Hamzat implores youth to shun cultism

• Govt urged to monitor private schools
As the menace of cult activities continues to ravage, Lagos State deputy governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, has advised Nigerian youths to shun cultism by embracing moral values associating with societies like the Scout Association.

Speaking during a courtesy visit by the Lagos State Scout Council yesterday, Hamzat said the role of organizations like the scout have become more important when nine-year-olds are now cultists. He urged young people to resist peer influences that usually lead them to vices and crime.

Led by the State Council Commissioner, Mr. Adebesin Oyeyemi, the Scout Council advised parents to create time to know their children and wards despite their busy schedule. He added that by so doing, a large number of young people would be weaned off crime.

Meanwhile, the founder of the 26-year-old Blessed Assurance Nursery and Primary School, Mrs. Mopelola Oluwole, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to save the nation’s educational system by monitoring activities of the private schools, particularly their mode of staff recruitment. She made the call at the school’s 26th anniversary held yesterday at one of the school’s branches in Mafoluku Oshodi.

She said: “It is unfortunate that in most of the private schools in Nigeria, professional teachers are not employed by some school owners, which have led to so many half-baked undergraduates in most tertiary institutions in the country.”While highlighting the problems in some primary and secondary schools owned by private individuals, she stated that poor educational background by school owners is a major problem contributing to the influx of unqualified teachers in the classroom.