Children are the future
leaders of any soceity,” therefore, a broken soceity traces its decay to the family.
The family as the strength and pillar of every society is known for good moral which is usually inculcated from one generation to another through the children and even to the children unborn. It is the primary responsibility of every parent to ensure cultural values of societies do not go  extinct. The family is highly regarded because character and societal value are molded from infancy. Morals and good values are passed on to the children through their parents and such trait is maintained  in building a habitable society.
Today, the rate of moral decadence is so alarming that one begins to wonder where the family is heading for.
In Nigeria, each ethnic group is known for their peculiarities which is not devoid of respect, good ethics, holding of  cultural values in high esteem, hospitality, respect for elders, loyalty to authorities, adherence to parents’ training, exemplary living, obedience to parents decissions, adherence to societal rules and regulations.
Disappointedly, twenty-first century families have witnessed pains in homes, different levels of immoralities, disrespect to elders, and disobedience to societal laws. This is simply becaus the family has failed in its core role of molding lives and values. Everything is shifted to the ¢hurch as the quest for wealth acquisition, education, career building, politics, has replaced the importance placed on family values in Nigeria.
However, we are today faced with a society where family values are irrelevant, culture is no longer vital, internet has replaced every importance of  cultural inclination that is imbibed in people as they grow and receive training from their family starting from the cradle. We are now battling with the devastating negative influence brought to us by popular culture not only that the magnitude and approach employed the cable stations is encouraging the popular culture in strengthening their channels by capturing our airspace, dictating for us and our families what food we should eat, what:we should wear as in being trendy (fashion) , what language we should speak what our manners should look like, how we analyse issues of importance and things like that.
It is disheartening to note that with all the decadence going on, no attention or measure is put in.place to check the situation.
As each.day passes by, we are faced with more and more decay which springs from the lapses the family has created, degenerating into the larger socicty thereby resulting in high crime rate and corruption in all sectors of our economy and government.
Instead of sitting back to strategise ways of curbing our dilemma, we abandon it for more wealth pursuit while we fold our arms and watch the crime rate escalate in a geometric progression on daily basis.
It is no longer news that children cannot speak their dialect, even those leaving in state capitals of their own states cannot speak their own dialect fluently and one may begin to wonder, what will become of this nation Nigeria in 20years to come if parents still treat this decadence with laxity?
The twenty first century generation needs to be called back to order and the ball is in the court of the family to repair the damage done already. The family is the smallest group out of the larger society and if things are not properly done; we would keep suffering the crime which is usually the resultant effect of family negligence which spreads to the society at large.
We need to restructure our homes by having consistent family meetings starting from the nuclear families of just the father, mother and the children, to the larger family.
There is an urgent need to bring order and sanity to our homes. We all have a part to play if we must enjoy our old age. If we ignore these family values the way it was passed to us by our own parents, grand-parents, when men treasured culture and family values, posterity will definitely ask us and certainly, we will be held responsible for whatever harm our laxity causes in the future.
Moreso, if we keep quiet and feel it’s not our business  we will be like Eli, of the Bible story, who reaped the consequence of his children’s misbehaviours simply because he kept quiet where he was supposed to and ofcourse the resultant effect was more damaging than anticipated.
In looking at this repair of family values, we must understand that children learn by example. We only make impact if we can make out time to stay with them regularly to instruct, teach and correct, not leaving them in the hands of house helps just because our work do not permit us spend quality time with them. We must choose which is more essential to us, our children or our jobs and career?
We can only make huge sacrifice if we see the need to be responsible for our families individually and collectively as a society. We will never cease to appreciate our parents who had many children and, yet they were able to nurse, carter and stand by us, made themselves avaialble at all times.
Perpahs we need to imagine what would have become of us if they had abandoned us the same way we are handling our own children today.
To all and sundry, espeically thos that are hoping to have family they would call their own it is a clarion call to  note  that family does not just end with marriage to a heartthrob or to the love of one’s life as we proclaim, it does not also end in producing children because one is fertile and productive. it does not end at having the money to take care of a woman and do the necessary traditional rites.
Marriage is a full responsibility that everyone who ventures into is held bound to make it work by seeing that the society which is the identity of every individual does not fail because of craze and quest for money and career.
All hands must be on deck to ensure we build a better future for our soceity. It is pertinent, therefore, to fight the raging negative influence popular culture now has on us.
The harm of cultural decadence is numerous. The incessant increase in co-habitation among young people especially in our tertiary institutions cannot be over emphasized. Parents lose their children quarterly to the young boys who impregnate them.
No  child who receives proper home training would think of living with a boy or even a man who has not paid her bride prize, but, the lapse has been created by popular culture and young people now see this trend as a norm to live together without the knowledge of their parents on campuses, even in cities like Lagos, Portharcourt and every other major city in our country Nigeria.
Parents may not understand the magnitude of co-habitation in our campuses, but the truth is that it has become a trend that when anyone of both sexes says he or she doesn’t have a boy friend among their peers, they make mockery and caricature of such one whereas, where values are cherished and upheld, such can never be any issue of contention because, children raised in a family with good values always have at the back of their mind that it is not in any way allowed or permitted to live with anyone, man or woman where all the necessary traditional rites are not conducted and completed.
Personal hygiene is an aspect that is totally lacking in this generation of children. This is simply because, parents surround their children with numerous house helps, some families have as many as six maids and house chores are shared among them and the children just fold their hands on their laptops, keep surfing the net, pinging, browsing from one social media to the other and watching all manner of nude pictures and all manner of horror films, at the end, we see where rape, incest has become a life style in homes with or without the parents idea.
Parents have refused to monitor their children because of the free hand and internet access available at their disposal.
However, we can still revive our family values if we see the need to take up certain jobs that can allow us stay close to our children like teaching and entrepreneurship. The media also has a huge role to play in re-orientating people especially, the electronic media through play-lets, dramas as were seen in the days of Zebudiya. There is the need to create programmes that are family value – oriented for a better society and schools from primary school should review their curriculum and programme in such a way that various channels should be used to impact on the lives of these young ones.

Njoku resides in Port Harcourt

L-R: Permanent Secretary, Ministry Of Women Affairs, Hajiya Habiba Lawal; Minister of Women Affairs, and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina; Head of The Civil Service of The Federation, Alhaji Bukar Goni-aji And Permanent Secretary, Ministry Of Tourism, Culture And National Orientation, Mrs Nkechi Ejele, During A Courtesy Visit By The Head of Service To The Minister Of Women Affairs In Abuja, yesterday.

Chidima Njoku