My Concern About Homeless Children in Nigeria To Our Children: Presently and in The Future

By Sam Ogbemudia Jr.

Our Children sleep with a roof over their heads, eat hot meals, while the Almsjaris sleep on the streets and eat from the garbage. Government needs to create camps all over Nigeria to rehabilitate these Almsjari children.

In the meantime The way forward for Nigeria, so as our children are not consumed by this menace in the future, is for Nigeria to follow the UK model.

A Combined Cadet Force can absolutely work in Nigeria — we already have the pieces. The UK model is not a military recruitment factory, it is a school-based youth development partnership. That is exactly what Nigeria needs to adapt.

Here is how it would work if properly domesticated:

1. What CCF Actually Is
   In the UK, the CCF is a voluntary, part-time youth organisation based in secondary schools, sponsored by the Ministry of Defence. Each school has a Contingent with 1-3 sections: Royal Navy, Army, and Royal Air Force.

It is run by teachers and staff as officers, plus senior students as NCOs, with weekly training in drill, navigation, first aid, signals, leadership and adventurous training. For ages 13-18.

Nigeria can replicate this structure with our own services.

2. Nigerian Model — Proposed Structure
   Name: Combined Cadet Force Nigeria (CCFN) or Institution Cadet Corps model, building on what already exists like Command Secondary Schools Cadet Corps which already promotes leadership and parade drilland the Institution Cadet Corps of Nigeria (ICCON) which focuses on discipline and service.

A. Tri-Service + Civil Sections in Each School:

• Army Section: Fieldcraft, map reading, camping, civic duties • Navy Section: Water safety, swimming, canoeing — very relevant for riverine states • Air Force Section: Airmanship, STEM, drones, basic aviation • New 4th Section for Nigeria — Para-Military / Civil: Man O’ War, Civil Defence, Red Cross, Fire Service. Man O’ War is already a voluntary youth organisation known for discipline and school safety workand is being deployed for Safe School Initiative
  B. Where it sits:
  Not in every school at once. Start as pilot:
• 1. All 40+ Command Secondary Schools (they have military affiliation already) • 2. Federal Unity Schools • 3. Selected private schools in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kaduna that can fund it • 4. Then state model schools
  One afternoon per week, during co-curricular time. Not academic time.

1. How It Would Be Run — The Partnership
   This is critical to avoid abuse:
2. Ministry of Defence + Ministry of Education Joint Policy: Defence provides syllabus, safety standards, uniforms at subsidized rate, and annual camp at places like Man O’ War training schools in Jos, Katsina, Enugu, Abuja. Education provides access to schools.
3. Officers are Teachers, Not Soldiers: Teachers volunteer and are commissioned as CCF Officers after training at Nigerian Defence Academy or NYSC orientation camps. Students lead students. This is what makes the UK model safe — Head teacher has oversight.
4. Clear Syllabus for Nigeria:

• Year 1 (JSS2-3): Drill, discipline, first aid, hygiene, environmental sanitation, citizenship and Nigerian constitution • Year 2 (SS1): Leadership, navigation, adventure training, anti-drug and anti-cultism education • Year 3 (SS2-3): Advanced leadership, STEM/drone, entrepreneurship, community service project • Annual: 1-week camp — not weapons training, but bushcraft, rescue skills, and career exposure. Similar to what NMS does with one day military training per week

1. Safeguards: No live arms for under-18 cadets. Cadet rifles are wooden/plastic for drill only. Strict child protection policy, female officers for girls, voluntary membership with parental consent.
2. Funding
   UK CCF is jointly financed by grants and termly subscriptions. Nigeria version:

• Federal/State education trust fund for kits • Small termly subscription (e.g. N5,000-10,000) — covers beret, belt, boots • TETFUND, private sector CSR, and alumni • Existing paramilitary groups like Man O’ War and Boys Scout as training partners to reduce cost — this idea of using paramilitary youths to strengthen security has already been proposed publicly 5. Why It Would Succeed Here 1. Tackles indiscipline without brutalising: Gives structure many parents are looking for. 2. De-radicalisation tool: Teaches national unity — ICCON already states this as its goal 3. Career pipeline, not recruitment: Like NMS, it prepares youth for any profession — military, civil service, private sector. Less than 2% in UK join forces. 4. Solves school safety: Trained cadets become eyes and ears, support assembly and order, as Man O’ War already does. If you are thinking of starting one in a school or community, the practical first step is to register a contingent through ICCON and partner with the nearest Army Education Corps or Man O’ War State Command. They have the instructors and legal cover. Let us implement now, so as our children are not consumed in the future.
  Thanks for reading.

God bless Nigeria

Samuel Ogbemudia Jr, writes for Midwest Herald from Benin City, Edo State