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Critical rescue for girl child

By Florence Utor
24 July 2016   |   6:50 am
There is an agreement that there is lack of effective, purposeful and focused parenting today. Due to some social and economic challenges, many parents are finding it hard giving what it takes ...
PHOTO: Reuters

PHOTO: Reuters

There is an agreement that there is lack of effective, purposeful and focused parenting today. Due to some social and economic challenges, many parents are finding it hard giving what it takes to nurture and care for their children properly.

To proffer solution to the problem and find a way forward, stakeholders recently gathered for the Breach Repairers’ National Parenting Conference tagged, Critical Rescue”, to deliberate on the need to rescue the process of parenting the Nigerian child, as well as overhauling the method of rearing children in every aspect and not just education.

The conference, which had in attendance wife of the Vice President, Mrs. Dolapo Osinbajo, wife of the Lagos State governor, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode, Ogun State First Lady, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun and First Lady of Akwa Ibom, Mrs. Martha Udom, highlighted the important roles of stakeholders in effective parenting.

Coordinator of the event, Mrs. Nkem Okoro said, “It is often expedient, while training on parenting, to incorporate all concerned, especially parents, teachers, society and government.”

She said parental absenteeism is a huge drawback to effective parenting. This, she attributed to very tight and busy work schedules, which hinder parents from allotting quality time for proper nurture and guidance of their children.

Reminiscing on how it all started, Founder of Breach Repairers, Pastor Chuks Nduka, said the whole concept started many years ago, when as a Youth Corper, he undertook his primary assignment with the Scripture Union in Ogun State.

“I discovered that there were many delinquent youths. There was mass failure in WAEC and JAMB. And though I was not a teacher, but I was working with young people. I became interested and wanted to find out what caused the mass failure. I discovered that the root problem was simply that there were so many distractions. Such issues as teenage pregnancy were occurring without parents’ knowledge. Ironically, the children were going to church, despite the fact that they were so much involved in sexual matters.

“For me, it was just a way of contributing my quota to the betterment of society by changing the ugly order I met and giving young people a proper orientation. Strange things were happening, which the adults were unaware of. Some of the children were into cultism, but because I went down to their level, they confided in me. After my service year, I returned to Lagos, only to discover that it was the same story everywhere. Then I had the urge to bring youths together and re-orientate them.”

He believed parents are largely to blame for this problem, though he excused them on the ground that “it is also as a result of the decay going on in our society.”

In his view, parents are key to succeeding in this project. “We want a situation, where parents can be made to be more alive to their roles of parenting and not just provide for the children’s needs, but truly parent them as expected.

Speaking on the topic, “Total Child”, First Lady of Ogun State, Mrs. Olufunso Amosun said considering the myriads of challenges presently confronting the Nigerian society, ranging from insurgency, suicide bombings and kidnappings, it is important to look inward to see where things went wrong. She said the making of a total child involves various agents of socialisation, which include the family, school, society, peers, religion and the media.

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