Adjei Frederick is known by many people as SIR FRED in the youth advocacy and leadership space, he has been an instrumental and catalyst in Ghana, Africa and world Youth advocacy for a while. Many African Youth look up to him to become iconic in the coming days looking at his boldness on opinions in decision making especially youth related issues.
He has just come out with another piece to express how parenting in Africa is causing a downfall for many children.
Life in Africa seem to be extremely different from that of the western world, success in Africa is nearly by chance, right from birth.
In Africa the chances that a child born from a rich home will grow up to be rich is higher than a child born in a poor home because financial success is not by accident but by deliberate stepwise actions. Without a proper setup, success is uncertain.
African parents are difficult, they project their inabilities on their children as failures, and they put responsibilities on deities and chances instead of themselves, so they usually do not get the best results from parenting.
To the African parent, paying school fees is the best they can do for their child, the rest of the responsibility of setting up the child to be established is the responsibility of God.
So they usually die with a stack of cash in the bank that never gets recovered and host of properties that will never be direct use to their child and even themselves, and children walking around with half-potentials.
The potentials of their children is not on the priority list as much as the societal outlook of their status and properties.
In Africa once you lose parental care there is nothing like family or relatives, we have lost many young people to drug abuse, armed robbery, prostitution and other abysmal acts just because their parents failed to push for their potentials, yet they have rich relatives living a luxurious lifestyle for a fake cherish.
It’s only in Africa; that parents send their children abroad to school and encourage them no to come back because in their minds; abroad is a magic wand that solves all financial problems, only a few African parents know how to set up their children for financial success. Elsewhere, parents take different approach. They understand that education is just one of the tools required to set up a child and paying school fees isn’t the best they can offer. They take extra steps to ensure that their children are on top of the food child.
I was surprised to note that, paying of school fees isn’t even considered as a responsibility in most of the Arab countries and in their societies, having an education is just the beginning of the setting up process. Their parental responsibility starts from handing down a business and good credit, yet in my country young persons are left in the streets to hustle hard and dirty themselves just to praise their formulation quotes; the Akan will say “obra ne w’ara bo”.
In Ghana, people even complete school and remain on campus because they do not have anywhere to go, and in the minds of their parents, their parental job is complete. But they have relatives that has properties and connections that they can use to properly set up a child, but they wouldn’t; God will do it. They would rather want society to praise them for “wo abo bra” than fully developing the potential of their young relatives. So it isn’t surprising many graduates are now fraudsters, arm robbers, prostitutes and smokers.
Sometimes, I’m tempted to believe that there is something wrong with minds of Africans. Because it is only in Africa that parent’s punishment of their child will eventually destroy the child than make them better. Elsewhere, parents punish their children by giving them better opportunities that will contribute to their overall success in life than destruction.Our schools are even more like slave camps.
Satan hasn’t done anything; we are the cause of our own iniquities.
The time for a mind shift is now!
“if we don’t create a society of quality individuals today then our thoughts of a paradigm shift should be at last.”
I mean no harm, I write create awareness, suggest and inspire.
ADJEI FREDERICK (SIR FRED)
UNYA-GHANA YOUTH MP, IGYN YOUTH AMBASSADOR, GHANA.
+233540405880
adjeigyasifredrick@gmail.com