 When it was announced that there will now be a loan facility for students in tertiary institutions, there was applause from many quarters. But seeing the cumbersome requirements in the new students loan, is it just a much ado about nothing situation or is it going to be something beneficial to Nigerians? We'll also be taking a look at front lines of the major headlines newspapers in the country this morning on the breakfast. Good morning and welcome to the Mindset Edition of the Breakfast on Plus TV Africa. I am Maureen. I am Nyamgul. It's so good to have you join us this morning and happy Father's Day in areas too, especially the people who had nobody to wish them and the people that didn't even have a happy Father's Day, even from their own children and family. So we're in this together. Happy Father's Day. Some of us still maintain that only responsible fathers deserve that. The women always drag that with us. When it is Mother's Day, mothering Sunday and all that, we just celebrate the women. When it gets to Father's Day, the women come in and say, okay, the women that are taking care of their children, when their fathers are not there, should be celebrated as fathers. Why don't just leave it for fathers, whether they're responsible or not. It's like you being in a family and because you are doing better than your older brother, you celebrate your birthday and still celebrate his because you're doing better. No, true people told Nyamgul, there are fathers that are deadbeat. There are fathers that are just highly irresponsible. Then don't celebrate them. Just say happy Father's Day. You don't need to mention whether there are some deadbeat or not deadbeat. You don't need to come out as a woman and say you are a father because if I was a man, perhaps it would have been okay to say that there are men that are not responsible fathers. Just as there are women who are not responsible. Of course. But we still celebrate Mother's Day. Just leave it for the women for crying out loud. It's our day. It's the men's day. Whether they're responsible, whether they are not responsible, just say happy Father's Day to the person you think is responsible. I don't see a reason why a woman will come out because she is a single mother or because she was abandoned or because the father to the children is not showing up and to say that it is her day as well. No, I don't buy that. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I am not a feminist and I'm not into feminism, ideologies or whatever they describe that. But I'm saying that when you want to call out good men, when you want to celebrate fathers, there are men that do not qualify to come out. Just as when you want to celebrate mothers, there are mothers that do not qualify to come out. There are mothers who have pushed their mothers who have pushed their daughters, teenage daughters into prostitution. There are mothers who abandon their kids with their fathers and run after men and career. Those women should not be celebrated on Mother's Day. Same thing. Men who do not take care of their children, who leave all the responsibility for their wives or baby mamas, men who sexually abuse their daughters do not qualify to be greeted happy Father's Day. I say this unapologetically. Yes, so they shouldn't be greeted happy Father's Day because by your judgment, they do not qualify. And so don't greet them. But I'm glad that we're on the same page that it doesn't mean that because you're taking responsibility, you should now celebrate Father's Day as a mother. No, I know. That's what I'm saying. I am not a feminist. You could be a feminist, but the real feminist because the Nigerian, the Nigerian definition of a feminist has made that word to be to look like it's a bad word. No, it's not the Nigerian definition of it. Feminism has taken a twist that some who originally started it would say may not longer recognize it. That's the truth because when it started out, from my understanding, it was to create some sort of justice for women who were not paid well in places of work against their male counterparts. So to create a situation where women can vote, where women can go to police station and be able to build someone. Those were those who knew what we were talking about, in my opinion. But a situation where there seems to be some sort of a campaign to hit men, hit men, or what men can do, women can do better and all those kind of stuff where a woman no longer shapes her armpit because she wants to show that she's a feminist, shapes her hair and goes naked almost, sometimes body positivity. So I am not a feminist. I believe in humanity, justice for all male or female. Be treated right. Welcome to the breakfast. It's the mindset edition and our theme for the day is robust education system key to shaping mindset of strong national identity and countries like China and Japan use the school curriculum to impart the value system that has built their respective societies. Yesterday, Sunday as it was, I had to send a message to the principal of my children's school. And I said, look, one of my children told me that she's only had her ICT teacher come in once this term. And I find that alarming. Children should be made to have solid foundation. If a parent spent so much to put his or her word in a school where, you know, they think that, you know, the right foundation should be set. We want to see our children coupling things. We want to see our children doing things that children in China and some other developed or developing countries are doing. Of course, she apologized and explained that they had issues with a particular class and they were working around getting the right teachers and what I want to what I, but, you know, just to let you know the value system that a good, you know, curriculum would give to children in any society. Yeah, you see the first maybe three to five years of first five years of a child's learning in China and Japan, the countries we've mentioned here. They don't even talk about education. They talk about, you know, respects. They talk about value system. They talk about the national dream. They instill in these children so young and then they encourage them to do things with their hands. Let them be kids, but kids in a way that they will grow to love, say, mathematics, say, sciences, say, all those things that will make their country great because if there are more people that innovate, there are more people that invent, then the country will be great. But here in Nigeria, unfortunately, is even that kind of a class that you're talking about in the ICT class, if you see the examination that they will set for this child, it's a sieve. They're setting the examination for universities, students or something. Our teachers, I don't know if they're made to feel like that, but they feel like they harder the examination, the more it shows that you're a good teacher. I don't know how that works. I give you an instance. I had the privilege to be taught by so many American teachers who brought in their system of teaching. You know, they will give you handout, for instance, handout that will cover everything they're supposed to do for that semester. They'll give you midterm exams and all those things, by the way, but when it gets close to the exams, what they do is they'll give you an assignment. Assignments that will give you the questions that you're supposed to answer even in the examination, and they're asking you to write out the answers. So you'll find them in your handout, you'll read them, you'll write it with your hands, and when you're coming to the class, it's a tertiary institution, by the way. When you're coming to class, you have to pass that notebook. That is one of the reasons why you can enter the class. Do you know all the teachers that were teaching was the American teachers? Everybody left that school remembering everything that they taught us. The Nigerian lecturers will come and say, we have done this, we have done this. Read wide. Read wide. And you'll find out that because you're just looking for things that might be relevant, you'll end up forgetting. And all you do is cram. Just cram. Just cram it and come and pour out as much of it that you can remember. If you just bring your sense into it, you are failed. It's terrible. Exams, tough exams don't make a good teacher. How much of that thing that you're giving as examination will be remembered by that student? Why not look for creative ways to make this too? The aim should be for them to remember and apply those things. Exactly. In real life. But here, you study for exams. That's what we do. We study for exams. We don't study for life. And that's what our teachers are failing to see. Also, the teachers should be encouraged to be more creative. They should be encouraged to do more. I think that teachers should be rewarded much more than they are. Yesterday I was having that discussion. I said, I wonder how much the teachers are being paid. Because teachers who teach sciences, for instance, they should spend more time in their laboratories and put the children also in there to make research, to experiment, to do things that way they create an excitement in the children for innovations, for inventions. Last projects. Exactly. But if they are not paid well, they wouldn't spend that much time with the kids in the labs. They would, you know, probably spend more time with side hustles because they need to pay their rent and do other things. So these are some of the things. The reasons why parents must visit the children's school from time to time, especially when it's open day or parents' day, whichever way the school calls it, make time, go there and find out how are the children faring and how are they being taught. These things help a lot. But I'm just thinking a lot. How much of the situation you meet in the school on the day that is open day will be true to how the school operates when you're not there? Because it's like an external supervisor coming to the school. Every teacher will sit up. It's like the governor visiting a school. Every student will be fed. No, you go through your children's notes. You go through their notes. You see what they wrote, what they didn't write, how they were corrected, how they were not corrected, and then you ask one or two questions. And of course your children will tell these things. As I said, my daughter, one of my daughters told me that they haven't had the ICT teacher coming since this time, except once. And I was alarmed. I had to question my son as well. And so they talk to you, listen to your children when they talk, and then follow through. Anyway, even as we advocate that teachers should be paid better, should be encouraged better with all the kind of things that they should have, even if the government says every teacher is entitled to a car that they can be paying from small, small, as we put in Nigeria, or accommodation, or something. But there should be an encouragement. We also are advocating that you be creative enough as teachers, and you let the children expand their horizon and be creative in their own right. Because in a situation where a teacher gives you a test, you write the test according to your understanding, and he marks you wrong. Not that you you didn't get the understanding, but just because you didn't pour out what was on the notebook. You gave a note, they copied the note, and then when the time it got to the time for the test, you are expecting them to give you verbatim everything that you give to them. It is so wrong. It is so wrong because education is supposed to open the mind to thinking. That should be a core. That should be a core that people can think. I remember. You can talk about this without making examples. I was part of a PTA and some issues came up, and when you make some suggestions, some parents will say, oh no, da, da, da. We should be able to think. If we as parents are not allowed to think, what sort of education are we giving our children in this school? Will the children be allowed to think outside of what the teachers have taught them from the textbooks? If children are not allowed to think outside of what they are taught in class, that education is poor and has failed. Yeah, I remember also. I was in JSS3, I think. I had a teacher who gave us assignment, and of course I liked football, I liked everything. I forgot about the assignment. That morning after assembly, I had five minutes before the first lecture, and he was supposed to come in. So I scribbled that it was English. I wrote the essay. He wanted us to write, you know, everything, and then when time came, I passed it, and he marked it. You know, he came back to the class and singled me out and gave me a thorough beating of my life. Okay, now you'll be wondering why would he beat you? You have submitted the assignment. What he said was that he has warned us never to take assignments to our elder brothers that are in university to write for us. The language I used was not a secondary school language. He flogged me. I will never forget that. As we have said, in China and Japan, investment in their children to value science and technology courses has led to stereotypes that the Chinese are good at mathematics and national average test scores, and also help them to prevent and to social issues that lead to criminal behavior and many mental health problems. These are some of the talking points that support this thing for the day. Yeah, Indians also are good at sciences, at mathematics and all that. At some point, they are the ones that represent America when it goes to competitions that they do. Sometimes it's Chinese, sometimes it's Indian, people who are now Americans, but you will know where they come from. It just follows them around. But the main thing is that these people teach. Do we even have in Nigerian dream that we can sell to our children? At least in our time, even though we may not have had in Nigerian dream, I don't know if we had, but we were made to respect the national colors, for instance. You know, every morning you come out for assembly, you're standing around a flag and you more or less reverence the flag. I know that people will say it's a military time and all that, but it gave us an idea that this our country needs to be loved and respected just from looking at the flag and doing whatever we're doing. Do we have a Nigerian dream that we can sell? There's a question I asked during the run-up, because a lot of things were brought up, especially when that tribal thing came up towards the build-up to the elections began to ask such questions. And do we have a national dream? Yes, growing up, we were taught to respect the national end and then the flag, the pledge and all of that, wherever you were, if you heard a national anthem, you were supposed to stand and and wait for it to be through, but you know, after what happened, after what happened at the toll gate, where Nigerian youths were holding the flag and singing the national anthem and they were being shot at, it did a lot to the psyche of Nigerians, especially the youth, and not just the youth, every Nigerian who held the national anthem and the flag in high esteem, it did a lot. And that's why that incident that happened must be revisited. Even though some people who should talk about it are still denying it, that even if there was something like that, it wasn't as bad as the people are putting it. I mean, a hundred people can't be lying the same kind of lie. Oh, goodness. A thousand people can be lying the same type of lie. I wept when I saw, I mean, these children, they were holding the flag, they wrapped themselves in that flag and and they were singing the national anthem. Why were they hurt? Why were they attacked? They were harmless. We missed an opportunity to to build citizens. Yes. An opportunity to build citizenship in the country. Well, I do hope that the president, the present president, will will do something about it, even if he doesn't directly say I was involved or or I knew about it or it happened the way it happened, but he should do something about it, especially given that a lot of people think at him as someone who knew he had the information, he he was he was part of the people who made it happen the way it happened, whether it's true or false, but there should be a different narrative that will come from him. There should be something to show that there is some sort of conciliation or reconciliation. The legacy government did put up some sort of committee that did some stuff and compensated some people, but something on the national scale must be done to address this and help Nigerians find closure over this. Healing will start from the toll gate. Exactly. Very first top trend in today is the Federal University of Gousseau students protest who protested the abduction of five of their fellow students that protest took place on Saturday June 17th. They blocked the Zarya Gousseau experts way in Zampara state. Do you know five days ago five days ago seven students were also abducted, unidol students, the students of the University of Gousseau, although I learned that five of them have regained their freedom. What is going on with the school system now? Security in the universities is being seriously threatened. We have a track for this, the one that happened in Gousseau. Let's have that. Midnight. Five students. Last month, 30 students were kidnapped. Up to now, two are not being released. The one they released, he paid a whole lot of money for them to release the guy. The government should please come to our rescue. We are living in fear. We don't sleep at night. We don't sleep. Every time. We can't even concentrate on our studies. We are going through a lot, a lot of emotional trauma. These people are tormenting us. Our life doesn't matter to school. In fact, our life doesn't matter to the to the government as entirely. This is not the first, not the second, not the third time that they are kidnapping us. Our students have been kidnapped and the school does nothing about it. In fact, there are students living close by in the school. Their life is not safe. The life doesn't matter to school. The students are here now saying they are mine. That's quite sad. Yeah, it is really sad. You send your child to school and you can't sleep with your eyes closed. Your child comes back, both of you can't sleep with your eyes closed. I don't know where we got it wrong. At what point we were negligent that will make these things escalate to this point. It has become a lucrative business to kidnap people and make money off them and all that. As you know, I was a victim, a partial victim because five members of my family were kidnapped a few, few months ago. So, almost every family has faced some kind of trauma or the other because of insecurity in our society and that's not good. At one point, it used to be restricted to the Northeast. Now, it's everywhere. We can see your chiefs being kidnapped. We can see in every other place in Nigeria. Even in Lagos here, things are happening and we just hope that those who know, those who can, should make sure that the security is beefed up everywhere. President Tinibu needs to make this top priority. He has said he will make it top priority. We need to see action immediately. You saw that video by Asari Dokubo where he implicated the military, the Navy and all of that. We're still waiting to see how that will be responded to. The Navy has asked him to name names because they're not taking it lightly. Those are weighty allegations. And Nigerians are also looking. When did Asari Dokubo become an advisor to the president on security? Serious questions being asked. Even if he said it with the president, they could have that because they have a relationship according to himself for like 30 years. So he could have that discussion but not to come to make it look like he is the one that the president gives an ear to when it comes to security. I was hearing for the first time in that video that there's been a contract given for the securing of... That he's been the one that has been securing the cardinal... Cardinal Buja route. I don't know about that. A lot of things... We do know some of the things he said. I mean oil theft and all of that. But we do not know some of the things he said with regards to some of the names he mentioned and some of the information he released. So we are waiting to see how the president will respond to that. Now jurors are debating it. It's up there in public space. Want to hear what the government has to say? Perhaps this week... If the president could invite him there that means the president trusts him in some way. And after that he sat at the press center and addressed the press. I have not seen that before anyway with the coat of arms behind him. Everybody was saying that's the press center and it's allowed. Anybody can do that. But let's just hope that the outcome will be better than what we are speculating right now. Let's take the second. But to a very unfortunate event as well a lawmaker that was just elected newly elected Kaduna lawmaker dies three days after inauguration. His name is Honorable Garba Madami a member of the 10th Kaduna State House of Assembly. He died in a hospital in the state and our hearts go to the family. The cost of debt is currently not disclosed by the family. He was unable to attend the inauguration of the state assembly on June 13th due to the illness. He was a one-time chairman of Chikun Local Government Council and a former commissioner in the state before contesting and defeating an incumbent lawmaker of the Chikun constituency in the March 18, 2023 state assembly elections on the platform of the People's Democratic Party. Well may his soul rest in peace. Amen.