Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has blamed Nigerian parents for the worrisome state of the nation, The Sun reports.
The Minister said this at the 10th children creative station workshop organized by the National Troupe of Nigeria to commemorate the 2023 International Theater Day( ITD) held in Abuja Internally Displaced persons camp.
Lai Mohammed lamented that most children have been exposed to violence at very tender ages by house helps and have grown to see it as the best way of living.
The Minister who was represented by the Managing Director National Theater Prof Sunday Enessi Ododo, appealed to parents to create more time for their family if they really want the country to be better place.
According to him “Most misbehaviour in Nigeria are due to lack of family attention to children upbringing. In our society today most parents have assigned their duties to nannies as the go to work. The children have to feed from the behaviors and characters of nannies.
“We have seen videos where our children are maltreated by these nannies . In very tender ages they are introduced in to violence and are made to believe that is the way of life. This a general call for parents to revoke their schedules in such a way that they can have enough time for their children, teachers can’t give everything.”
He appreciated the agency for giving hope for the IDP children, adding that it would help them to connect back to their lost culture.
“I really appreciate you for this noble quest to project our children to their roots, as they were uprooted from their roots. One of the significant ways of doing it is cultural because culture is the totality of our been, our living, what we eat, dressing and manners are all cultural but when this is missing, humanity is lost. This exercise have further bounded the children from different parts of the country together by learning each other’s culture,” he said.
Artistic Director/ CEO National Troupe of Nigeria Ahmed Mohammed, on his part said Nigeria can not develop without its culture.
Ahmed added that the choice for IDP camp is to reconnect the children who may have lost some of the culture due to displacement.
He said: “The desire to resuscitate the dying culture of folklore which many of us enjoyed while growing up cannot be over-emphasized. Back then, through this artistic and entertaining medium, we were taught many soft skills and oriented to hate evil and to love the good.
“Through story-telling, our parents and elders delivered very salient and meaningful messages which helped to shape us in some ways. The stories rallied around different themes, such as love, friendliness, community life, peace, marriage, and were characterised by usage of animals or inanimate obiects.”
NTN also organized a folklore performance competition among Schools in IDP camps across Abuja, Bethharbel Elementary School for IDP; Durumi; Interfaith School, Malaysia Garden ID, Apo; Sharing Prosperity School, IDP camp, Kuchingoro, and students of Junior Secondary School, Karmajiji, to bring some hopes to the children in the camp who are victims of circumstances, and to create some exposure to the children the students of Junior Secondary School Karomajigi came first.
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