A cleric, Dr Ayodeji Omilani, has identified moral decadence among Nigerian youths as bane of the nation’s economic growth, calling on parents to train their children in the way of God to stem the menace.
Omilani, the Pastor in charge of Christian Guidance and Counselling Youth Church, Ibadan, made the assertions on Saturday at a seminar entitled: “Alone with God”.
It was organized by the Trinity Council Mission, Ibadan, Oyo State.
Omilani, who is also a Science Educator at the Department of Science and Technology Education, University of Ibadan, spoke on the topic: “Parental Roles: Nurturing Our Children for Their World”.
The cleric also advised parents to be a role model to their children by practicing what they preach.
Omilani further enjoined parents to train their children by modelling them in the Godly leadership characters and allow them to be exposed to life opportunities so that they could be wise.
“Parents must consciously monitor and expose their children to the language of Information Technology, which according to him, is the language of the 21st century to make them wise early enough.
“As a parent, you must be sensitive to the feelings of your children and monitor the kind of friends they keep.
“Always invite their friends to come to your house for weekends, sometimes, by so doing, you will be able to know and monitor the type of people they are moving with.
“Most children’s lives are ruined today due to bad communication, some parents must monitor the company their children keep,” the cleric said.
Omilani said that prayers and rebuking children whenever they went wrong “are very important for them to grow in the way of God and the society will be better for it”.
“After your children have encountered Jesus Christ, they will begin to experience the life of godliness.
“Their eyes will be opened, they will turn from darkness to light, and when all these happened, they will fear God and desist from evil and social vices.
“Salvation is not in the physical gene of any man, including children, so Christian parents should not think that their children will be saved automatically, because they come from a Christian home,” he said.
Omilani urged them to allow their children to be computer literate at an early stage by acquiring knowledge in Information Technology (IT).
According to him, this will not allow them to be endangered in the process of learning it from their friends.
Also, Pastor Ayodeji Solanke of Trinity Council Mission, urged parents not to be too extreme in the course of training their children.
Solanke said: “We should learn to change our styles of training sometimes; don’t let children know that you will always shout when they do wrong, we can be quiet at times.
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“Let’s always maintain a balance and use wisdom in the training of our children.
“We can’t change a child in a day, but we can always do our best and play our roles and train them in God’s way, while trusting God to perfect the rest.”
