Children, Train Your Parents Well

For generations, societies across Africa have upheld the timeless principle: “Parents, train your children well.” The statement reflects the belief that moral discipline, civic responsibility, integrity, and social values are passed from one generation to another through parental guidance and example.

However, contemporary Nigeria increasingly presents a troubling reversal of this traditional expectation. In today’s political climate, many young Nigerians are confronted with an uncomfortable reality: some parents who once preached honesty, hard work, accountability, and dignity now openly defend political dysfunction, celebrate mediocrity, excuse corruption, and support administrations whose policies continue to deepen economic hardship and social instability.

This contradiction raises a profound question: Who now trains whom? Perhaps the time has come for a new civic conversation; one where children, respectfully but firmly, begin to remind their parents of the values they themselves once taught.

Nigeria’s political culture has long suffered from weak institutions, patronage politics, ethnic loyalty, and the normalisation of poor governance. Yet, the current political atmosphere has exposed an even deeper societal challenge: the erosion of collective moral standards.

Under the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, debates around governance have become deeply polarised. While supporters argue that difficult reforms are necessary for long-term economic restructuring, critics point to rising inflation, worsening poverty, declining purchasing power, insecurity, and policy inconsistency as evidence of administrative failure and insufficient strategic direction.

What is particularly disturbing to many young Nigerians is not merely governmental shortcomings, but the willingness of some older citizens to defend dysfunction at all costs often along ethnic, partisan, or patronage lines.

Parents who once condemned dishonesty now rationalise corruption when committed by politicians they support. Citizens who once demanded accountability now attack those asking legitimate questions about governance. The same elders who advised younger generations to reject mediocrity now celebrate incompetence when politically convenient. This contradiction has created a growing moral and generational tension within Nigerian society. 

Historically, African societies positioned elders as custodians of wisdom, ethics, and communal responsibility. Respect for elders remains an important cultural principle and should not be abandoned. However, respect does not require silence in the face of moral inconsistency.

Increasingly, Nigerian youths are becoming the moral conscience of the nation. Through civic activism, social commentary, policy engagement, and democratic participation, many young people are questioning systems that previous generations tolerated, enabled, or normalised. This does not mean the younger generation is morally perfect. Far from it. But it does suggest that many youths are no longer willing to inherit silence, fear, tribalism, and political submission as permanent national values.

In this sense, children are increasingly being forced into an unexpected role of reminding their parents of those forgotten principles. To say “children should train their parents” does not mean promoting arrogance, disrespect, or cultural breakdown, nor insult to elders. It is a warning about societal decline and a call for moral reflection.

Nigeria has reached a point where many young people feel compelled to remind older generations of the principles they once preached: honesty, responsibility, justice, discipline, and courage. A nation cannot progress when truth becomes negotiable, and accountability becomes selective.

If the older generation has forgotten some of these values in the heat of political loyalty, then perhaps the younger generation must respectfully help remind them not out of rebellion, but out of concern for the future of the country all generations share. Ultimately, nations collapse not only from bad leadership, but from citizens who stop demanding better.

Share!

 Likes 0