Akpan Umoh, Uyo
Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), says the Federal Government has concluded plans to establish a Citizens Brigade to promote Core Values for the nation.
Issa-Onilu disclosed this during an advocacy visit to the Nigerian Christian Institute (NCI) in Uyo on Monday.
He said that the citizens brigade is part of the national value charter that will be unveiled by President Bola Tinubu within the year.
The DG said that 37, 000 Nigerians will be recruited into the citizens brigade and raised as model citizens to promote values that will be cherished as good citizens.
He said that Nigerian children must be nurtured from a tender age with the core values of the nation to grow in life.
“We have seven items in our ways of institutionalising National Values, one of which is the Citizens Brigade.
“Our children must have the opportunity to be nurtured from a tender age throughout their life and that is one of the voluntary institutions we intend to create, that will be fashioned after what we knew as boys scout and girls brigade in those days.
“So, this year we are starting it with 37, 000 that is 1, 000 per state and they are going to be kitted and raised as model citizens, who will show their peers examples of the values that we all cherish and what it takes to be a good Nigerian.
“So, we hope in a few years, millions of Nigerian children will be part of this brigade who are going to be nurtured as true Nigerians.
“Once the President unveils the National Value Charter, which is the key driver of all these things that we want to do,” Issa-Onilu said.
Earlier, Issa-Onilu said that he was in the school for an advocacy visit to inform the students of the new national anthem as a symbol of Nigerians’ allegiance and loyalty to the country.
“It is more impactful, more meaningful and capable of uniting Nigerians more,” he said.
The DG told the students that the new anthem not only brought back a sense of patriotism and nationalism but evoked the consciousness of Nigerians.
“The national anthem that we had in 1960 resonates more in comparison to the one we just changed.
“The lyrics are more impactful and more meaningful than the one that we just dumped. That is the real reason for going back to that,” he said.
Issa-Onilu noted that the national anthem is part of the values of a country, which should make the citizens appreciate one another.
In her remarks, Ms Mfon Nze, Principal, Nigerian Christian Institute expressed gratitude to the DG of NOA for finding her school worthy of the advocacy visit.
Nze said that the students will long cherish the director general visit as it has revived the value system embedded in them.
“I feel elated that in all the schools in Akwa Ibom and Uyo when the DG came, he chose the NCI. The core values will help the country move from where we are to where we want to be,” she said.