By Chris Onuoha

One of the side attractions held at the Independence Day celebration of the Neander International School, Epe, Lagos was a demonstration of credible election exercise conducted by the students to pick who leads them.

With full pack of activities featuring cultural displays in various ethnic formations, the School also marked its cultural day which coincides with Nigeria Independence day anniversary, displaying the country’s rich culture to showcase unity in diversity.

The electioneering exercise organised and conducted by the students credibly produced a president after an open ballot system. Miss Magdalene Essi was elected as the school’s new student President beating other three contestants with wide margin.

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“We want to sensitise the children on how credible elections can be conducted in this country,” says Nicholas Nyavi, a teacher in the school. He also noted that the essence is to bring to the knowledge of the young ones that election period should not be a ‘do-or-die’ affair.

Neander, noted for its academic excellence and brilliant performance in both sports and arts under strict discipline has remained a haven for students who not only excelled through quality academic results but also imbibe ethical values in their learning.

Indigenous dances were performed in Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Bini, Tiv, Fulani, Efik and others by the students. Other activities include a naming ceremony performance art showcasing cultural heritage of the Bini ethnic group of Nigeria and a session of women dialogue exercise done in Yoruba language. News casting and storytelling exercise was also performed in Nigerian indigenous languages to affirm the student’s mastery of mother tongue.

The Principal of the School in his remark said, “For what we celebrating today the essence is to see Nigeria as one. We are all facing the same challenges here in the country, be it Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani or Hausa including other minority tribes. Every tribe has its own bad and good eggs. We should stop pushing all the problems in Nigeria on one particular tribe or saying some tribes are known for killings.

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It is a general problem here, and we should see ourselves as one single entity. Nigeria will move ahead when we see the problem as one Nigeria problem and not one particular tribe’s problem.

We are also trying to teach the students to embrace our cultural diversity and values, and allow the children to know the importance of their language and indigenous foods.

Vanguard