The Director-General, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, said that the Federal Government has concluded plans to establish a citizens’ brigade to promote core values.
Issa-Onilu disclosed this while speaking at an advocacy visit to the Nigerian Christian Institute (NCI), yesterday, in Uyo. He said that the citizens brigade is part of the National Value Charter billed to be unveiled by President Bola Tinubu later in the year.
The DG said that no fewer than 37,000 Nigerian children would be recruited into the brigade, and raised as models to promote core values and good citizenship.
He noted that the Nigerian child must be nurtured from the cradle with core values to enable them to grow into patriotic and productive adults. He said: “We have seven items on our plan to deepen national values; one of them is the establishment of a citizens’ brigade.
“It is to give opportunities to our children to be nurtured from the tender age; it is one of the voluntary institutions we intend to create.”
“It will be fashioned after what we knew those days as boys scout and girls’ brigade. They will be kitted and raised as model citizens.”
The NOA DG stressed that the expectation was to enlist hundreds of children into the brigade in the next few years. Issa-Onilu urged Nigerians to memorise and learn how to render the new national anthem as a way of demonstrating their patriotism to the nation.
