Dowen college: An example of bad 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. If children are not well-managed in […]

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.

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.

The incident involving Sylvester Oromoni, a 12-year-old student of Dowen College in Lekki, Lagos, who 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, is the most recent.

One of the causes of this raging problem of kids and cultism can be attributed to the individual family or household. The family has totally failed in its quest to fully inculcate morals and social values into its offspring. Most parents today do not spend enough time with their wards; rather they have outsourced parenting in order to escape from 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 youth lacking appropriate upbringing and knowledge of social norms. This has led to an astronomical increase in the number of miscreants, street urchins, cultists and rapists in  society.

Additionally, exposure to violent media messages and movies has in no small way contributed to this as  the majority of our youth today have taken to bad habits following their exposure to the bad content they watch and listen to.

Hence the blame should go to all of us as school owners, teachers and parents who fail to read the reactions and behaviours of their students and children. We must bring our children and students closer to us to understand and monitor them.

Finally, the menace of cultism is rapidly moving towards prominence among secondary school students. Therefore, each home should try to create sufficient time for its children so as to perform its primary function of nurturing and moulding its wards into responsible citizens.

Folorunso  Fatai Adisa can be reached through [email protected]