Family as an agent of socialization is a crucial factor towards the moral upbringing of a child in every society. Poor family setting such as domestic violence and shattered homes leads to moral decadence that eventually turns into insecurity, among other malaise in the to society.
It also paves the way for children to learn basic concepts about what is good or bad, and right or wrong in a society,. Good values, norms and traditions are inherited in the family. Most delinquent teenagers belong to families that could not give a firm foundation to children. A case where parents divorce or separate leaves the children in the family to themselves and are prone to influence through peer pressure.
Nonetheless, when the relationship is weak, the aggregate of society would be affected. This is because most children end up engaging in unlawful activities. As such, the issue of insecurity escalate in Nigeria daily.
When children are deprived of the needed care, and affection from parents they end up joining gangs to get pleasure for themselves. This has been putting children’s lives at stake joining their peers’ without bothering about the kind of lives they are or would be living. Girls usually take to prostitution to cater for themselves.
Too many divorces in Nigeria today have led to homeless children suffering from one trauma or the other, many homes were broken while others are disastrous for kids to live in due to one reason or the other. This has resulted in a high number of out-of-school children and street beggars, among others.
The abandoned kids are the members of Boko Haram, kidnappers, bandits, rapists, etc. They consider It a lucrative business due to the lack of a good setting and upbringing when they were kids or having nobody to question them when faulty. This has been the reason why there is no peace in Nigeria today.
Almost every region is suffering from one illness or another as a result of domestic violence, child abuse and broken homes. Thus, we should be ready to face the worst if children are not guarantee shelter, food, clothes, and education, among others.
On the other hand, although African culture is a little strict especially to ladies when it comes to marriage, they should be patient in their matrimonial homes rather they separate and leave their children in worse conditions. Note that there is nothing like a happy home than to give your children a good life through love and compassion.
A high percentage of women are not happy in their marriages but have to go through all the verbal and physical abuse and hide the bruises. But, the most important is to stay no matter the odds than allow others to treat your wards cruelly. All broken homes are detrimental to society and nothing good comes from them most often.
Therefore, broken homes lead to hazardous societies where killing and destruction of properties would be a normal thing, which is not what we need. Thus, if we truly want to fight insecurity in Nigeria, we should be ready to stay in our matrimonial homes no matter the odds. And to government, they should formulate a law that will reduce the unnecessary divorce of women in Nigeria.
By doing so, children would get a better life with their parents by having a good upbringing that can lead them to success, not retrogression. This will help Nigeria to overcome its insecurity challenges.
Salamatu Bashir,
Department of Mass Communication,
University of Maiduguri,
Maiduguri, Borno state
