BN Hot Topic: Is It a Good Idea to Send Your ‘Wayward’ Children Back to Nigeria to Discipline Them?

We’ve all heard the story before; we know at least one example. It often starts with a “wayward” child, one who has become too difficult to discipline.

The parents are tired. They’re at their wits end, out of ideas. Then it comes to them: “Let’s send our child back home. Let them teach her/him how to behave.”

I think Anthony Joshua had this same thing happen to him, his parents sending him over to Nigeria because he was just too much to handle in the UK.

There is a concern that being abroad softens children and that the environment in the West makes it impossible to raise well rounded, respectful children. As such, parents decide to ship their recalcitrant children ‘back home’. Stories abound of how children are told that they’re going to Nigeria for vacation and their passports are taken from them, to prevent them from leaving the country. Sometimes these children are shipped off to the village, to ‘correct’ whatever dysfunctions their parents spot. Whether the parents consider the propriety of where their children are being shipped to, varies from circumstance to circumstance.

Some believe in the procedure’s magic. They say it does instil discipline; you know to beat your kids over there is wahala, over here it’s free for all. But is abuse really discipline?

Others say it is not a good idea, that it makes those kids, children born abroad, to see Nigeria as a sort of punishment and not “home.” But is it really bad to have children experience their parents’ culture while still young?

This situation is not limited to people living abroad; we also see situations where parents in the village send their children to a relative in the big city, to help them become more disciplined. Children from single parent homes are often shipped off to relatives in other cities to help them get back on the path of straight and narrow.

What do you think? Should we keep sending “wayward” children back “home”? But is this really the solution? If you’re unable to train your child, why do you think someone else should become responsible for that child’s upbringing? Is ‘back home’ really the nirvana we imagine it is? Does ‘back home’ really possess the secret to upholding good morals and ethics?  Should we continue to send children back home? Or should we learn new ways to discipline our children while they live with us.

Let’s talk about it