme mounted by Adaukwu Delight Sunday Anicho for JSS1 students of Aggrey Secondary School, Arochukwu. The program developed by Maxwell Leadership Foundation is aimed at preparing the next generation of leaders. The children are tutored to develop soft skills, leadership skills and values, good character and know how to make right choices.
In the words of the managers of the program, following the breakdown of moral values and lack of hope in the society, children are exposed to strong negative peer pressures leading to increased school drop out, lack of respect for elders, criminality, drug addiction, eroding of societal moral compass and break down of the family authority and values. Ilead is introduced to achieve the following objectives:
•Develop in the young ones the capacity to think right based on right values.
•Model to them the benefits of imbibing good values, confidence, independent evaluation of thoughts and actions prior to decision- making.
•Increased knowledge of leadership values.
Preliminary reports indicate that parents of the students participating in the program have started testifying about the positive changes they have noticed in the kids. Some of the children now make conscious efforts to greet and show respect to elders. They no longer need prompting or persuasion to help with house chores. They are learning to take responsibility in their own little ways, to mention those few.
However, for the program to have pervasive impact on the community and yield the desired results, it needs to reach as many students as possible. It should be continuous and sustained. Each of the schools in Arochukwu should have a group engaging in the program.
This is a huge project but worth all the energy and resources. The various Old Students Associations of schools in Arochukwu as well as mentoring groups, Social Clubs and the Aro Education Committee should find ways of partnering to deepen and spread the iLead program to put many more of our children on the right path.
This is one way of guaranteeing the Arochukwu of our dreams.
Mazi Anicho S. Okoro is the 1st Vice President General of Nzuko Arochukwu.
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