Culture in Conflict With Childhood Training and Religious Leadership in Nigeria

Abstract

It is becoming generally accepted that child development is culturally constructed. Cultural values and attitudes regulate child rearing values, developmental expectations, and emotional orientations. Employing descriptive methods in studying this problem, the chapter observes that leadership style in many societies have been plagued with greed, violence, indiscipline, and corruption. This study places blame on poor home foundation as it reasons with the Hebrew sage that nothing serious can be built on a faulty foundation (Ps. 11:3). Consequent upon this, the study upholds that if children who are Nigeria's future leaders are groomed in families that have religion and morality as the bedrock of their education, then God fearing leaders would be produced. To achieve this, the chapter further suggests that adapting and combining lessons from traditional African families and those of ancient Israel in the home training of Nigerian children would result in producing leaders like the biblical Daniel who remained incorruptible even in the face of serious challenges.