NEWS UPDATES
(An Extract from Presidential Charge of Dr. Mrs. Lydia Olukemi Odedeji, Mama Lagos West delivered at 2024 Diocesan Women Conference held at Caroline Adefiola Adebiyi Women Conference Centre, Ipaja, Lagos on Friday August 30, 2024)
Domestic Violence
Abuse in all its forms is a daily reality for many Nigerian children and only a fraction ever receive help. Six out of every 10 children (60 %) experience some form of violence. One in four girls (25%), and 10 per cent (10%) of boys, have been victims of sexual violence. According to the World Health Organization (2020), exposure to violence at an early age can impair brain development and damage other parts of the nervous system, as well as the endocrine, circulatory, musculoskeletal, reproductive, respiratory, and immune systems, with lifelong consequences. It is for this reason we call on parents to be watchful and exercise high discretion in their choices of who they allow to live with them. Studies have shown that a larger percentage of sexual violence against children is perpetrated by close and trusted relatives such as cousins, nephews, nieces, etc, and adult friends whose care their parents entrust them for different constraining reasons. It is on this note that we commend the Lagos State Government, for their efforts at serving commensurate and timely justice to perpetrators of crimes against men, women, and children through their Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court. We advocate that the National Assembly passes a law for the establishment of this special court across all the states of the federation to facilitate the speedy trial of offenders and stem the epidemic proportion that domestic violence has assumed in Nigeria.
Focus on the Boy Child
In the past, attention has been overtly focused on the girl child s nurture, protection, and safety without minding the fact of their present co-existence with the boys as siblings and peers, and in the future as spouses, co-workers, neighbours, political leaders and what have you. This awakening has caused a paradigm shift that now includes the boy child in both local and international concerns for children. This only justifies our vision that birthed the Royal Gems & Royal Vessels as a ministry organ of our Diocese s Women Organization. We train boys and girls together in the Christian faith and virtues, and we have reasons to thank God for the testimonies of observable impacts of the training on them. We therefore remind our parents to be fully involved in the training of the boy child. A bad son is not likely to be a good father. The mind of the boy child, just like the girl child s, is a clean slate; what you write there is what it retains. Let us write the principles of godliness, virtues, and morals on them so they can grow with them to become responsible and godly adults.
Out-of-School Children in Lagos State
We acknowledge the concern and efforts of the Lagos State Government to ensure a good future for our children through strategic planning that led to the survey of out-of-school children in the state. The Survey was conducted from Tuesday, 20th December to the 28th December, 2022, across all Local Government Areas (LGAs) and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of Lagos State to put proper policies in place for the benefit of all children. It was revealed then that 35% of primary school leavers in Lagos State either do not proceed to secondary school or drop out somewhere along the line, thereby increasing the number of out-of-school children. This has been a matter of grave concern to us; hence our interest in the Lagos State Government policies on this issue. We wish to appeal to the State Government to move some steps further to ensure that the efforts go beyond the survey to practical policy-based actions that will take under aged children out of the street to school. The importance of all-free education up to the Secondary School level cannot in this regard be overemphasized. It is the only way the daily increasing number of out-of-school children can access the needed education in the State. We certainly do not need to breed an army of future insurgents and bandits in Lagos State.
Securing the Future of Our Children
At the time of writing this address, it was estimated that about 15,000 children, representing 2% of the Palestinian children, had been killed in the eight-month Israel-Gaza war, while nearly 2,000 children, according to UNICEF, had been killed or injured in the two years of Russia-Ukraine war. While applauding the global outcry by various local and international organizations and well-meaning individuals of global influence against the plight of men, women, and children in the emergent wars, we appeal to our nation s leaders and members of the political class to take cognizance of this and be guided in their dispositions and decision-making by the need for commitment to truth and justice that guarantees our peaceful co-existence and enable us to hand a banner without stain to our children.
Christian Marriage and Divorce
Recent surveys and studies by Longworth, a Houston-based Law Firm in the United States of America, suggest that approximately 20 to 25 percent of Christian marriages end in divorce, with higher percentages reported among millennial i.e. those born between the early 1980s to early 2000, and younger generations of believers. This raises the question of why is the rate of Christian divorce increasing. In some cases, conflicting interpretations of the Bible or different personal beliefs may be a contributing factor; in others, it could merely be down to common relationship issues such as incompatibility or financial distress. While there is no single cause of divorce among Christians, various research studies have identified common underlying factors leading to marriage dissolution. In a review of both religious and general population data, researchers concluded that divorce rates among Christians are similar to those of the general population, indicating that marital dissolution is not necessarily due to a particular faith commitment. Factors such as infidelity, communication problems, substance abuse, financial stressors, and unresolved prior conflicts were seen to be the leading causes of divorce among Christian couples across the board. The new observable trend among our youth is to sideline the Church in their marriage plans; they go and get married at the Marriage Registry and follow it up with traditional marriage rites and reception. Few of them agree to have their marriage blessed in the Church. This practice reduces the chance of the church taking them through thorough counselling. It is at this juncture that we admonish Christian parents to get interested in their children s spiritual life and marriage-related affairs.
Indecent Dressing
The war against nakedness and every other form of indecent dressing has been on for about two decades in the Diocese of Lagos West. While one cannot say the effort of the Diocese in this regard has been successful, it has achieved an appreciable measure of success that still needs to be improved upon. And, that is why we decided to use the opportunity of this address to call on parents, especially the Christian mothers to brace up for a renewed battle against this social malaise. The war against nakedness and indecent dressing is a battle that must be fought and won at all cost, through the instrumentality of counselling, prayers, and actionable policies.
The Nation s Economy
For some years now, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, the high cost of living has persisted in Nigeria. The nation s economy has been trending with galloping inflation at a two-digit annual rate, and it is common knowledge that such a form of inflation is dangerous for the economy as it mostly affects the middle and low-income classes of the population with a high tendency towards economic depression. Nigerian economic experts argue that the Nigerian economy is not depressed, and we can only thank God for that; but Nigeria knows that her citizens, particularly the middle and low-income earners are very much depressed. Many families are underfeeding and unable to meet up with their common domestic needs and obligations. The spiralling biting effects of the fuel subsidy removal and stringent monetary policies of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are seriously telling on every aspect of our daily life, thus causing untold hardship for the majority of the citizenry. Of more serious concern is its propensity to increase the number of out-of-school children across the nation because of its unintended popularization of poverty which is fast making education unaffordable for the low stratum of the population.
The alarming rate at which costs of food items are daily sky-rocketing, and it calls for urgent intervention by the Federal Government; we, for this reason, lend our voice to the voices of many people and organizations that have called on the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency in the Agricultural sector of the Nigerian economy, notwithstanding the recent directives and seven days deadline issued by the president, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the State Governors on food security. We believe that a people-centered short-term solution that will mitigate the widespread hunger in the land is highly essential and should be accorded a premium priority.
Above notwithstanding, we still have to appreciate the small wins of the government s policies and efforts at stemming the worrisome inflationary trend which, as of June this year, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria, resulted in slowing down the rate of inflation for the third consecutive month in Oyo, Abuja and 11 other states of the federation. While acknowledging these little gains, we consider it pertinent to encourage those who bear responsibilities for the nation s financial and monetary policies and regulations not to rest on their oars but do more to tame whatever “economic demons” that have be devilled and are still be devilling the nation s economy and sanitize it for a turn-around that will benefit all Nigerians, especially the suffering masses.
Politics and Governance
An average political observer would agree with us that a lot of attention and energy is being channelled towards the Year 2027 election while the business of governance has been pushed to the back burner. This shows in the number of vacant seats one sees at the plenary sessions of our lower and upper Legislative Houses. We therefore appeal to our politicians to create more time for the business of governance which is the reason they were elected into their various offices in the first instance, and attend to the myriad of challenges facing Nigeria as a nation.
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