The President asked the church to redeem the situation when he flagged off the National Christian Campaign on Social Transformation.
The campaign is important enough to cut across religious lines, if it is to have an impact that would ameliorate a pervasive national condition. Can we do something about it?
“Our priorities are misplaced. We have trained our children to insult elders, parents fight teachers who discipline their children and so we have been reproducing badly behaved children, who come under peers influences.
The church itself has not always done what it should do, some of the teachings in some of our churches have turned the bible upside down, the bible is meant to teach us which is right and helps us to do righteous things.” he added.
Nigerians, he continued, have lost the values for hard work, respect for their elders, truthfulness, honesty, contentment, humility, patience and all moral virtues.
The situation is worse than the President elaborated. The bankruptcy of the Nigerian is almost comprehensive. Few Nigerians are exempt from the President’s accusations; fewer Nigerian settings are bereft of the picture he painted. The causes and solutions are not as simple as the President’s analysis.
What should really worry Nigerians is that the authorities believe that their roles begin and end with speeches in a complainingly accusatory delivery which suggests that the causes of and solutions to our national woes lie elsewhere. They should not distance themselves from challenges.
Are we interested in solutions or blame sharing? Who would provide the solutions? What does the President mean by respect for elders? How do we insult our elders?
Our cultures make respect for elders mandatory. Respect is not only about greeting elders. The respect we give people reflects in how we treat them. We agree with the President that we do not treat our elders well; it is to be noted too that our country has remarkable disregard for people, whether they are children, the poor, the sick, or the physically challenged.
Is it possible to be more practical in respecting elders? We can and it is a shame that we have neglected them all these years.
The hundreds of thousands who die waiting for the pittance that passes for their pension are elders. Some, like retired railway workers, have gone for six years without pension. Their pathetic survival stories elicit indifference from the authorities. If we respected elders we would have treated pensioners better.
The biggest insult to elders, these days, do not come from unruly children, but well-behaved adults.
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