NASOW holds conference, urges Nigerians to imbibe family values in order to reduce social vices

ADA Dike

In Nigeria today, major challenges bedevilling the society such as terrorism, robbery, abduction, rape, kidnapping and other vices have eroded family values. Hence, there is an urgent need for change, which is possible if sustainable efforts are made to inform, educate and enlighten all and sundry on basic issues that can benefit the larger society.

It is to steer that change that the Nigerian Association of Social Workers (NASOW), during their international conference held from August 20 to 22, 2014 in Lagos, implored everyone to imbibe family values in order to curb social vices.

The theme: “Understanding Social and Cultural Differences across borders” was quite interesting and suitable for the conference due to the events happening not only in Nigeria but in Africa and the world.

The NASOW National President, Mr. Olawale, Kolawole Nathaniel, in his welcome address, defined social work as a systematic way of helping individuals, families, groups and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being.

“As the country is bedevilled with so many vices such as terrorism, robbery, kidnapping, abduction, prostitution and so on, the panacea and antidote to these vices is for us to joined hands and curb the menace,” he said.

In his goodwill message, the President of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) Africa Region, Mr. Daniel Opare Asiedu, stated his optimism that the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) resulted in positive results in African continent, but noted that his optimism for the African Continent seem to be giving way to pessimism due to the recent happening such as the Boko Haram insurgency which he attributed to political marginalisation, exclusion, widening gap between the rich and the poor and lack of understanding of social, cultural and religious differences across borders.

 “Misunderstanding or refusing to understand social and cultural differences breeds bigotry more than not leads to conflicts as reprehensible as the one we have in Northern Nigeria now,” says Asiedu.

The IFSW Africa Region President, who was unavoidably absent in his message read by the National Programme Officer of NASOW, Mrs Yomi Adeosun, maintained that the recent kidnapping of more than 200 girls in Northern Nigeria is a case in point and added that the horrific act has been condemned by the Global International Federation of Social Workers in a statement issued by the past president, Dr. Gary Bailey.

He reiterated the call of the IFSW on the Nigerian and other governments on the continent to do more than they are doing now to bring back the Chibok girls to their families and also called on the Boko Haram to show mercy in the name Allah and release the innocent girls unharmed to their families.

Speaking further, he said the outbreak of deadly Ebola disease is another impediment to the achievement of the remaining MGDs in Africa and emphasised that social workers have a role to play in combating the spread of Ebola. He suggested dialogue instead of military solution in ending the insurgency.

There were a lot of highlights at the conference including panels of discussion that treated many issues including “Building Families for Socio-cultural Stability Beyond Traditional Family Value,” “Ethical and Religious issues in Client Care,” “Child Abuse, Human Trafficking; The New Monsters,” The Changing Face of Social Work and Social workers” and “Professionalism of Social Work in Nigeria.”

Mr. Odesanya Matthew, who moderated the discussion on “Building families for socio-cultural stability beyond traditional family value,” began by saying that what Nigeria is passing through is critical. He also mentioned terrorism, rape and so on as some of the social vices.

The discussants including the National Programme Officer of NASOW; Mrs. Yomi Adeosun, Medical Director, Medical Social Services, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH); Dr. Latinwo Laide and Assistant Director, Public Relations Officer, Ondo State NASOW; Emaye Adegoke, unanimously agreed that family values have been eroded.

But Mrs. Adeosun added that some of the things being experienced in the society today have always been there. “I grew up in Lagos and know a lot of things that have been happening there. For me, the horrific thing I want to point out is child abuse –fathers preferring to rape their children, people killing others for money, and so on. These are the issues.

“In the past, if a man is a thief, people would be avoiding him but the reverse is the case today,” Adeosun said.

She added that every Tom, Dick and Harry is now playing lotto (Baba Ijebu) which people secretly did in the past due to quest for money.

She frowned at the way people attach value to money not minding how people make it and called for reorientation and suggested that mothers have a vital role to play.

“In those days, if one’s daughter is pregnant out of wedlock, some of their neighbours would jokingly congratulate her mother to draw her attention to her daughter. In fact, being pregnant out of wedlock used to be a vice but not so now. She blamed the community for not playing their roles.

Interestingly, some of our men are becoming more irresponsible, even the church is not helping the matter for the family to be rooted. “During my son’s wedding, the pastor said we should leave them (the couple) alone because they’re a new family. This is wrong because everybody needs a mentor. The mother in-law system is becoming an extinct phenomenon. These days, some ladies pray for their mothers to die. All these vices should stop.”

Dr. Latinwo Laide corroborated Adeosun’s views by saying that family is beyond our immediate family and stressed that behaviours and culture are learnt. “We have religious and languages differences. It is a pity that mothers have left their roles as home makers and parents. These days, we have single parental system. Let us look at what we are doing for the society. We have learnt new culture from social media but I want us to know that traditional family setting and procreation are important,” she said.

Dr. Latinwo corrected the notion of women playing the roles of men and says, “we are help mates, not breadwinners.”

Mr. Emaye Adegoke blamed what he called ‘white’ education as part of the problems societies are bedevilled with. “We have left our culture due to white education.” He charged everyone to go back to their culture.

While contributing to the discussion, Mr. Olawale noted that women’s orientation has changed as some of them ask their daughters whether their suitors are rich or poor without caring to find out the source of their income.

The house decided to do more advocacy, counselling and reorientation to sensitise and enlighten people on the issues mentioned above. “Let young couples involve their parents in their lives. There used to be an organic family system where  family members come together but today, we have mechanical family system where some people choose to stay outside their family’s party or meeting. Old and new family system should be merged to reach a positive point because no culture is static,” they stated.