A retired soldier once stormed into my office, demanding that we kill his son, a university student arrested for cultism. His rage was volcanic.<\/p>\n
But the next day, he returned with food, asking after his son. When I joked, \u201cSo you don\u2019t want us to kill him again?\u201d his eyes revealed the truth: anger is often the flipside of helpless love.<\/p>\n
Years later, I met his son again\u2014now educated, married, and changed. Not because he was jailed, but because his father eventually chose support over abandonment.<\/p>\n
Many parents bring their children to us, demanding we \u201cdiscipline\u201d them: \u201cDetain him.\u201d \u201cTorture him.\u201d<\/p>\n
As if punishment alone can fix a broken path.<\/p>\n
One father even begged us to keep his drug-addicted son in custody for weeks. But cells are not rehabilitation centres. If something went wrong, who would he blame? The police.<\/p>\n
The issue isn\u2019t a lack of discipline\u2014it\u2019s a lack of presence. Parents now hand their duties to teachers, police, and social workers, but no institution can replace a parent\u2019s guidance.<\/p>\n
If your child commits a crime, come to us\u2014we will help. But don\u2019t surrender your role as a parent.<\/p>\n
We enforce laws, but we cannot replace love.<\/p>\n
We investigate crimes, but we cannot teach values.<\/p>\n
The police cannot replace your voice.<\/p>\n
Our cells are not classrooms; handcuffs are not parenting tools.<\/p>\n
Our parents weren\u2019t perfect, but they owned their role as first teachers.<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s parents must do the same\u2014not with harshness, but with wisdom and love.<\/p>\n
Be present. Listen. Correct. Love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A retired soldier once stormed into my office, demanding that we kill his son, a university student arrested for cultism. His rage was volcanic. But the next day, he returned with food, asking after his son. When I joked, \u201cSo you don\u2019t want us to kill him again?\u201d his eyes revealed the truth: anger is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":63223,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1689],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-63222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63222"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63222\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63224,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63222\/revisions\/63224"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}