Experts have expressed concern over what they described as the growing erosion of Nigerian identity among young people, warning that many children are increasingly disconnected from their ancestral roots, family histories, and cultural heritage.

This was noted during the latest edition of The Toyin Falola Interviews, held across various social media platforms.

Themed “Parenting and Growing Up in a Changing World: Technology, Culture, and the Future of Values,” the session was led by Professor Toyin Falola and featured Sarah Ogbonna, a Nigerian-born Irish healthcare professional, author, publisher and community leader; Jomiloju Connoisseur, a young advocate for community and social development; Okezi Uwede-Meshack, a commercial legal practitioner and author; and Ibiba Odili, a retired National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) officer and founder of the Phenomenal Strides Foundation.

Throughout the discussion, speakers reflected on how changing lifestyles, urbanization, migration, and globalization have weakened children’s connections to their ancestral communities and cultural identities.

Ibiba Odili painted a vivid picture of a childhood deeply rooted in community, family heritage, and cultural learning. She recalled how regular visits to the village and close interaction with extended family members helped shape her sense of identity.

“We traveled regularly to the village interacting with our family members there. We learnt about our family lineage and heritage, which gave us a great sense of pride and belonging, bearing in mind that both positive and negative histories are all sources of learning and empowerment,” she said.

According to her, that experience is becoming increasingly rare among today’s children.“Many children today don’t speak our local dialects. All they speak is English. Children don’t know the name of their villages, not to talk of visiting,” she lamented.

Odili argued that the decline goes beyond language and reflects a broader loss of cultural consciousness. “Many bear foreign names for both first name and other names, further complicating the loss of identity, which will make any other culture seem better where there are no prior learnings for investigation and comparison,” she added.

For Odili, the disappearance of cultural knowledge is linked to the weakening of traditional family structures that once helped transmit values and heritage from one generation to another. “The presence of grandparents and aunties were common in homes in those days. A lesson I learnt early in life was that parents need support, which is majorly missing in today’s parenting,” she said.

Sarah Ogbonna, who raised her children in Ireland after beginning her parenting journey in Nigeria, shared similar concerns about preserving identity in an increasingly globalized world.

Reflecting on her upbringing, she recalled that her father made deliberate efforts to ensure his children remained connected to their roots.

“My late father ensured that he brought us to the village and, just as similar to Ibiba’s family setting, he forbade that we speak English at home. Even though my mother is not an Igarra woman, she spoke the language fluently, which meant that I had no choice but to speak my language,” she said.

Ogbonna stressed that identity preservation must begin within the family.“If we talk about eroding our Africanness as a result of globalization, this may be open to arguments. It starts from home. So we have to start from inside out,” she said.

She warned that many immigrant families struggle to balance integration with cultural preservation, often resulting in children growing up between two worlds. “We have parents and children who in their houses they were Africans; immediately they cross the front door, they are in another country. They do not integrate, they do not learn, they just live in these two worlds,” she observed.

Commercial lawyer Okezi Uwede-Meshack illustrated how migration within Nigeria itself can contribute to cultural disconnection. He recounted how his parents moved from Delta State to Lagos and initially raised his older siblings in the Isoko language.

“My brother and sister had Isoko as their original language and would run around the house speaking only Isoko,” he recalled.

However, societal pressure soon changed that arrangement.“The teachers would call my mum and mock my mum for how the children don’t speak English. So they wrote a rule which now says no more speaking of Isoko in this house.”

The consequence, he said, was a generational break in cultural transmission. “I came into the house when no one spoke Isoko and I don’t speak Isoko now,” he admitted.

Professor Toyin Falola linked the discussion to broader questions about values, identity, and parenting in a rapidly changing world. He noted that culture and identity were once reinforced through communal practices, family traditions, and shared values passed down from one generation to the next.

The historian argued that modern parents face unprecedented challenges as technology, migration, and globalization expose children to multiple influences competing for their attention and loyalty.

The concern was echoed by Jomiloju Connoisseur, who presented findings from a survey conducted among students in his university community. The results suggested that indigenous cultural practices are becoming increasingly marginal among young people.

“Out of every 10 students, at least nine were speaking English, which leaves us with one person speaking native language,” he reported.

His findings also revealed a preference for foreign lifestyles and cultural practices over indigenous ones, reinforcing fears that younger generations are becoming progressively detached from their cultural roots.