A NEW GENERATION INDEED – MY UNIABUJA EXPERIENCE Femi Adekunle on Parenting
A NEW GENERATION INDEED – MY UNIABUJA EXPERIENCE
Femi Adekunle on Parenting
I recently got an invite from some of my mentees in the University of Abuja to speak at an event they were organising. I was impressed and excited because these are young men who have caught the spirit of leadership even from campus. Many great leaders today cut their teeth from campus leadership.
There were about five speakers and each of us had about 25 minutes to speak. There were a lot of haphazard moments but despite that, I give kudos to these young, promising men and women.
The event started like 3 hours behind schedule but I waited patiently. As I sat there waiting for the event to start, I began to reminisce with nostalgia, on my campus days when I attended similar events.
In those days we had fiery speakers like the great Dr. Niyi Osundare (as he then was), Prof. Bade Onimode, Prof Obaro Ikime from the University of Ibadan and the likes of Dr. Akin Oyebode (as he then was) and Dr. Lai Olurode (as he then was) from the University of Lagos. These quintessential academics fired us up intellectually. Whenever we saw the posters of these adorable lecturers of ours, some of whom we almost idolised, we would flock to the symposium halls with our pens and jotters, ready to ingest the wisdom they dispensed, eager to ask questions and eager to run with their fiery, inspiring messages. It was such a delight.
At UniAbuja, I discovered that things have changed! A new generation of kids and students are here with us!
My first shock (from which I quickly recovered) was when I requested as I began to speak, that the students should converge to the front and fill up the empty spaces in the huge lecture theatre, just so we could have a compact crowd. Some kept busy chatting with their friends, some stayed glued to their smart phones and head phones while some chewed their gums loudly staring at me like a man from space. Only about 5% obeyed. I was just amused. I didn’t flog the instruction, quickly re-adjusted and continued with my mission for the day.
The next episode was even more shocking (and I truly was, this time, very shocked). After each speech, the compère would usually do a recap by asking what they learnt, and quite impressively, they participated. There was this speaker who spoke on technology (a subject that could typically be very boring). He however heedlessly overshot his time, ignoring nudges from the compère and hints from the restive audience, and was unlucky to be the last speaker at a time when fatigue had set in. The compère came as usual to ask what they learnt. No one raised their hands, even after much prompting and hyping.
Like me when I asked them to converge to the middle of the auditorium, I wished he did not flog it. Then he went “……..or is it that you didn’t learn anything?” And they chorused “noooooo”, so loudly with such nerves and audacity! Even the compère was embarrassed and could only just stutter for the next few seconds.
A new generation indeed. The GenZees, _dem no send anybody._ Me? I went prepared for them. I hyped them so much that they believed they are the best specie of humans.
As a parent, I have them, and I know their psychology and behaviourism. It is a great error to parent them the same way our generation was parented. To insist otherwise is to breed an ecosystem of unending domestic conflicts, the danger of which is that you may end up losing them, for, when generations change, parenting strategies must change.
Parenting must be with wisdom.
Femi Adekunle, a Parenting and Family Coach, writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
Email: femi383@gmail.com
WhatsApp: 08055103512
27th December, 2025
