Daddies Day Out With Debo....The truth and fact fathering in the millenium era.
The truth is, Every father cannot be said to be responsible, but the fact is every father can be responsible
WHO IS A FATHER? Part 1
Malachi 4 vs 6 - He will turn the heart of fathers to their children and the heart of the children to their fathers; else I will come and strike the land with a curse.
Recently in a bus, an issue came up between an elderly man and a teenage boy. The boy who believed he was right replied the elderly man word for word for all his rebukings. Seeing the boy unrepentant attitude the elderly man summed him up as 'OMOKOMO' meaning a miserable child, but rather than been remorseful, to the amazement of everyone in the bus, the boy confidently replied the elderly man "Baba ki baba wa lafi ni omokomo, ikan de niyin' - meaning "the exisitence of miserable fathers gave rise to the existence of miserable children of which you are one of such fathers ".
I felt the pang of this young boy's words and attitude towards the elderly man, though very rude and annoying but what keeps disturbing my spirit is the 'Bittertruth' of his rude statement, not of the elderly man as a a miserable person but of miserable children as a result of miserable fathers. This bittertruth provoked a question in my spirit which is, Who is a father?
The longman dictionarty of contemporary English defines a father as a male parent. Men of old or the past from whom we are descended. As fathers we have the ability to influence our children's life in the most fundamental ways. In a recent survey I carried out among successful men in their forties, I asked what was that one thing responsible for their success and over 70% affirmed it is the person of their fathers, their relationship and the time spent with their fathers. This is how important and influencial we are and we can be as fathers. Then the question is, can same be said of fathers in this millenium era.
The today fathers are seen as uncessary in training a child in the family. Fathers of this age easily bail out themselves of parenting with excuses of working round the clock to provide for the home. Fatherlessness as a result of pervasive and continous absentism from the home due to tight schedule is now responsible for the series of juvenile crimes. Over 60% of crimes comitted in the last decade are by the youths ranging from rape, hooliganism, gangsterism, robbery, cultism, murdrer e.t.c. This statistic is more likely to grow over time as the rate of teen pregancies is on the increase and a larger number of these teen and would-be-fathers are locked up in jails or remand institutions for onr crime or the other chances are, the next generation are most likely to be raised without fathers.
To help improve on the well being of our children,guard against a repetition of the bus scene and develop our nation at large, fathering as aprocess must be re-visited. The question now is HOW?
.....To be continued.
