Of Doggies’ Girl Friend’s Rantings And Moral Values -By Isaac Asabor

As a typical Nigerian youth that was well brought up by his or her parents, after being spanked for committing an offense, the next action expected from him or her is to learn from the mistakes that were inherent in the transgression, and the next action would be to apologize to everyone that found the transgression to be offensive, particularly to those that were highly disappointed in him or her for being part of the ignoble activity. As a parent, permit me to ask, “How can a child learn from the mistakes that are inherent in a committed transgression?” In a similar vein, “When a youth is caught red handed transgressing, what is such youth expected to do as a way of not allowing his or her image to be dented?”

Against the backdrop of the foregoing salient questions, it will be explanatory enough to read about a lady, simply identified as Veegodess, who few days ago took to Tiktok to claim that she had sex with a dog for N1.7 million. Rather than feel bad or become remorseful for what many have dubbed to be a taboo, particularly within the context of African culture and tradition, she unashamedly went ahead to her critics by asking them, “What is the big deal there? I only slept with a dog, I didn’t kill somebody.

You, in your life, you have done worse and besides, have you seen N1.7million before?

“As if it’s a big deal. And mind you I’m not infected or anything. Stop dying on the matter, I’m enjoying the money,” she stated”.

There is no denying the fact that anyone that unemotionally critique her response to the backlashes that trailed her sexcapade will agree with this writer that she is a victim of circumstance as she was raised and brought up in an environment where people have completely lost their collective sense of moral and values. For the sake of clarity, moral sense refers first and foremost to people’s predisposition to evaluate some actions as virtuous, or morally good, and others as evil, or morally bad. Morality, thus, consists of the urge or predisposition to judge human actions as either right or wrong in terms of their consequences for other human beings.

In fact, it is very obvious that the video she did, and which virally trended; ostensibly to launder her image, exposed her the more as a “bad girl”. This is because no parent will be delighted to see her daughter respond to such a moral issue the way she did. Without resort to insult, no parent would want to take credit for raising such a child as far as good manner is involved. One cannot stop mentioning her parents, and by extension other parents in this context. In fact, it tantamount to weakness of the highest order for any parent to watch her video without responding through any available communication channel; even if it is through gossip communication channel. She deserves it! It is a tragedy and reprehensible for anyone to see such an uncouth youth ranting without being compelled to splash mud on her as a way of deliberately making her to feel ashamed so as to become a good citizen.

Also, it suffices to say that with her shameful conduct that her parents cannot escape blame; after all, they are supposed to mold her character from the beginning.

With her resort to falling in love with dogs to the extent of allowing those smelling dogs to sleep with her, and perhaps deeply kiss her, it is obvious that parents, and other custodians of moral values in our society have failed woefully. Without resort to exaggeration, it is obvious that the digital lifestyle has affected almost every aspect of our lives, and that includes parenting.

Gone are the days when children were disciplined for any wrongdoings. Instead, the parenting focus in the past few years has shifted to child-centered rearing methods. As a result, children nowadays are often let off the hook and are rarely held accountable for their actions.

Given the fact that the worrisome situation is also paving the way for criminals that cut across armed robbers, kidnappers, ritual killers and doggy lovers such as this, it is high time the society refrain from putting the blame on overworked parents who are too tired to teach moral values to their kids personally. Instead, children learn about right and wrong from TV shows and online videos. And more often than not, those videos are inappropriate for their age. Nor do they teach a moral lesson.

This underlines that now, more than ever before, our children need guidance. There is just too much distraction around them that can lead them astray. Remember that kids are like sponges. They absorb everything they see or hear. And it falls on us, adults, to steer them to the right path.

It is our responsibility to provide moral education to our children as early as possible. They look up to us as role models. If we want them to grow up to be productive members of society, we must teach them how.