Dowen boys: An example of failed parenting

IN every society, children are the greatest asset that any community can possess. Potentially, they are the greatest investment for a society’s sustainable development and future. However, children are usually prone to many behavioural influences during their youthful phase of life which can either make or mar their future— youthful exuberance. If children are not well-managed in this phase of life, it always leads to a number of unspeakable things, one of which is cultism. Lately, cultism has been making the headlines in the papers. Last month, November 25, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) Ignatius Alimeke, and three students were reportedly injured following clashes involving rival cult groups operating in two public secondary schools in Ogun State. Similarly, some few days ago, Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos died after he was allegedly tortured and given a harmful substance by some senior students in the school, over his alleged refusal to join a cult group.

One of the causes of this raging problem of children’s involvement in cultism can be attributed to individual families and households. The family has totally failed in its quest to fully inculcate morals and social values into its offspring. This is partly due to economic difficulties and institutional breakdowns. Apparently, most parents today do not spend enough time with their children. Rather, they have outsourced parenting  in order to escape their parental responsibilities so that they may have sufficient time to transact their businesses which will in turn generate income for the upkeep of the family. As a result of this, most children grow into adulthood lacking appropriate upbringing and knowledge of social norms; this has led to astronomical increase in the numbers of miscreants, street urchins, cultist and rapist prevalent among the youth in the society— an example of the Dowen boys in the news.

Additionally, exposure to violent media messages and movies has in no small way contributed to this as a majority of our youth today have become drug addicts, sex toys and so on. They practise what they are being exposed to in the media and in movies. Without wasting words, the whole blame goes to school owners, staffers, and parents who failed to read the reactions and behaviors of their students; and parents failed to study and listen to their children  during holidays from the school. Be so friendly to your children that they see you as their confidant. Finally, as the menace of cultism is rapidly moving toward prominence among secondary school students, we seem not to be bothered by this monster of a development. Whether we like it or not, poor parenting— as the family is the first agent of socialisation— has greatly contributed to this disturbing development. A wound is festering and we are hiding it beneath our clothes. When its putrid smell hijacks the atmosphere, everyone present will be affected by the discomfort it creates.

If you take care of your corner and I take care of my corner, everywhere becomes neat. Therefore, parents in every home should try to create sufficient time for their children so as to perform their primary function of nurturing and moulding them into a responsible adults.

• Adisa writes in from Abeokuta via Folorunsofatai03@gmail.com