Father’s Day: Oku Ibom Ibibio Urges Fathers To Superintend Over Children With Fear Of God

Oku Ibom Ibibio and Chairman, Akwa Ibom State Council of Chiefs, His Eminence, Nteyin (Dr) Solomon Daniel Etuk has admonished fathers to always ensure that they perform their responsibilities in order to groom their children with the fear of God.

Speaking in an interview on the significance of the celebration of Father’s Day on Sunday, the eminent traditional, who is also the patriarch of Ibibios and President-General of the Supreme Council of Ibibio Traditional Rulers, said a father as the head of the family, has enormous responsibility of leading and grooming the children with acceptable lifestyle.

Dr Etuk, paramount ruler of Nsit Ubium Local Government Area, said every father is a “teacher, a preacher, a moralist, who must live by example for the child or children to emulate.”

Quoting the scriptures he said, “Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.” – Proverbs 22: 6.

“A father has enormous obligations. He must live a life that inspires his child or children. He must exude a disciplined lifestyle that has to earn him respect in his place of habitation; the neighbourhood, the society and the world at large.

“When a father is truthful in his ways and dealings, his child or children will emulate him. The wife will respect him. He will be reverenced in the society too. The celebration of Father’s Day, apart from being set aside to honour fathers for their sacrifice in raising children, is also to remind them to keep renewing how best to carry out their sacred responsibilities,” the royal father stated.

Further expounding on a father’s obligations, the eminent royal father noted that “Any person can father a child, but being a ‘father’ takes a lifetime. They play a role in each child’s life that cannot be done by others. Such role can have a large influence on a child and help shape him or her into the person they later become.”

According to him, “fathers, like mothers, are pillars in the development of a child’s emotional well-being. Children look up to their fathers to lay down the rules and enforce them. They also look up to their fathers to provide a feeling of security, both physical and emotional. Children want to make their fathers proud, and when a father is involved in their activities, it promotes inner growth and strength for the child or children.”

Oku Ibom Ibibio further noted that the patterns a father sets in the relationships with his child or children will dictate how his child or children will relate with other people. “A father is the springboard of the child or children and nothing should be left to chance by a father when grooming a child or children.

He lamented that decadence amongst youths today are largely due to failures on the part of their fathers to superintend on their wards effectively. He also said that peer influence account for untoward behaviours and called for concerted efforts to remedy youth delinquencies in the society.