Celebrating Family Values

THE AZEEZS

Oyinda Azeez

Children’s Day is a day of happiness, love and joy! It is a day that is celebrated universally to honour the existence of children. Children are a valuable asset of the nation, the future and as a whole the hope of tomorrow. Although it is a day where children are celebrated, I am particularly grateful for my parents. They are honestly the world’s greatest parents. They go far and beyond to ensure my brothers and I are more than comfortable and there is nothing better in life than knowing you have the best support system you could ever ask for!! Every year we celebrate children’s day happier than we were the year before and only hope and pray that we will continue to celebrate many more days/years like this. Let’s ensure we spread the love especially to those who no longer have parents. Being a blessing to someone else shows you care about the other person and when you care for someone else, God will surely bless you. Spread the love this season to one child at a time HAPPY CHILDREN’S DAY!

Yusuf Azeez

Celebrating Children’s day gives me so much joy, it allows us to witness the miracle of beginnings of life and growth. We children are precious gifts from God, lifelong investments that are blessings to our parents. We are ‘teachers’ who teach parents to be selfless, humble, and compassionate. Every moment with us is an adventure especially with delightful imaginations and contagious positive energy. Although we sometimes tend to be out of behaviour we still appreciate the unconditional love and home training showered unto us by our parents. I have amazing parents who love my siblings and I with a love that cannot be fathomed. Despite our imperfections my mum and dad’s love has never ceased. Like the rising of the morning sun, their love for us is new every day. I am glad I can truly express how I feel at such a time like this. Thanks mum and dad for your selfless love and commitment to us your children, we will always make you proud. We love you…and to every child out there, let our light shine Happy Children’s Day!!!

Demilade Azzez

All over the world, a day is celebrated for children across the world …which is called Children’s Day! That day that is devoted to Children’s Day is May 27th. It is a day of love, joy from a child’s parents to have fun, go out for Children’s Day concerts, soccer tournament and a lot more fun activities. Some children who live in poverty or children who are orphans aren’t as privileged as me or some of my friends who are so lucky we have parents who love and care for us. Those are some of the reasons we give to orphanages and charities so that those children will have as much fun as we have on one day devoted to us to do exactly what we want, to just have fun. My parents always ensure we are doing well academically and socially and I want to say thank you to my mummy and daddy for their love, support and care. I really do like Children’s Day, it feels like I am celebrating my birthday twice a year. First on my date of birth and second on Children’s Day. It is always also an avenue to show love to those in need or those who are orphans. I just want to say thanks to my mummy and daddy for being the best parents ever and I love them so much. Happy Children’s Day!!!

THE ODUWOLES

Zuriel’s message for Nigeria today, Children’s Day

Vision & Mission

As a girl, I am concerned that not every girl has a right to get an education or a chance to accomplish her dreams like me. Not too cool. My vision is to see that this changes one day, and my mission is to use my ‘Dream Up, Speak Up, Stand Up’ program and other new ideas to inspire girls to accomplish this mission. Because the world is watching, I also like to use my visibility to show the positive things about Africa, using my documentaries to tell Africa’s story. For this, I interview Africa’s political and business leaders.

Nigeria and the Nigerian Child

Many things have been going on. First, everybody reads on the news about Chibok Girls. They are real people who are facing real sadness. As a child, I can’t imagine being taken away and be away from my family for all these months. So as children, we should appreciate when we are at home, and when we are with our parents. We should listen to our parents and learn from them, and take their advice. I’m sure those Girls would want to be home now, but they can’t. We are at home with our parents, so we should be thankful. I am very, very thankful. Lastly, as children, this is our time to show that we can make a difference. We don’t have to wait till we are 18, or 25, or 30, or 50. We can start now. If you don’t believe, look at what I have been blessed to do. Like meeting 19 Presidents and Prime Ministers to talk about education, including President Buhari last month, or direct a TV project in the US and I’m just 13, or create a project on the White House. We can do anything, anything. Don’t forget to pray too because only God has wisdom. All we have is knowledge. So if you add wisdom to knowledge, then for real, no one can touch you.

What I wish for Nigeria and my advice to the government

I would like for Nigeria and Nigerians to know that there is only one Nigeria. Take a look at the map of Africa and just imagine there is a hole where Nigeria is, Africa would never be the same again, and the world would never be the same again. That’s how important Nigeria is. So let’s have pride in ourselves and love one another and by so doing, we would have respect, and if we have respect, we would have honour, and if we have honour, we would not do all the negative things people like Prime Minister David Cameron says about Nigerians – Right?

Advice to fellow youths

First thing is, you can do anything in the world you want to do but you have to take the first step and believe you can achieve what you set out to achieve. Don’t doubt yourself, like the NIKE commercial, ‘Just Do It’, and ask the Lord to guide you. Don’t forget to honour your mother and father so your days may be long….and you would be fine.

What makes Nigeria tick?

I like to say that Nigerians are real people, who have been through a lot, and are still real…I mean, they are just too real…Nigerians are also creative and bright people for example, there is only one show in the world called God’s Children, Great Talent – created by Nigerians. See? Real and Creative people!

KEMI AJUMOBI