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Kids
of today, constantly barraged by unhealthy messages from their
school, friends, and their choices of entertainment brought
right into their family living room (and sometimes, into their
bed rooms) have made parenting in this day and age a difficult
task. |
It is on record
that our society, up to just after the later Missionaries left the
scene, courtesy our ‘rule of power’, our children were doing quite
well regarding behavioral attitudes and all that went with it. Today,
after some 30 years of misrule leading to the neglect of family
values, part of the consequences include child abuse, child labour,
teen violence, substance abuse, the breakdown of the family and countless other by-products of a relativistic culture. At least in
Lagos today, there are reports of children on the streets doing real
hard drugs while recently kid-hawkers are said to have picked up the
new habit of glue sniffing and
cello tape chewing. These kids come
from some homes and each belongs to a family.
These kids become
hard adults and the society becomes worse for it as their activities
promote violence, and unfortunately, the spread of
STI/HIV/AIDS, and
other diseases. Despite the fact
that common sense tells us that a loving, committed relationship
between a husband and wife is one of the most important contributions
to the security and satisfaction experienced within their home, the
average Nigerian family has, over the years been so pauperized that it
has become so fashionable here that otherwise respectable housewives
throw caution into the winds when it comes to matters of infidelity.
Ask them, you’re sure to get: “Na country cause am...”
What lessons can
children in such a home, especially those whose situations have become
public knowledge learn from their parents? Obviously, what they see
us, as adults do, becomes their best teaching aids. This way, young
people are put at risks, yet they lack the necessary skills to protect
themselves from STI/HIV/AIDS. Rather, they have gone haywire with
profanity, vulgarity and sexual explosiveness, all on the larger
society, and in the name of civilization. That more than half of the
people living with AIDS in the world are less than 25 years old is a
tragedy and a big concern.
To round it up,
sexual exploitation of children, open the doors to HIV risks. Poverty
and dysfunctional families often throw children on the streets and
inevitably into commercial sex as well as drug use. Apparently, to
reduce vulnerability to STI/HIV/AIDS and discourage risk behaviours
demand effective response pattern and that begins with preventive
measures.
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