The Wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, has charged school counsellors to work hard in order to shape positively the personal image, self-esteem and career paths of their students.
She made the call at an event tagged “Conversation with Guidance and Counselling staff of FCT schools,” which was organized to mark the 2020 edition of the International Women’s Day, at the State House, Abuja on Wednesday.
Represented by the wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, Aisha Buhari insisted that guidance and counsellors have a role to play in engendering a sense and spirit of peer fellowship among young people such that they look out for each other.
“Let me therefore use this opportunity to remind you that you stand tall in this regard. You are spread all over our schools and colleges and have access to all our youths. Please use this opportunity to change the tide by impacting on our youth to stand for themselves and for each other in times of need,” the First Lady stressed.
Mrs. Buhari explained that the IWD 2020 campaign theme was drawn from a notion of ‘Collective Individualism,’ inferring that “we are all parts of a whole, and that our individual actions, conversations, behaviors and mindsets can have an impact on our larger society.”
In a keynote address, Mrs. Grace Chama, recalled how the family, teachers and the whole community worked together to bring up children.
According to her, “the community saw children as assets and leaders of tomorrow who must be harnessed for the good of the community, unlike today where parents see children as theirs alone.”
She called on guidance and counsellors in the country to live up to their responsibility and find ways of addressing issues of the students, stressing that, counsellors are likely to be the first to notice change in their behavior.
