Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, on Sunday enjoined parents and religious leaders to tackle pressing contemporary issues to promote humanity’s well-being.
The deputy governor made the call at the 20th Edition of the Late Justice Muri Okunola Memorial Ramadan Lecture, held at the Radio Lagos/Eko FM Marquee, emphasising the crucial role that family and faith communities play in shaping individuals’ values and behaviours.
This was as he lamented that many parents had fallen short in their parenting responsibilities, neglecting to instil morals and values in their children—a development which, he said, had caused these children to stray from the values and moral principles essential to a harmonious society.
According to him, parents are now raising children who are less prepared to handle the challenges of real life, stressing that many parents are failing to instil essential life skills and values in their children, leaving them unequipped to navigate the complexities of adulthood.
Hamzat said that, based on this sad development, religious leaders must now ensure that sermons in mosques and churches evolve to address the question: “How do we start to re-orientate ourselves towards making our society better?”
“We are now raising children that are not ready for life.
“Our sermons must now evolve in the mosques and churches. The issue now is how do we start to re-orientate ourselves towards making our society better. As we all know, the corporate world has changed the DNA of our women to what they are not. Let us, in our sermons as Muslims, deal with those contemporary issues, proffering solutions to them; if not, humanity can be in a big problem,” the deputy governor warned.
“My admonishment for us as parents and religious leaders is to look into issues that affect our society and the family unit,” he said.
The Chief Imam of Adangba Central Mosque, Ejigbo, Lagos State, Imam Abdulrahman Sulaiman Adangba, in his lecture titled “The Distress in Family Values & Morality in Our Society: A Multidimensional Approach”, urged Nigerians, especially Muslims, to embrace truthfulness, proper management, and reliance on Allah as virtues that can change society for the better. He added that parents should endeavour to create an environment where there is peace and truthfulness.
The lecturer further stated that when there is external peace in society, the morality within the society changes for the better. He urged Nigerians to adopt values that impart positive change and pass such values down to future generations.
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