Have you noticed that our society rarely champions the course of justice as much as they do in academics, athletics, artists, and other areas. They give trophies, accolades, and awards to champions in these fields, but little recognition is given to the course of justice. That is a big flaw. The result is that we have few justice minded children, and that has created a big gap in character formation and moral conduct.
This flaw stems from the root. Do parents model justice? Do they embrace the idea of raising a justice-minded child? Do parents and teachers guide children towards a concern for others and willingness for justice? Do they teach children to stand up against unfair practices, speak for the voiceless, give to the needy, liberate the restrained, justify the innocent, and defend the vulnerable? Definitely, the choices that parents make in these areas and their passion for it steer their children’s disposition towards justice. The same question applies to teachers who compromise standard and concede to abuse, inequity, discrimination, and oppression before their students.
Undoubtedly, children and youths value what they want to value through the actions of their parents and their teachers, whom they see as mentors. Most children and youths nowadays are biased, discriminatory, and unjust because their parents and teachers do not exemplify justice but yield to decrepit and defunct justice system. Worse still, government and society fail to support a viable concern for justice, and the few voices heard are subdued by different means. Thus, children and youths are demoralized in issues that demonstrate the need for justice.
From home, they witness injustice where parents favour one child against the other, dehumanize their house help, maltreat their workers and subordinates, fail to pay full wage to their domestic staff, bribe their ways through their needs and so on. In school, they watch their teachers’ manoeuvre grades, favour some students more, conspire against fellow teachers, defy authorities, punish innocent students, and display many other wicked and unjust acts. In the society, they observe as every corner dispense injustice, bribery, and corruption. It’s a vicious circle and a complex chain of events that reinforces itself in the face of moral decadence and abuse of justice.
According to Marcus Tullius Cicero, justice is the crowning glory of virtues. Morality can not be preached without justice. The need for justice at homes, schools, and the society is very evident and can not be overstated. The past generations were more conformance to morality and irked at injustice. They had more pragmatic and genuine advocacy of justice and raised tenacious standard towards it.
This generation is losing it, and the responsibility of restoring justice lies in the hands of both the old and young.The young need to be more committed to the course of justice. They need to evince a concern for justice, to be part of the movement towards creating a safe place to belong, to create and enforce equality, and a sense of belonging for all. Children participating in justice is a fundamental aspect of positive justice. They need to be actively involved!
Children and youths are naturally stimulated with a keen awareness of recognizing right from wrong, a passion to demand just over unjust, a yearning for fairness over unfairness and the observation of the difference between what should be and what is obtainable. The obstacle is that society has placed the right of empowerment, liberation, and transformation exclusively on the selected few, those in governance and the same bearers of injustice. Thus, it has inhibited the tendency of children and youths to act or speak up against injustice.
The bible admonishes us in proverbs 31:8-9 to speak up for those who can not speak for themselves, for the right of all who are destitute. To speak up and judge fairly, to defend the right of the poor and needy.
With the inspiring passion and fresh perspectives from this young generation, they could lend their voices towards advocacy of justice and be more creative towards making a difference.They could raise more awareness in school, at church, social media, and other social gathering. They can be powerful agents of change and restorative justice. Clearly, youth inclusion is an indispensable part of transitional justice, especially in Africa, where leaders show no sign of making way for the younger generation.
The social problems like insecurity, mass unemployment, inflation, tribalism, nepotism, police brutality, corruption, and financial mismanagement, which show total absence of justice, calls for exertion of influence both from the young and old. In Nigeria, for instance, the commonest road to success is to compromise all the principles and values relating to justice. Enforcement of human rights has been sacrificed on the altar of fraudulent government and epileptic democratic system. Students at primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are now experts in breach of laws, violation, violence, oppression, abuse, discrimination, and other exhibitions of injustice.
This must change!
Today’s youths are enlightened, technologically minded, and informed. They are not powerless to fight injustice. They understand the real-life consequences of having their voices heard and the difficulty to get the answers they need. They only need to be guided, supported, and empowered. In the words of Elie Wise, there may be times when we are powerless to prevent justice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
BIBLE VERSE
Proverbs 21:15
When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers
PROVERB
One hour in the execution of justice is worth seventy years of prayer. ~ Traditional Proverb
RIDDLE
I’m often thought to be in the hands of justice, but I really sell to the highest bidder. What am I?
