A cleric, Pastor Chris Nmaezi, on Sunday, urged fathers to ensure they bring up their children in the fear of God.
Nmaezi, who is the General Overseer of The Spoken Word Evangelical Ministry, Ojo, Lagos, stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
According to the cleric, when fathers live up to their responsibilities in the family, they will help in checking the deviant behaviours rearing their ugly heads among youths in the society.
Nmaezi, who is also a youth counselor, spoke with NAN as part of activities marking this year’s Father’s Day.
He said that the bible apportioned significant roles to fathers in the character-moulding of the children.
Father’s Day is celebrated globally on the third Sunday of June of every year to recognise the contributions made by fathers to the lives of their children.
The pastor, who frowned at the alarming rate of rape in the society, charged parents, especially fathers, to be responsible and responsive to their children in order to deter them from cultivating bad attitudes.
According to him, the man is the head of the family everyone looks up to for direction, stressing that when the leadership role is lacking, the family will be in disarray and the children will derail from what is expected of them.
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“The father-figure in the family remains sacrosanct, hence the global recognition every year. What that tells us is that despite our shortcomings as fathers, the leadership role cannot be performed by any other person.
“The characters that indulge in rape are from homes. It is the obligation of the father to educate his male child from the cradle that society detests such act.
“He should also back it up with teachings in the scriptures and cap it with the conventional punishments that await anyone involved in such act.
“The father-figure is that person the child fears at the point of committing a vice.
“Such a child will remember that the father will not like such act and may likely withdraw from it as mark of respect to the father,” he said.
The cleric, who prayed for God’s guidance on the fathers to enable them manage their homes well, urged mothers not to expose their female children to places where they could be raped.
Nmaezi said that parents should be the best friends of their children, especially the girl-child, so that they would be free to confide in them at all times.
He added that through such relationship, the children would make information about their relationship with peers and strangers known to their parents.
The cleric called on government at all levels to strengthen the laws and ensure that rape offenders did not go unpunished in order to serve as deterrent to others.
