The President of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Eric Omare, has urged parents to invest in the moral foundation of their children.
He said this would in future make it easy for them to build and sustain peaceful coexistence and development in the Niger delta region and other parts of Nigeria.
The IYC president spoke at the weekend at the wedding of Mr Bassey James Akpan and his wife, Mrs Ebimo Bebenimibo-Akpan at Effurun in Delta State.
Omare noted that serious work on home training for children would reduce, to a very considerable extent, the restiveness in the region.
He said parents are those saddled with the primary responsibility of building a peaceful society because the family, which they lead, is the smallest unit of the society.
According to him, it is the quality that the family pushes out that would eventually determine what the overall conduct in the society looks like.
Omare said: “My message to both of you is to ensure that your contribution to society is quality. When God starts blessing you with children, it is your primary duty, as parents, to bring up responsible citizens. This is what all parents owe the society.
“If all parents in all families observe and stay true to this divine assignment, we will have less of restive youths and, in effect, have a peaceful and progressive Niger Delta.
“This is the same message to all parents in the Niger Delta region as well as across Nigeria: fulfil your God-ordained duty of raising responsible children so that society can be peaceful and progressive.”
At the wedding, which held at the Word of Salvation Bible Life Ministry, off Jakpa Road at Effurun, dignitaries from the Ijaw were on hand to honour the couple.
The guests were the Chairman of Tarakiri Cluster, Prince Jude Ebibokefie; the Commissioner representing the Ijaw ethnic nationality on the board of Delta State Oil Producing Area Development Commission (DESOPADEC), Chief Favour Izoukumor, among others.
