Nigerian parents have been called upon to dedicate quality time to the upbringing of their children, especially against the rising trend of lesbianism, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT).
This call was made by Rev. Fr. Victor Ofili, the Coordinator of the Family and Human Life Unit under the Catholic Diocese of Issele Uku, during a seminar organized by the Unit held at St John’s Catholic Church, Agbor targeted at both parents and the youths.
Rev. Ofili in his opening remark said that Nigerian society and the world at large were faced with big challenges in terms of morality with the trending issues of LGBT making waves all over the World adding that technological advancement is seriously spreading the syndrome beyond the control of parents and the Church.
He explained many people were being recruited in LGBT, through the internet and easy access to cell phones.
Ofili urged parents to be closer to their children, monitor what they subscribe to on the internet, and their relationships and not be economical with words when they were educating them on the sexual aspect of their bodies.
Presenting a paper tagged, “Raising Chaste Children in Today’s World in the Light of Rising Issues of LGBT’, Mr. Fidelis Okhugbe, one of the resource persons, said that Nigerian society was leaning on a keg of gunpowder with the rate at which the issue of LGBT was trending.
He said that one of the major challenges is that all the Children had access to Android phones, those who do not patronize their friends or use their parents.
Explaining the vulnerability of the children, he said that child development was made up of genetics, cognitive, physical, cultural, family, nutrition, and education. He added that the basic among them is the Family pointing out that Children’s development start from conception, birth, and breastfeeding, and that parents have major roles to play in the general development of the Child.
He went further to advise parents to be their children’s best friends and Confidents adding that they should be able to understand children’s feelings and always make sure that they learn everything about their bodies from them rather than from outsiders especially when it patterns to sexual parts of the bodies.
He explained that chastity is the successful integration of sexuality within a human person and also an apprenticeship in self-mastery adding that if the family gets it right in the successful training of the children the church will get it right as well as the Society at large.
In her own lecture, which centered on family planning, Mrs. Maureen Ayomah explained that natural family planning remained the best way to engage in family planning, saying that it had no negative effects on the woman and the family.
Ayomah stated that apart from the fact that artificial family planning was morally wrong, it had a lot of negative effects on women and their entire families.
