Children

Parents and Guardians have been advised to take very good care of their children and wards as the positive cases of Coronavirus increase in Nigeria on a daily basis.

This advice was given by Pastor Opeyemi Ajayi in a chat with Federationews2day.

‘’Parents and Guardians must ensure that they take good care of the children and wards and must also ensure that they cater for their needs. In addition,children must be conscious of the happenings around them and abide by all the guidelines to prevent the corona virus disease. Self preservation is the watchword,’’ Pastor Ajayi stated.

Teach a child the right morals and values and the child shall never be a disgrace and burden to his or her parents.

As cases of child abuse, trafficking and labor continue to increase in different parts of the world,  with not too encouraging response from Governments of different nations, the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke in this interview says that the day is a wake up call for stakeholders to ensure that children are well groomed for future leadership.

What is your message to children as they celebrate the children’s day on May 27 ?

My worries for Government of several nations over issues of festivals and programs and charters of the United Nations for the purpose of human welfare and general development is that it goes beyond the mere ceremonial terrain. Unfortunately, when nations experience traumatic period of wars or ravaging diseases such as the coronavirus pandemic, Spanish flu from 1918 to 1920 and Hong Kong flu of 1968 experiences show that no lesson is ever learnt in a bid to change our psyche on the need to do the needful to better the lot of humanity.

Specifically , the children’s day is expected to pose the challenge of alertness on all stakeholders, naturally billed to take care of children in modelling as a great foundation that must solidified for future leadership. This immediately calls for the need to accept in principle the 17 point agenda of the United Nations on the sustainable development goals, starting from the issue of poverty and hunger, to nip in the board the scary challenges of economic dichotomy that marginalize a majority of the population. For example in Nigeria into the classes of the poor, abject poverty, destitution and the poorest of the poor, recently derisively identified by the government of Nigeria at all levels of governance.

The area of marginalized women, girl child abuse and people with disabilities are all very much inclusive in the trauma of mismanagement.

Within the rank and file of all these marginalized sector of humankind, the arrows of debacle continue to have such children as vulnerable.

The 13.9 million out of school children are equally inclusive. Are these scenarios of cries of the dead from the grave, worthy of celebration through mere celebration by those in the regime of power, affluence and influence, paying lip service to what they vowed to correct during their political campaigns, before they find themselves in the great positions of power.

If truly we want to celebrate our children,the areas of weaknesses and travails of our children, most especially the marginalized ones, are supposed to receive the kind of attention government is devoting to the coronavirus pandemic, with all keenness, facts and figures and vehement struggle, not only to put a stop to its spread, but to find a permanent cure.

Nobody ever knew that the government of Nigerian can be so serious and energetic on matters bothering on threats to life, with all recklessness backing up the funding.

The lives of our children are more sacred and valuable than the coronavirus pandemic or even if we term them to be of equal value for equal treatment and aggression. Children during this period of public health crisis have suffered so much, but only the effects would be visible in the nearest future, when they are to take over the mantle of leadership, with all the set backs we are creating for them today.

For example, all schools shut as a result for the coronavirus pandemic, shall affect the standard of education negatively. The so called online teaching and learning cannot be said to be effective because the environment cannot be said to be conducive for all of them and the monitoring essence is equally low due to the high percentage of illiteracy and ill education of most parents. The general under funding of education is an insult to the intellectuals to the disadvantage of our children. This period, reports of emotional outbursts into psychological trauma are equally on the increase with cases of pedophilia, incest, sodomy, defilement, homosexuality and other cases of sexual abuses, have resulted in the vulnerability of children, particularly the girl child. Kidnapping of children has equally worsened the situation. Fundamentally therefore, children deserve all the care and attention, whereby all stakeholders starting from government on legislative framework for qualitative education that must be accessible to all irrespective of their social status. Also, the health sector must be children friendly, in terms of policies that would promote the rights of children on the issue of employment.

Government at all levels, parents and guardians have been called upon to protect children and wards from all forms of sexual abuse.

This call was made recently, by the Founder, Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke at the Shafaudeen Ishrat 2020 opening ceremony and Kiddies sports, at Wakjaiye, Ibadan, Nigeria.

‘’Government, Parents, schools officials need to protect the interest of our children not to be raped or forced into unholy sexual abuse. We must therefore be caring, watchful, monitor, examine, question and even teach sex education. Starting from the mother to the girl child and the father to the boy child, using experiences already inbuilt in them, while government medical centers and personnel on health related matters should take care of this at formal level’’.

‘’Parents must be aware of warning signs. Identify bad peer group, keep positive and open but effective communication to empower the children to have sufficient research against predators. Children must cultivate the habit of reporting feelings and events to parents, no matter how trivial and even against all odds of threats’’, Prof. Olagoke advised.

Children should be encouraged to join voluntary organizations.

These voluntary organizations go a long way in molding the character and behaviour of children.

Parents and guardians have the responsibility to ensure that their children and wards engage in indoor and out door games.

Indoor Games : Scrabble, Monopoly, Ludo etc. Outdoor Games : Table Tennis, Volley ball, Handball, Football, Athletics etc.

Sadly, in a number of societies, parents aid and abet their children to commit crimes.

Voluntary Organizations 1)The Boys Scouts Association 2) The Girls Guide Association 3) The Red Cross Society among several others.

Sympathy is the act of identifying with people in their times of grief.

It is proper to show sympathy to those who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances.

Always sympathize with those in bad condition or who find themselves in one form of difficulty or the other.

Difficult Situations include natural disaster, accident, economic recession or depression, fire incident and violence among others.