The National President of Ilorin Emirate Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), Alhaji Aliyu Uthman, has advocated for the revival of the old extended family practice in Nigeria.
Uthman gave the advice yesterday in Ilorin during the 13th Annual Ramadan Lecture organised by the Accountant of the Faculty of Communication and Information Sciences, University of Ilorin, Mr Lukman Mukhtar.
He said the abandonment of the old extended family practice for the nuclear family system of nowadays as imbibed from the West, led to the growth in the number of untrained and unskilled people.
According to him, these people have now constituted themselves as security risks to their communities and the entire nation.
He urged the people of Ilorin and other communities to consider a return to the kind of communal life lived by their forebears who were always conscious of the interests of those who were less privileged around them, to ensure that everybody grew up together.
The IEDPU president recalled that in those days, it was difficult to identify children who were cousins.
He said men and women of those days regarded children, regardless of who gave birth to them, as theirs and they watched over them through the offer of consistent quality assistance in raising such children to maturity.
“It will be very rare for someone who was raised by a father or another family other than his own to act negatively to such a benefactor,” he said.
Uthman also advised Muslims to live their lives for others, saying that it is only those who do so that can be said to have truly lived.
Mallam Yusuf Olaolu-Ali (SAN) reminded children to always remember and celebrate their parents whether they are alive or not.
He likened the celebration of parents by children to sowing seeds of happiness, which would sooner or later blossom for those who sowed to reap.
Leave a Reply