NOA kicks against extreme graduation celebrations in schools, others

Nathan Tamarapreye, Yenagoa

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) in Bayelsa said it has commenced a national campaign against excessive ‘sign-out parties’ in both secondary schools and tertiary institutions.

The parties involved final-year students sign their bodies and perform wild extremes, including gunshots, to celebrate graduation.

The Director General of NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who disclosed this on Thursday, while speaking with newsmen in Yenagoa, stated that the mandate of the agency and the federal government mandate are against these behaviours as well as the parents’ interests.

Represented by the Director, Environment, Climate and Energy, Mr. Emeka Egbughara, said the campaign, tagged ‘National Values Re-orientation’ will focus on National Values and campaigns against extreme graduation practices which do not align with societal values.

He stated that other campaigns by the agencies to promote federal government policies include: NELDUND Student Loan, flooding, Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT), among others.

He said: “The National Orientation Agency has many mandates, key amongst these mandates is the responsibility to sensitise the public on government policies, programmes and activities.  In recent times, the Agency has expanded its messaging platforms to meet the diverse messaging platform requirements of our equally diverse audience demography.

“The national values reorientation for students of secondary schools and tertiary institutions against sign-out practices, you are aware of what is happening these days, when our students finish their final examinations, they come to the extreme that girls remove their clothes, their boy boyfriends sign on their bodies, this is against our core values.

“The National Values Re-orientation will focus on National Values and campaigns against extreme graduation practices which do not align with our values.

“We will also carry out a campaign on flooding and disaster preparedness. Poor drainage systems and careless dumping of waste in drainage systems have often resulted in floods in various states of the Federation.

“We have seen devastating effects of flood recently in Niger, Kogi, Rivers, Anambra, Bayelsa, just to name a few States.  Many states have suffered severe effects of floods over the years. NiMet issues regular early warning advisories with 90 per cent accuracy.

“We urge members of the public to look out for these advisories from NiMet and to please adhere to their advisories.  It is important to note that there was a Presidential Flood Mitigation directive which also involved the release of N3 billion per state in 2024 aimed at drainage clearance and relocation,” he said.

Also speaking, the Bayelsa State Director of NOA, Mrs Grace Olobio, said the agency’s initiative in campaigning against the ills in the society requires coordinated national reawakening that speaks directly to the core of Nigeria’s identity, safety, values and development.

Olobio urged the media to support the campaign to enable the NOA to reach more citizens.

She explained that the NOA will in the coming day, carry out the campaign across the eight Local Government Areas of the state.