I have brought back with me a big cargo of complete satisfactionFull text of an address delivered by Chief Obafemi Awolowo to Lagos State House of Assembly, Ikeja,on Tuesday, 22nd January,1980Continued from last weekRight to support in the event of sickness, disability, or old age. Right to personal property, and to protection thereof. It is not generally appreciated that parents have an instinctive urge, and because of the urge feel compulsively impelled, to consider it their bounden and inexorable duty, as much as it is within their competence, to instruct their offsprings to the best of the abilities of such offsprings.They impart to their children the experiences which they (the parents) had acquired in their lifetime, and those which had been transmitted to them by their ancestors. They also instruct these offsprings in the new ideas which had occurred to them (the parents.) The parents teach their children family and other histories, as well as the lores, customs, mores, and culture of their clan, tribe, and ethnic group. And so on, and so forth, all free of charge, not in a regular formal institution, but in completely informal manner at home, or on the way to and from the farm or place of trade. The point cannot be seriously disputed that a man is at his happiest when he ensconces himself within his family circles. But the family is an unviable social entity. The family cannot produce all that it needs. It has to exchange goods with other families. Besides, every family soon discovers that it cannot live in isolation from the other families without running the risk of extermination or enslavement by warlike and stronger neighbours. Therefore, because of economic necessities, and for reasons of personal safety and of protection of its property, a number of families have had to enter into an unwritten compact for mutual defence against external foes, and for the purpose of benefiting from the tremendous advantages of the division of labour which is brought about by living together. It stands to reason that, when two or more families amalgamate voluntarily, they will want to retain as many of the rights and liberties which the members enjoyed in their respective families before amalgamation, as will be conducive to the viability and performance of the union. The rights which we have mentioned are undoubtedly among the rights which the contracting families would like to preserve for every member of the families. We have referred to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION as one of the inherent and inalienable rights. This must be so, because it is a right which arises (1) from the duty which Nature herself imposes on the parent, through instinctive urges, to protect his offspring from dangers known to him but which may not be apparent to the offspring; and (2) from the offspring's instinct of curiosity which compels him to want to acquaint himself with all the phenomena that come within the field of his awareness and consciousness. From the foregoing outline, it is clear that an inescapable duty is ideologically imposed on the twenty Governments in Nigeria to ensure that every member of the constituent Nigerian families is educated to the limits of his ability, free of charge, in any of the institutions of learning and instruction in the Federation. The ontological basis of free education at all levels is straightforward. Man is an animal; but an animal with considerable difference. He has something in him which puts him apart in a class by himself. The Christian Bible says, correctly in my view, that God forms man from the dust of the ground. He then breathes into his nostrils the breath of life, and man becomes a living Soul. He is not a body with a Soul, but a Soul covered with a body. He is ordained to have dominion over all other created things, and to be monarch of the earth. On these grounds, his body must be made as sound as suitable and adequate food, shelter, and clothing, as well as health care, can make it; and his mind must be nurtured and polished by his being educated to the full extent of his capacity.To be continued next week
Click here to read full news..
