As a measure to curb moral decadence across Nigeria, the Lagos deputy speaker, Wasiu Eshinlokun-Sanni, Chairman of Iru/Victoria Island Local Council Development Area (LCDA), Rasheedat Adu, and Chairman of State Universal Basic Education (SUBEB), Wahab Alawiye-King, have appealed that parents should often consider their child upbring as paramount than other activities.
They argued that parents should consider that one major legacy they could give their child is a proper upbringing and that this would assist him to become better a citizen, rather than become a problem to the society.
While lamenting the manner in which parents have continued to abandon moral upbringing of their children to chase after money, they stressed that the society where they aimed to get the funds may become inhabitable as well as inaccessible if every parent does not retrace their footsteps and embrace their ordained role on children.
According to them, working to earn money is not wrong but completely abandoning their role as a parent remains an attitude every mother and father should completely desist from and do otherwise.
They spoke yesterday at the 5th Ramadan lecture organised by the Tajudeen Olusi foundation held in Lekki axis of the state, with the theme: Child Upbringing: Islamic Perspective.
Addressing the congregation, the deputy speaker stated that being a working mother does not indicate that all responsibilities should be abandoned to nannies and other relatives, rather parents should create time when they have a close relationship with their children.
Eshinlokun-Sanni said: “Parents need to be very observant of their children’s activities. And this will help them to be able to teach their children what they believe is good and other things that their children must do away with. We should not preach prosperity to them but rather educate them on the need to be hardworking and not about the other way”.
Also, the council chairman, Rashidat Adu, argued that the role of parents does not end after giving birth to a child, rather it includes nurturing that child to become a responsible citizen.
The council boss, who hinted that she stopped work to give her children a better upbringing, urged parents to maintain a strong relationship with their children.
According to her, giving our children a better upbringing does not mean that we will not scold them. We have to do that. And while doing that, we must ensure that we share better times and be close to them. Our relationship will make them divulge all necessary information to us. We the mothers have to be close to our children because they need us to guide them and put their foot on the right path”.
Alawiye-King, who is a member of the organising committee, added that the need to educate parents on the importance of child upbringing which has been identified as a major challenge across society, was part of reasons the topic for the lecture was chosen.
“We realised that this has become a major challenge that needed to be addressed and that is why the foundation decided to pick the topic, in other to proffer solutions to these challenges across the country.
“And from the lecture today, we all have been enlightened by the lecturer and this I believe will help limit the moral decadence that had affected the society.
“This is one of the programme the foundation do yearly for our leader, Prince Tajudeen Olusi. This is often done to address so many ills in society”.
The lecturer, Abdulhakeem AL-Awwal, while addressing the congregation, stressed that every child remains a blessing and gift from Almighty Allah to couples and that they should nurture them properly.
He described children as sheep and parents as shepherds assigned to manage the sheep and nurture them to adulthood, lamenting that the level of moral decadence in society today is due to the moral negligence of the homes where children are raised. Everyone should go back and take good care of their children.
“I understand that we all have to fetch what to eat but we cannot do that at the expense of the home. There is a need for a serious correlation between the home and children’s upbringing”, he added.
