To achieve success in life, secondary school leaving students should be focused, have good plans for the future and look out for good mentors.
This recipe was given by a lecturer at the Olabisi Onabanjo University, OOU, Ogun State, Dr. Abayomi Layeni, on Thursday.
Layeni who delivered a keynote address at the graduation ceremony of students of Calvary Heritage Schools, Ijoko-Lemode, Ogun State, added that the secondary school graduating students also needed to acquire additional skills.
The skills, he explained, would be useful for them in the near future.
He also advised that they should not allow failure at any stage of their lives truncate their ambitions.
Stressing that challenges were meant to be tackled, he said they should start early in life to take up challenges and not run away.
Tackling challenges with boldness early in their lives, he reasoned, would prepare them to face the future with the required seriousness and determination to succeed.
The university lecturer also warned parents not to treat the failures of their children harshly.
He said doing so could lead to unpalatable consequences which might include suicide.
He said the attitude of parents to failure of children during examinations like the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, examination was responsible for some of the suicide cases in the country in recent time.
Layeni said much as it was normal for parents to scold their children over failures, it would be wrong to be too hard on them or condemn them as failure personified.
“If they fail, we should tell them that they need to do more. Failure today does not mean they cannot do better in future if the situation is handled the right way,” he argued.
He stressed the need for parents to be close to their children, saying it was through that means that they could guide their children well.
He said coming close to their children would create the kind of good relationship between them and their children needed to create a conducive environment for advancement in life.
He said the parents should know the kind of friends their children had so that they would be able to determine whether they were the good ones or the bad ones.
“At this adolescent stage, parents have to discuss with their children. If you don’t do that, peers will discuss with them and it may be wrong. Parents should know their friends. In the same way your children would influence their friends, so will their friends influence them too. So, if they have bad friends, they would be influenced negatively,” Layeni said.
Present at the occasion, among other dignitaries, was the Olu of Ijoko-Lemode, Oba Solomon Adisa Shokunbi.
