A Group, Nigerians In Diaspora Organisation (NIDO) in the United Kingdom has lamented that bad parenting pushed some Nigerian youths to prisons in the UK.

This was just as the Organisation revealed that Nigerians in the United Kingdom are more than 5 million in population.

The Chairman of the Group, Mr. Niyi Zaccheus made this known to Tribune Online via a telephone call yesterday.

Mr. Niyi explained that most parents come to the country with a money-making mindset at the detriment of their children’s upbringing.

The Chairman urged them to disabuse that mindset because the children would find the alternative they are supposed to provide elsewhere.

He described the current situation in the country as reversed parenting where parents become children while the children become parents.

Zaccheus, therefore, revealed that the Organisation established a Special Duties Committee made up of professionals from different walks of life going into Prisons. “We have a lot of Nigerian Youths that have gone there because of mental illnesses, drugs and so on and so forth. We want to go in there and change their perspective for them”.

“Unfortunately, why are they in prison? Mostly parenting. All because most parents that come to this country have the mindset of making money and forget the children.

“It does not work like that because if you don’t provide alternatives for the children they would look for one themselves.

“Some parents also need parenting. What we found out is that the parents have become the children while the children have become the parents. And it is so painful.

“We have a Special Duties Committee. We have finetuned it with Immigration and UK Visa Department and Home Affairs so that we can unfettered access to the young ones in the prisons when we visit.

“Psychologists amongst us will be helping in that committee. The Membership now is over 300 and we are still getting more as we are looking at up to a thousand before the end of the year.

“As it is now, Nigerians in the United Kingdom should not be less than 5 million. We are everywhere just name it- NHS etc. We are very industrious people. We occupy juicy positions in the United Kingdom,” he said.

The Chairman advised Nigerians leaving Nigeria to rethink, sounding warnings to parents who, according to him, think it is pension guaranteed when their child travels to the United Kingdom.

Mr Zaccheus admonished the Federal Government to renew the hope of Nigerians by providing the necessary infrastructural facilities for them to live like their counterparts abroad.

“We need to rethink this ‘Japa’ thing. Some parents think it is pension guaranteed when their child goes to the UK. No. It does not work that way. Your child coming in here does not mean your child will do well. There are some children who cannot thrive with no supervision in their life. That is why some of them start selling drugs and getting themselves indulged in social vices.” He said.

“The Government has to give us hope. From what we can see now, there is no hope. In fact, many Nigerians are hopeless now.

“So, the government has to wake up and give us people-friendly policies that would make us look at the future. Nigerians should at least have an idea of when this is going to end,” he said. (Saturday Tribune)

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