Every now and then, we receive reports of young girls burying their newly-born babies. Why does a mother have to bury her own baby alive? Why are some of us so cowardly and callous? Why do we fear to take responsibility for our own actions?
The shocking stories that we read in our newspapers or hear on our radio stations about young girls burying their babies alive is, indeed, a reminder of the moral decadence that is fast threatening our society.
In their inexperience, most of these young and poor girls had thought that by getting rid of the baby they would have been free of the stigma of having a child outside wedlock.
But most of them face an even worse fate when they are caught by the law.
There are so many of them in our society, who out of indiscretion and youthful exuberance, lose self-control and get themselves in the family way.
Though society frowns on it, they don’t have to add insult to injury by committing murder.
And society doesn’t have to be too hard on them, too.
Yet, it is the fear of being rejected by society that drives most of these girls into committing heinous acts such as killing the babies they consider as illegitimate.
Children can never ever choose their parents or decide how they come into the world.
Most of these girls should be encouraged to rebuild their lives so that they don’t become liabilities on society. They can either go back to school to continue their education or go to vocational centres to acquire skills.
In this way, they can become empowered enough to take care of themselves and their children. There is no one who has done something they wish they had never done before.
This then takes us to the issue of poverty. With the deepening poverty in our society, it looks as if most parents are beginning to let their children go wild, to fend for themselves, whichever way they can.
When somebody is poor, their morals often become very low, willing to give in to anything just to meet the basic needs of life.
Government, therefore, has to intensify its poverty alleviation programmes; just as our gender activists have to drum into the girl-child’s ears that their education should take precedence over self-indulgence.
“We must not inflict life on children who will be resented; we must not inflict unwanted children on society.”
Anne Lamott