Good habits result in healthy living, wealth, and happiness, while bad habits direct free men into bondage.
By system, harmony, and the forming of right habits early in life, the youth are capable of multiplying themselves many times. Indeed, there is no substitute for proper guidance and direction.
Several men and women attribute their failures to fate, luck, and chance, but in actual fact, the habit formed early in life weigh them down through life.
In this interview, the Founder, Spiritual Head, and Grand Imam, of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olgaoke opines that the negative habits of millions of children in Nigeria, left uncorrected by parents poses a great challenge for society.
In what ways do you think the habits of the Nigerian youth particularly and Nigerians in general-good or bad- have affected the scheme of things in society today?
A habit has a direct correlation to human behavior and one is easily identified by the resulting mannerism which the society easily reacts to, most especially when it activates from the known norms. Subjectively it can be used to determine the DNA of a child born into a family.
It is easily used as a tool to classify a home or parenting attitude by the teachers of such children in the school which equally, subjectively could be classified as been good or bad for the teachers to work on in order that the child's behavior and responses do not hinder the teacher's teaching progress that must cut across aptitude and attitude.
Most often parents of suspected children lacking in expected correct attitude may be invited by the school counselor for a chat on such a child in an attempt to offer corrective guides to normalize the child's habits. On the home front, the primary duty of parents is to critically observe their children's habits with respect to their body language, eating habits, standing posture, facial look disposition most especially towards the elderly ones, dressing habits, and reactions to the rules of hygiene. All these must be observed and corrected right from the day he or she is born under the child custody guide before, he or she gets to the stage of having friends.
At nature nurturing level, the pediatrics nurturing level, the counseling guide of the experts must intervene just as the pediatrics intervention dominates the childhood period.
Some children may mimic so easily to the level of assuming the defective posture of a deformed person, if parents do not intervene on time, such a child may become deformed permanently. Such habits include the twisting of the mouth, squinting of the eyes, adjusting the shoulders to gesticulate among others.
Parents must therefore be observant and sensitive enough to offer appropriate corrections that would suit the acceptable norms of the society.
Some of the traits that have been exhibited by a child may be alien to the family for people to begin to suspect foul play in the biological process of bringing him or her to life.
This is why parents must ensure fidelity in managing their homes by having the utmost respect for the sacredness of the institution of marriage during which they swore to love and be loyal to each other.
In those days of the good era of discipline, education was next to godliness, and children in boarding schools or away from home always lived by the wise instructions of their parents to always remember the sons and daughters of whom they are. To such children, the change of environment and the peer group effect never had a negative effect on them.
However today, the environment of poverty has led to cases of broken homes, single parenting, and orphanages. For example, Nigeria is having challenges such as insecurity and several parents are unable to even feed themselves and their children. There is the issue of Internally Displaced Persons and more than 13.9 million out-of-school children.
A nation that is yet to find solutions to institutional indiscipline and corruption will ever produce restive youths, who easily would embark on suicide missions to survive. Matters are treated on the surface rather than from the root.
Drug addicts and drunkards may either have a background that favors such indulgence or they could have been infected through some unwholesome peer group effect.
The challenge today in Nigeria is in the persistence of the neglected negative habits of children left uncorrected by the parents.
Unfortunately, when this ugly trend continues, the nation may be heading for the precipe. The Government at all levels must stop chasing shadows, and staring investing in youth education and job creation.
It is only when the human physiological need is worked on to the realization point that the home can be stable and at rest with good parenting as well as the society with the youth who would be meaningfully engaged.
This situation will curb the sponsors of militants, insurgents, bandits, and terrorists.
Nature nurturing in the growth profile of the animal called man to be effective needs to be supported by the physiological needs and managed by role models and counselors for the children and the youth to be amenable to corrections on the issue of habits and a good attitude, otherwise, our education will continue to promote and produce human robots without a human face.
