THE Good Character Development Initiative (GCDI) is a social enterprise focused on delivering on observed social needs and targets within Nigerian and African societies with a private sector approach. Succinctly, it is an initiative conceived to develop human infrastructure, good character and also raise the bar on literacy level within societies. And Prince Nnagozie Ochi is the Chief Social Architect driving the initiative.A trip to his hometown, Ogugu in Awgu local council area of Enugu state a few years ago was what kickstarted the project idea. Before then, he visited home regularly though; but on that particular occasion, through a chance meet, the abysmally low literacy level of young wards in his village caught his attention. And he decided to do something about.He organized and undertook a literacy programme in the community. Pupils aged between five to 18 years were in attendance. A few hands volunteered to join him in teaching the kids the basics. And they sat at the feet of the masters and learnt delightfully.Having put in place structures to follow-up on the kids, Ochi returned weeks later to meet amazing results across the age range. For instance, young lads who hitherto could not pronounce a word of English were now making attempts at constructing sentences. Tears of joy welled up his eyes. It was the birth of an initiative that had since expanded in scope and which now seeks not only to increase literacy level across the country, but also to develop the nation's human infrastructure and restore lost values of good character.According to Ochi, the under-development of Nigeria is an embarrassment and sore spot in the hearts of well-meaning countrymen. This worrisome situation, he believes, is directly related to the underdevelopment of the human potentials and infrastructure.Ochi identifies the nation's biggest problem as its underdeveloped human infrastructure. 'We have educated illiterates. We have a huge character deficit in the country. We must understand that the most valuable asset of any nation is its people and the most important attribute of any person is his character. It is only when you develop the people that they can, in turn, develop their community and the nation.'He believes that the requirements for developing the youth are literacy and character development because the character deficit in the nation at the moment is alarming.'There is what we call 'the replacement generation crisis' and this is as a result of not taking cognizance of human infrastructural development. Today, a bleak reality confronts us as a people! Our lip service approach to people development as a country over the last five decades have resulted in where we find ourselves today - an under-developed nation. This also explains why the biggest problem confronting Nigeria is that of human infrastructure under-development.'Our public school system has literarily collapsed. Academic performance at all levels is dismal. Majority of our children and youth aged eight years and above in the system cannot read and write. Character building education has been absent for over two decades in our curriculum. We now have a replacement generation crisis in our hands ' a rapidly emerging younger generation with lesser capacity for leadership and service than the older generation. Yet, everyday we sit back and do nothing about it, and that generation is inching closer to becoming corporate executives, public administrators, politicians, doctors, engineers and the like.'The socio-economic and political implication is scary and unimaginable. We are all already getting a taste of what is to come with the rude wave of youth restiveness, clueless teachers, governments with broken social contracts, physical-combat legislators, doctors without conscience, collapsed-building engineers, rampant kidnappers, gruesome armed robbers and so on. No sector of our socio-economic and political system is safe.'There is a great urgency to act now because the prevailing trend is unacceptable. We cannot continue to wait for government to solve this crisis alone - individuals, families, businesses, the state and the nation suffer if nothing is done. It is now time to take our destiny into our own hands, because our tomorrow is what we make of our today. By molding the character of the emerging upstream generation of Nigerians, we can safely rest assured the African renaissance and rebirth is at hand,' he says.Ochi is also disturbed that parents and religious institutions are not playing their part well. 'If you take the wrong course, it will always come back to you. We need to make our children learn this. There seem to be too much God and too little good in the society. In my opinion, the first place to begin to put things right is with the children.'People and character development is at the heart and soul of human infrastructure, and it should be the main agenda in the education system from nursery, primary to secondary schools. To have a better Nigeria, the young and upcoming citizens at their formative stage should possess good character and attitude required for nation building,' he adds.To create a climate of new culture and engender a renaissance, Ochi, through his GCDI project, is now helping the nation's emerging generation of youths to develop new values and abilities for good moral character and conduct.First, the feedback from the literacy programme in his community steered the interest of UNICEF's A-Field office, comprising 10 states in the Southeast, to partner with GCDI to expand the pilot project. With further acceptance on other fronts, GCDI has since gone into partnerships with various groups and organisations with a view to entrenching the ideals for which it was founded.Currently, GCDI is partnering with UNICEF and Pearson Learning Inc./Pearson Foundation for the acquisition of reading skills by young learners in rural communities across the 10 southeastern states of Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Abia, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers, Anambra and Benue. It has secured Enugu state government's mandate to partner with the state to conduct a statewide implementation of its Accelerated Human Infrastructure Development pilot.GCDI has built a partnership with Josephson Institute of Ethics, USA and have had the institute's president visit Nigeria. It is also in partnership with the office of the Special Adviser to the President on Ethics and Values, Dr (Mrs.) Sarah Jibril. In addition to high-level meetings with government and some stakeholders in the private sector, it now has a growing list Ivy league private schools in Lagos and some southwest and southeastern states embracing the initiative.The implementation of Character Counts! programme is well underway in several public and private schools in Lagos and other Southwest states through collaborations with the Association of Private Educators in Nigeria (APEN), National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) and other stakeholders.'We have conducted training for about 40 character educators and it is the first time this is happening in Africa. This training is to prepare them to go back and implement the training in their various schools. So as I speak to you right now, over 20,000 Nigerian youths are being impacted by this programme.'Our Good Character Development Initiative is partnering with Alliance Publishing and Marketing Inc. USA, the publishers of Character Counts! Schools Agenda. This partnership is geared towards providing professional support services for implementing sustainable strategy to embed character development goals within schools, organisations and communities in Nigeria,' Ochi explains.GCDI has launched a journal ' Agenda for Character Development, which is now being used in many schools across the nation. It is the African edition of the Character Counts! School Agenda intended to help young people develop the ability to make better choices about their lives based on the six pillars of character - trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. 'The whole framework is a copyright and a framework owned by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. We proceed are in direct partnership with them. We are going to have regular interactions where members of the institute will come to Nigeria often to train Nigerians, who will later on become educators.'The Character Counts!, Ochi says, would help the critical mass of young Africans emerge with a new sense of personal leadership.'Great effort has gone into putting together persons of character of African descent so as to bring this concept nearer home and inspire the moral ambition of our emerging young generation. Such persons include Akintola Williams, Christopher Kolade, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Wole Soyinka, Chinua Achebe, Philip EmeagwaliEmeka Anyaoku, Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan, to mention a few.'The main purpose of the Character Counts! is to celebrate these persons of character so as to pervade our young ones' minds with the activities of inspirational role models, who, in spite of all odds, have become shining examples to many.On the long run, Ochi is confident that GCDI's effort would help in building a mass of young people who are conscious of, committed to and who want to implement the Character Count! 'By extension, we would be molding the character of a new generation of Africans, then we all could rest, assured that the African renaissance and rebirth is at hand,' Ochi says.
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