Otunba Segun Runsewe, Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC), has called on parents to stop passing parental responsibilities to teachers and caregivers.
Runsewe made the call while Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) in Abuja.
He said it was high time parents struck a balance between career and children’s upbringing to curb increasing rate of moral decadence in society, particularly among youths.
The director-general said parents had a huge responsibility in moulding their children’s characters.
According to him, this is to avoid the influence of negative foreign cultures, social media influence and peer group pressure among others.
He said unless deliberate steps were taken by parents to inculcate the right values in their children, they would pick up bad attitudes from their environment.
“Our culture has not been taken seriously over time and it is affecting every fabric of our society.
“As a country, we need to have a re-orientation and we also have to return History and Culture to schools curricula.
“Also, parents need to play their role and not leave everything to teachers.
“It is disheartening to note that some parents do not know what their children are doing at a given time nor the type of company they keep,” he said.
The director-general said there had been cases of parents who had to face the consequences of their children’s unruly behaviours, adding that some of them ended up as criminals.
Runsewe said, “there was a case of one of the South Western states, where a family went to a higher institution to celebrate their child’s graduation only to discover the child did not graduate.
“That must have been heartbreaking for the family but if they had put a close watch, they would have been able to counsel their child properly.”
He said the council on its part, would continue to work to ensure cultural rebirth that would enable morals and values to be inculcated in children.
