INSECURITY : WHAT MOTHERS SHOULD BE DOING - OSAGIEDE

In this chat she bares her mind on the way forward for the socio-political development of the country. Excerpts:

HOW, in your opinion can the diverse ethnic groups in the country relate as one indivisible entity?

*Osagiede: Women should b alert now
I believe that if we have a change of mindset and come out of selfishness, the country will begin to make progress.  The mind of God will be pivotal to proffering solution to this kind of challenges we are talking about. We can approach this through maternal affection. The strength of women in the new Nigeria is maternal affection. Motherhood is so caring and because of maternal affection, a mother in a home, starting from her compound, can affect her husband, son and daughter.

That maternal affection enables you to want the best for the household, you want the best, so you care. You see a husband who gets a political appointment, instead of serving the nation, he is busy amassing wealth.

Your son doesn't sleep at home for one week and you know he is a nuisance to the neighbourhood, he comes home with a brand new car and he is not labouring for it and nobody asks questions. Your daughters cannot be on the road hanging around with men, prostituting. Your children cannot be out there involved with gangsters and you won't cry out for help.

I believe that care and concern are the reason  WINN has joined hands with government to fight the  battle for a new nation and fight corruption. No more ovations and pouring of encomiums on people that amass wealth through public office that is not supposed to be.

You see someone on public assignment for three months becomes something else and WINN is saying no, this cannot be, because it is taxpayers' money that is being stolen. People should go to public office to service the nation.  Therefore, our focus is more on our people, it is more on our nation; we need to think less of ourselves as individuals, everybody needs to remember their neighbourhood, be your neighbour's keeper and think about Nigerians like you do to yourself.

We are so blessed in this nation, so endowed by the almighty with resources, our nation is not supposed to be in squalor like this. The disparity between the rich and the poor is so alarmingly great that it is a cause of so much disaffection. When you see Nigerians begging on the streets, you see people not able to eat a meal a day, why? It is not supposed to be so. These are the things that the almighty God is out to change and we should all be in agreement to win this war.

We should not be self-centred; I don't think it is right for you and your family to amass the wealth of the nation and nothing for your neighbour, which I believe is the reason we have so much unrest and insecurity. People are afraid to move around because disparity is too great.

How can Nigerian women bring peace within the family and the society?

I expect women in Nigeria this time around to be more alert on our family unit, find out about our children and ensure that every child that you have is not out of order. Make sure that our children are under proper guidance and care because it is our children that constitute those we term as robbers, kidnappers and the suicide bombers.

I can assure that whether a Christian or Muslim woman, you don't need to sit down there and see your child indoctrinated and become enemy of the nation and a clog in the way of progress. We should enlighten our young ones, starting from the home, we have young people that we cannot lay our hands on and we don't know where they are, and don't know who they move around with.We should be conscious of that as mothers and that is the beginning of the healing therapy, house to house and compound to compound and we ensure that our children are under instructions.

What do you  say of those who take the laws into their hands in the guise of fighting a just cause such as Boko Haram?

To me, violence is never the solution. All unrighteous behaviour is completely outside progress and nothing good can come out of it. I believe we are a people that can communicate, sit down on round table to discuss, air your views and I can assure you that we have a society that has a listening ears. We have never been a people that would take laws into our hands.

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