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THE report that some male boarding students of the Government College, Ijanikin, Lagos State, jumped over the school fence with their female colleagues and lodged in hotels to have sex is really saddening and unfortunate. According to the principal of the school, Mrs Tofunmi Akamo, the affected students numbering six were picked up from the hotel by the school, and the incident happened only once. This is a depressing development at a time when Nigeria is beset with a myriad of seemingly intractable challenges that have their root, one way or the other, in the declining moral values in the society. The implication is that the resolution of these challenges may be difficult if the children and young people who are the future leaders are already enmeshed in moral decadence. Why would children sent to school to learn become preoccupied with access to sexual pleasure to the point of brazen breach of school rules and regulations? This is the pleasure they would still have enjoyed without let or hindrance if they had fulfilled the original objective of going to school and turned out to be responsible adults. Why were they in a hurry?
Some stakeholders are of the view that unbridled exposure to the internet is one significant factor causing the deterioration of moral values amongst Nigeria’s youth population. On this score, the deputy national president of the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN), Adeolu Ogunbanjo, has this to say: “Unfortunately, social media has contributed to moral decadence among our children and youths. When pupils are given android devices, they use them for something else. Social media use should be regulated or controlled. It has really exposed children to a lot of stuff. Phone manufacturers should find a way to produce Android phones for school-age pupils and block them from visiting certain x-rated websites. The National Communication Commission (NCC) should also look into that.”
While the NAPTAN senior official’s suggestion may help in preventing school students’ exposure to undesirable contents on the internet, parents and school authorities have little or no control over who must do what in order to let that happen. And that puts the burden of finding the solution to the challenge of dampening moral rectitude squarely where it rightly belongs: the doorstep of parents and school authorities. Parents should rekindle their interest in parenting rather than leaving their children to the school, to be nurtured by teachers, some of whom are often non-challant about taking on the responsibility that some parents are wont to shirk. Otherwise, the society will be left with untrained children who engage in whatever pleases them at any time. And this can only be a recipe for a catastrophic future for the society as untrained children would likely end up as irresponsible adults that would become misfits later.
The government, school authorities and parents have to review the current situation and seek to help students rather than leaving them to their own devices. The reason kids are not called adults is because they are to be under guidance; and if those who should shoulder this responsibility at home and in the society are not playing their roles well, it would not be right to heap all the blame on the kids who become wayward and engage in anti-social behaviour. To be sure, there is no gainsaying the fact that socioeconomic challenges in the country are becoming increasingly daunting, thereby limiting the quality time parents spend with their children and wards. However, parents should resist the temptation to be too engrossed in the pursuit of money, thinking parenting is all about placating children. While we enjoin parents and schools not to be too hard on the children in order to avoid truncating their future, it is important to realise that young people need proper training, guidance and chastisement by adults with love whenever they cross the line. Schools must also be vigilant not just in security matters but also in socialisation; they should point the children in the right direction. For instance, students should be given proper sexual education and also provided with social opportunities to which they can channel their energies.
The depressing behaviour and activities of kids and young students in schools in the country should signal the need for concerted efforts to save them from the path of disaster and assure them of a better and functional future in the interest of the society and their parents.
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