The issue of broken homes is a complex social problem and it affects every member of the family especially the children. Experts believe that in the event of power imbalance between couples, a child who is usually at the point of dependence has little or no power. Rather he or she is always exposed to varying degree of emotional and material denial.
Consequently there is increasing understanding that child vulnerability to negative vices may be influenced by factors such as dislocation, separation, divorce, poverty and social isolation (Haralambos and Holborn, 2004).
In recent times, disagreements and conflicts have threatened the stability of many families. Such disagreements and conflict could either be between mother and father, mother or father and in-law, or stepmother and child. In addition to this, the global economic depression compelled many couples to engage themselves in other financial activities to support the family income. They embark on activities such as long distance trading, accepting time consuming jobs and job transfers that can separate them from their children for a very long period of time.
Today, most parent work where their children cannot see them easily, and in the absence of proper parental supervision especially at the early formative stages, quite a number of anti social behaviors could be expected that may degenerate into criminality.
In Nigeria, some children are suffering because of broken homes. However, teenagers of primary and secondary school ages suffer the most. This is largely because of their inability to fend for themselves. It is common to see some of them hawking in the streets, begging on the road, searching for scraps on refuse heaps scavenging for food in restaurant and so on. Others embark on hectic jobs like pushing of wheel barrows, clearing of household refuse among others. They engage in these activities when they should be in school.
In addition, some of them often engage in delinquent behaviors such as crime, fighting, arson, vandalism, truancy among others. Some indulge in drugs as a sort of defeatist response to the challenges of daily legitimate living. There are measures that have been taken to curtail these. These include financial support from significant others to the affected children, child welfare system and foster care, government contributions, remarriage among female parents to strengthen financial stand, contributions of the World Health Organization (WHO), for helpless children, and the rights given to the mother and child to sue the father to court pending proper funding for the child and so on.
Most of these measures have not proven positive effects and leaves the children with dashed hopes as we still find helpless children everywhere and every time. This is because often times, contributions from significant others are usually not enough to take care of the child, contributions by the government and World Health Organizations, are usually hijacked by the agents of its dispersion, and most stepfathers are ignorant of the conditions of their stepchildren as they do not flow from their blood.
The measures that have proven more effective than the former are the contributions of the child welfare systems and the actions of the court to make the father assume full and standard responsibility economically and socially.
The family is the oldest institution in human history and remains the most irreducible nucleus of all known societies. It is established by the institution of marriage. It ensures the reproduction of the human species and confers exclusive conjugal rights on couples.
The family usually begins with marriage. The essence of marriage which is meant to be a life-long contract for better worse have been adequately followed by the primitive and traditional societies. At that time there was no need for marital breakdown as both spouses tends to be functionally reliant on each other on the basis of family as a production unit.
Shuaibu Lawan writes from Kano. He could be reached at [email protected] or 08037340560 (Text Only)
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflects WikkiTimes’
