Bola Badmus- Lagos
Lagos State deputy governor, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, has charged parents to comply with laid down protocols of child upbringing and inculcate contentment and good morals into their children to ensure a progressive nation.
The deputy governor gave this admonition while speaking at the 3rd Ramadan Lecture and Prayer in memory of the Late Oba Muftau Olatunji Hamzat, themed: “Child Upbringing in Islam,” held at the Ogba area of the state.
Hamzat emphasized that no nation would develop when the citizens do not do well, stating that every parent must follow the childcare protocol and ensure that every child was well trained.
He tasked the parents to ensure proper child upbringing, urging them not to let their children believe that they could always get what they wanted.
“As parents, we should ensure proper child upbringing and not let our children believe they can always get what they want. We should train them about contentment, respect for elders and their mates, comportment, humility, humane, hard work, perseverance, and other values that make a complete human being,” he said.
Speaking further, the deputy governor enjoined parents to spend more time with their children despite their busy schedules, noting that it was important for them to make their children understand the essence of life, what it means, what is needed, and how things should be done.
Hamzat described the topic of the lecture as very apt, being the major challenge facing the country currently, urging parents to give priority to their children’s upbringing and train them in the way of the Almighty Allah, particularly with generation Z that needs adequate and effective monitoring due to their exposure to the internet.
“If you don’t train them well, somebody else will train them online. Somebody that they don’t know, somebody that doesn’t share their values, and they will train them for you. So we have to be very careful with our children,” he said.
Therefore, he tasked parents to instill their cultural values, ethics, morals, and discipline into their children so they can grow as responsible children who obey and fear the Almighty Allah and not as internet children.
In his remark, the Executive Chairman of Ifako-Ijaiye Local Government, Prince Usman Akanbi Hamzat, urged parents to imbibe in their children good morals and values, being the major trainers of children, saying the best way to train a child was to look after them right from birth.
The council boss added that parents should be of good character as, according to him, children emulate what they see in their parents and eventually portray such.
“With good characters at home, the teaching of the book of God, and good education, I think the kids will be good in the community,” he said.
In his lecture titled: “Child Upbringing in Islam,” Chairman of the Council of Muslim Ummars of Ifako-Ijaiye/Ojokoro, Sheikh Ismail Ali Agbayawo, stated that having children goes beyond having one to send on errands or bury them when they die, or to take care of them at old age.
According to him, a child is begotten to live after the parent and demonstrate the good teachings and legacies of the parents.
He, therefore, charged parents to bring up their children in a godly way and ensure that they expose them to both western and moral education to be responsible to themselves, their parents, and their community.
The Muslim cleric called on the government to ensure they get closer to the citizens and remember to fulfill all electioneering promises, saying that people were now more exposed and cannot be taken for granted.
“Gone were those days that politicians associated with just the Community Development Associations, Christians Association of Nigeria, or the Islamic Community, the last election has shown that the government must practise all-inclusive governance,” Sheikh Agbayawo said.
In his welcome address, President Ifako Ijaiye Muslim Community, Alhaji Lateef Ayodeji Sunmonu noted that the third Memorial Ramadan Lecture was to pray to Allah to direct the leaders aright and make life easier for every Nigerian.
He further solicited support for the completion of the Ifako Ijaiye Muslim Community Islamic Centre.
