26th April, 2012
As early as 7 a.m. yesterday, residents of Lagos Island were already seated at the Cathedral Church Primary School, Lagos East Local Council Development Area, venue of a lecture organised by the Fatima Charity Foundation. The organisers had to get canopies for several others who stood outside due to lack of space.
The lecture, as well as the setting up of the foundation, according to the participants, was timely considering the level of decadence in the society and especially in Nigeria where nothing seems to work anymore.
According to the President of the Foundation, Hajia Bintu-Fatima Tinubu, the Foundation came into being as a result of the need to salvage Nigerians from further drifting, since only through constant reminder of the country’s various social and cultural values could a solution be found.
“At Fatima Charity Foundation, it has become our tradition to galvanise all efforts in contributing to the socio-economic well-being of our society. These we have been doing successfully since the inception of the Foundation.
“This time round, we have taken the responsibility to organise this Family Forum as part of our efforts to rejuvenate the fundamental values of what a family should be and the role of a family in the life of an individual, the crucial foundation-laying functions of the parents in building a successful future for our dear nation.
She lamented that the country, including the leaders, had gradually lost touch with reality and as a result, social vices had become rampant with the attendant negative image for the country.
She listed some of these vices include cultism, hooliganism, lesbianism, homosexuality, examination malpractices, rape, ethnic bigotry, incest, religious fanaticism, smuggling, piracy and bad leadership. She linked them all to lack of values, morals and adherence to parental teachings.
“Let us pause a bit and ask ourselves: what happened to our integrity in this country? It is because we got it wrong from the foundation, at the family level —the very beginning of our individual lives.
“Therefore, while we are praying to see the face of God in order to have responsible citizens and value-enriched country, I want to enjoin all of us to go back to the basics and take our parenting responsibilities very seriously; and also inculcate in ourselves, the time tested values of family life, so that we can excel in all we do,” she admonished the audience.
Hajia Tinubu said that apart from this enlightenment campaign that would be replicated in all the senatorial districts of the state, the Foundation is also looking in the direction of assisting the downtrodden in the society, including widows.
She said members of the Foundation task themselves to run it, and urged well-meaning Nigerians to support the Foundation and its activities,
In his lecture which was titled Inculcating Family Values In Nigerians, former Special Adviser to Governor Babatunde Fashola on Legislative Matters, Abdulhakeem Abdul-lateef, noted that the nation had taken a downturn. He, however, added that what was needed was not for the people to lament, but to seek possible solutions to the crises bedevilling the country.
He commended the Foundation for its effort to rid the society of evil saying that some of these social vices exist because people no longer realise that “we are all one family” as descendants of Adam and Eve, and that man as well as all that exist in this world are dust.
He listed some of the values that are desperately needed in the family and society as righteousness, leading by example, keeping promises, which he said is a major problem with politicians, honesty, integrity, consultation, commitment and communication, adding that the society is currently falling apart because the government failed to care for those who have become problems to the country today.
He also used expressed his pessimism over the outcome of most of the probes going on at the National Assembly, adding that as a former lawmaker, he was aware that resolutions of the House are mere advice and that probes are executive functions that should be left to the law enforcement and anti-graft agencies in the country.
Abdul-lateef, a former lawmaker representing Ajeromi-Ifelodun Constituency 2 also stressed that good values begin from the family.
According to him, many prisoners today got it wrong because they missed these values. “We need to look back, go back to the basics so that we can become successful again,” he added.
He said the Foundation would continue to spread the values throughout the state till every Lagosian becomes aware of what role to play in the society. “We are now talking about crimes like thuggery and exam malpratices and if you look at them, the family plays a big role in this and in shaping who you become in life,” he said advising the participants to learn from the lecture and practise what they have learnt.
Also, Salau Bashua, the Chairman of the Lagos East LCDA, who stood in for the Local Government Chairmen in the Senatorial District, said the lecture was a clear message to the people to go back to the family and begin to rebuild those positive areas of their lives that had been eroded.
Madam Oluwatosin Balogun, one of the participants at the event said she was happy to be part of the lecture since she had learnt a lot of lesson. “I have always wanted something like this to be organised because the world starts from the women and we really need to talk to them.
“We all want to be mothers of doctors, lawyers and engineers, forgetting that it is the same mothers who give birth to robbers and other criminals in the society and if they don’t train their children, there is no way such children would help the society,” she said.
—Eromosele Ebhomele