By Francis Sadhere
Former Delta State Education Commissioner, Dr. (Mrs.) Veronica Ogbuagu has blamed the high rate of crime in the country to lack of good parental upbringing.
Dr. Ogbuagu stated this at the weekend in Warri during the Maiden Edition of the Cultural Dance Competition organized by the Messenger of Peace Magazine in conjunction with Confraternity of Catholic Christian Mothers, Diocese of Warri.
Dr. Ogbuagu who was the chairman of the occasion, while delivering her paper titled “Discipline In the Catholic Home” lamented that parents have neglected their roles as parents and have pushed their children into crime, prostitution and many other social vices.
She said; “Most parents have neglected their roles as parents. They no longer have time for their children. Most children are into crime, prostitution and many are in secret cults. Many of our young girls have become teenage mothers. In most cases, they are emotionally ill-equipped for this role. These young mothers are inexperienced. The babies do not get the right amount of motherly attention and love. Worse still, most of them are from broken homes.”
She noted that teenage pregnancies were the foundation of ignorant mothers bearing ignorant children for an ignorant nation perpetuating a culture of poverty, ignorance, moral decay and economic under-development.
She specifically blamed the mothers who she said have allowed themselves to be so preoccupied with one social activity or the other and have allowed their children to grow up on their own.
“We as Christian mothers must work hard to help the weak, poor and vulnerable young girls to “say No to sex and abortion.” Our young boys and girls need courage to say “No!” firmly. Because of the economic situation of the country, parents are too busy with their jobs during the weekdays, and during the weekends when they are supposed to be at home with their children, they are busy attending social club meetings or burial ceremonies,” she said.
She stressed that if care was not taken activities of some parents who encouraged their children to involve in exam malpractices will plunge the nation into chaos and darkness in the near future.
She said; “The average Nigerian parents believes that the responsibility of parents end with payment of school fees. Some parents do not even know the class teachers of their children. Some parents, school head and teachers are highly involved in examination malpractice. Parents pay money to teachers, supervisors and heads of schools to help their children cheat in examinations. In most cases, the children fail woefully because some of the teachers who engage in such acts are more illiterate than the children they teach.”
While discouraging parents from supporting their children in examination malpractices, Dr. Ogbuagu reminded such parents that they were destroying the future of their children.
She emphasized that; “When a country becomes notorious for examination malpractice, nothing good will ever be seen to come out from it. Examination malpractice is a very great evil indeed. It discredits a nation’s educational institutions and the nation as a whole. We should stop at nothing to stamp it out. To all parents who support and encourage examination malpractice, be informed that, you are destroying the future of your children. These children pass through school, without the school passing through them. They cannot defend their certificates.”
Dr. Ogbuagu who donated various books to the Confraternity of Catholic Christian Mothers Diocese of Warri, therefore tasked parents to work hard and give their children sound and qualitative education, saying that education “sets people free from the bondage of ignorance, makes them useful to themselves, families and the communities and increases their chances of breaking out of the poverty cycle.”
On the condition of Nigeria, she said; “Presently I have lost hope in Nigeria. But I pray that in 2015 God should bring in a better person so that we can rekindle the hope again. But as we are talking now I have lost all hope. Will anything good come out of Nigeria? If you open most of the national dailies, they are filled with crime stories. It is really sad and our leaders have not sat down to ask themselves what the problem is. Instead all they care about is how to make money for themselves and this is so bad,” she added.
