 The Minister of Interior, Benira O'Farrebushala, has blamed moral decadence in the country on poor parenting. The Minister said parents in Nigeria have failed in the discharge of their duties in guiding their children in woods and becoming useful in their society. Aragushala spoke in Akura, the understated capital while hosting the 1975 State of the Secondary School, Akoko Agnikan, who lamented the rate at which many youths venture into minor rituals. He has also been given a job in Nigeria, but also to address kickups in Nigeria's air profession. up, the Minister of Interior, Ben Rao Farah, he's saying that the spate of kidnappings and money rituals and what have you, that the youth are engaged in all forms of vices are traceable. These vices are traceable to felt parenting. You are an author on parenting and Charlie Cooper. Okay. Would you agree with the minister on this? Pardon? Could you, would I do what? Would you agree with the minister on this? I mean, we all know, we all know, right? We all know that the family, the smallest unit of the society. But can we entirely place the blame on the parents? Well, I wouldn't say in its entirety. No, we can't entirely blame the parents. But the family is the foundation by which we groom our youth, by which we groom the future generation. And if there's a salty foundation, it would take a lot of work to build on ensuring that the youth are overthinking, responsible, and reliable. So, yes, the family to an extent plays a part. Okay. And we have another sort of peep in the country blaming Nolly Hood. Blaming Nolly Hood for the spate of vices among youths. What you're taking that? Blaming Hood? Nolly Hood. Well, that's neither here nor there. Yes, we know that sometimes, you know, when we watch TV, we get enveloped in the non-fiction, basically. Okay. So we can't blame Nolly Hood. Nolly Hood is, what kind of fiction? It's not tangible, it's not substantial. They can't have substantial effect. If the family is properly ordered, if there's a structure by which the children can air their views. If a child watches Nolly Hood and they can come home and have a discussion with their parents and their parents make them understand and look, what you watch in Nolly Hood is not reality. This is not responsible. If a person is going to kill someone for money, it's not a sustainable or a proper way of making money. It's evil. It's not dawn. The things that you think, at least the conscious, or rather the subconscious mindset of our youths would be that, no, there are certain things I can't do. There are certain areas I can't thread upon. But yeah, if the family is structured in a way where anything goes, of course, Nolly Hood would not be seen as an influence. But Nolly Hood should not be a primary influence in any child's life. If things are in place. Now, is that not going back to what the minister said? So who used to be blamed now? Who used to blame? I would say it's an integrated situation. It's not an either or it's not a one plus one equals to two. We all just need to play our part. If the family is structured in a way whereby a child is not accountable, at least that particular slot is all rather a checkbox is ticked. If we have a society where children are encouraged, they are celebrated for doing right, that checkbox is ticked. If we have a society where poverty is not predominant, where children see that their hard work would pay, that checkbox box is ticked. If we have an entertainment industry that is forward thinking, that is deliberate in portraying the essence of what a society should be, then that checkbox is ticked. So it's not one person to blame. We're all together holding hands towards ensuring that the people we call the future generation have the ideal, have the bedrock that they can build on. And indeed be that future generation, that symbolic generation that we say are the leaders of tomorrow. Okay then, are you saying that the society has lost its grip on child raising? I would never say that. That would be saying that we should lose hope. What I'm saying is that we should go back to the drawing board and take steps in ensuring that what we desire is what we're working towards. Because we can't expect something else and be working towards another direction. We won't get the results that we desire. So basically we should work towards what we desire. Okay then, what are the other influencers? Because when a young person goes into ritual killing, it's a chain. It's a chain. It's mostly started from somewhere and then there will be other enablers in between before it gets to the point where they're burning the head of their victim in the pot. So what are other enablers or influencers in between that we need to also address? I'll say share pressure. I'll say, you know, the kind of friends that such person keeps. I'll say, you know, a child who has mental health as well. Mental health is something that we shouldn't just lay aside and that doesn't mean madness. It just means that what's the state of the mind of many of these youths and also substance abuse, many of these things come to play in this scenario. Okay, when you talk about substance abuse, I was shocked weeks ago when certain neighbors were briefing me like, I mean, they were actually briefing me about the extent of substance abuse in the society. Like, you don't even know. I just see water bottles everywhere when I see water bottles. I think it's just water. You know, that's what I thought until certain neighbors were telling me, like, you are an obvious about this. You don't know what's going on. You know, so it's really gone from bad to worse. And this is part of the effect. How do we check that? We'll continue to hope for the best for our nation. Yes, things may seem like they are bleak and we might even start to feel helpless. And I still believe that we should drop the water like the tiny ocean in our own way, in our own womb. Let's start to do the right. Let's make time for our children. Let's have conversations. Let's look them in the eyes and make them understand that life is beyond the ephemeral money. And those things that we think would give us, you know, short-term satisfaction. We also, as a people, should not, you know, many, many times, well, back in the days, they would say that it takes a community to groom a child. But nowadays, everybody just minds their business. You see something that is wrong in another child. Point it out. Yeah, they might say, what's your business? And, you know, in the so-called westernized culture, but we are African. If you see something that is not, you know, doesn't just add up. Point it out. Then also for our government, we need to start to empower youth. Nigerian youth are bleak. If we have a typical one-on-one conversation with a youth, you would see that there's so much promise. So we need to empower youth. We need to get them engaged, get their minds engaged, you know. And also in our education system, we need to also go down to ground zero and see what's actually happening there. Thank you. And it's not just about going to school A to B and C. Education goes beyond that. Education, you know, goes to basic things like how do you see yourself? Thank you. What are the things that you value? Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. You're talking about values when it comes to education, not just the four words of the school system, but going down to ground zero and then bringing back our values system. Thank you very much, Abyssalah. We can't solve this in one fell swoop. We will have to get it back another time, sometime soon. Hope you'll oblige us. All right, that's great. Thank you. Thank you very much. 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