In a move to safeguard and promote the Nigerian culture and values, the federal government has announced that it will implement a policy of 70 per cent indigenous cartoon content for children across the country.
Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) revealed this recently on the sidelines of a town hall meeting with Stakeholders in Lokoja, Kogi.
According to Issa-Onilu, cartoon creators would be engaged to produce local content as part of measures to bridge the parenting gap and ensure good value systems.
He said this would enable the children to know Nigeria’s history, and the heroes of the country, and celebrate their achievements and cultures.
In his words, “Our children must know the heroes of the communities and be proud of where they come from so that they will be good ambassadors of their cultures and communities.”
The NOA boss pointed out the surge in decadence of the right values and characters in the country due to children’s exposure to foreign cultures on television and social media that were alien to Nigeria’s moral values.
Issa-Onilu also disclosed that the Federal Government would soon introduce Citizenship Studies as core subjects at all levels of education in Nigeria.
The DG added that NOA would be engaging about 37,000 citizen brigades in schools at all levels of education across the country to promote national values.
He added that the agency had compiled data with detailed information on all leaders of various unions and associations across the country for proper mobilisation to support all government policies, programmes and activities.
The stakeholders at the town hall meeting include religious and traditional leaders, civil society organisations (CSOs) women and youth groups, media organisations, and retired state directors of NOA among others.