Mothers Charged On Security Consciousness

Mothers all over  Ni
geria have been advised to be their children’s first custodians of saftety. The former chairperson of the federation of women lawyers (FIDA) Rivers State, Mrs Eucharia Someari-Pepple gave the advice recently in Port Harcourt as she reacts to the security challenges currently faced by the nation.
Mrs Someari-Pepple who blamed some of the insecurity challenges on the laxity of mothers, said a lot of loopholes have been created for insecurity to thrive because many women have failed to live up to their roles as mothers, all in the guise of making money.
“Most of us are looking for money with red eyes, we need to always be closely nitted with our children,” she said, pointing out that many mothers have formed the culture of enrolling their little children for extra-lessons after school hours, not because they actually want them to learn more, but because they are not available for the children, hence, they indirectly pay to retain the children under the custody of the teachers till they are back from their business.
Eucharia explained that while the school teachers remain with the children for 8  hours, mothers are supposed to know about their child’s wellbeing for the rest hours of the day. She regretted that the reverse is rather the case. Her words, “some of us leave our children for 12 to 18 hours. As some schools close at 1pm or 1:30pm, some of us will do another lesson for them in the same school. Some of these children are under five years.”
She complained that by the time these children come back to their homes, they are already finished and tired which affects their level of understanding the following day at school.
Insisting on the role of mothers in securing the future of children, the legal practitioner said mothers must learn to make out time for their children especially  in doing their take-home assignments as well as checking their performances at school, rather, than leaving them at the mercy of the house helps and nannies.

Sylvia ThankGod-Amadi

Cross section of Rivers State Choir singing at Government House, Port Harcourt, recently