Parents have been charged to give same attention to their male and female children to check gender-based violence in the society.

Speaking yesterday at a summit, staged by a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Boys Quarters Africa, in collaboration with Connected Development, Senior Special Adviser to the President on Education Intervention, Fela Bank-Olemoh, observed: “The rate of gender-based violence in our society today is alarming, and it is because not much attention is placed on raising the boy-child as we do to the girl-child.

“The society needs to make the upbringing of the next generation of leaders well rounded and complete. Whether you come from a poor or rich background, it doesn’t matter because life has a way of equalising with time. It’s the principles you grow up with that matter.”
 
He urged students to hold on to five things needed to grow in life, which include, having strong figures to serve as role model, learning to take responsibility, accountability, not comparing their lives with others or succumbing to peer pressure and avoiding get-rich quick schemes.

The summit, its third edition, was held to promote healthy masculinity and hmobilise boy-child in ending all forms of gender-based violence against women and girls.

Treating the theme, “Redefining Masculinity, Raising Boys, Re-shaping Men & Transforming the Society,” founder and Executive Director, Boys Quarter, Solomon Ayodele said masculinity “is not an instantaneous process, but a continuous one.”
 
Similarly, Chief Executive of Connected Development, Hamzat Lawal, noted that the organisation had visited motor parks to mobilise boy-child and men against violence.