Voilence and child abuse: Society’s shame

Last week was full of harrowing stories about the unfortunate ordeal innocent children have suffered in a society which prides itself as upholding Godly values – Christian and Islam.

Babies abandoned on garbage dumps or other unseemly ambiences incompatible with civilised societies should prick our consciences by all means. As for the lady who poisoned her two kids, it is another kettle of fish which suggests that our systems need overhauling to obviate what befell the innocent children. Seeing the remains of those children lying there lifeless was heartbreaking, especially when that could have been avoided.

The economic hardship notwithstanding, there is no reason whatsoever for parents to abandon their children.

We need to reverse this dangerous trend lest we attract the wrath of the Creator.

We call on all well-meaning members of society to join hands with churches and mosques to find a lasting solution to the tendency of distressed parents responding rather crudely to the travails of our country today.

Much as we appreciate the challenges families are facing today, abandoning babies and others to their fate the way it is being recorded today is unjustifiable.

The father who has turned himself in after his kids were abandoned by their mother, it is our belief, will provide important insight into what informed the separation and the eventual sordid development.

For policymakers at the helm, these are critical wakeup signs for them to reposition themselves for the task of delivering good governance.

Every good government must provide the necessary milieu that can allow for the private sector to grow and provide employment and other factors that keep the population working.

In most cases of child abandonment, economic hardships have been mentioned as reasons behind the action for which society and government must bow their heads in shame.

We are appalled also that a woman with a record of mental challenge would be allowed to maintain two kids. Although we are told that the father of the kids sought to have them given to him, same was disallowed by a court of competent jurisdiction.

It is our position, we stand to be corrected, that the court might have not been given the necessary details such as her mental state. Had this been at the disposal of the judge at the time of proceedings, it is our belief that he would have ordered that the kids be taken away to the Department of Social Welfare or a safe place.

It is unfortunate that the children died the way they did. This, alongside the rising incidence of child abandonment, gives our society a negative picture which we must work hard to reverse – from government to opinion leaders and the clergy (Christian and Islam).