Lamentations From the Creek
By Bafuere Treasure Dio
Travails of the creek girl child refer to the pains, difficulties, and unfortunate circumstances surrounding the girl child dwelling in our creeks.
As the saying goes, “When you train up a girl child, you have succeeded in training a nation”. If only this saying is made manifest in our creeks, then topics like this won’t have seen the light of the day
I want to categorically point out here that living in the creek for our girls is entirely different when compared to their rivals in urban dwellings
The growing girl child in the creek is exposed to lots of societal forces beyond her comprehension that has brought more shame and regrets to our communities at large even though we decide to give it a deaf ear such critical issues need to be dealt with as a matter of urgency
.
How Gas Flaring Causes Respiratory, Environmental Hazard in Niger Delta
There are a lot of factors that deprived our female jewels of the opportunities to compete favorably with their peers in urban areas. One such factor is the absence/lack of access to basic education through elementary school in her domain.
Many communities in our creeks lack basic educational facilities, and the few who pride themself on having such are either not well equipped or are sited a distance away from nearby communities.
Access to such schools will require canoeing to and fro on a daily bases, which becomes a burden to her, so the male forks are allowed by their parents to sojourn on such journeys thereby leaving the girl child home to other basic house chores.
Another strong factor is the financial burden; most of the schools in our creeks that offer basic primary education are monetary induced. Don’t be fooled by the word ‘free education’ as stated by such government officials, most of their activities are monetized.
Due to financial responsibilities, many parents tend to forfeit the female education for the male child due to a paucity of funds.
The lack of interest in the girl child’s education by their ignorant parents in our creeks can also be linked to this popular saying “The girl will grow up, get married, and go to another family but the male remains home to continue the family name/legacy.
Our girls having been exposed to these harsh environmental/human conditions, induced by both our leaders and parents, are subjected by society they find themself falling prey easily to the antics of men who are taking advantage of these factors surrounding them.
This leads to early involvement in sexual relationships, the Creek girl child is often sexually abused by the opposite gender.
She has unlimited access to “penis” than the pen and paper which should have evolved her beyond her immediate environment like her peers in urban areas.
She is deprived of the basic amenities of life and also misinformed and lacks early sexual education which has led to shattered dreams.
Early access to sexual relationships is at its peak in our Creeks. It’s no longer a cultural shock among our creek dwellers when they see a girl between the ages of 12 to 17 years already put into motherhood by sexual predators.
It may surprise you to know that most of these girls already have not just multiple sexual partners but children birth by them to different male folks who aren’t even ready for the family way but jeopardizing the destinies and aspirations of our girls.
It is pathetic to know that our Creeks have the highest percentage of child/ teenage pregnancy, sexual abuse, and misconduct
I have always pointed out the excess availability of the uncontrolled “penis” than quality education in the life of a typical creek girl child.
Such a trend is extremely dangerous to our collective growth, and the silence of society over her ordeal has made us all accomplices in the crime being committed.
Teenage pregnancy has become a norm among our communities and the acceptance by most parents has indirectly given a nod to the girl child to continue in her act as she prides herself been put into motherhood at such an early age
This shows the failure on the part of our parents and our leaders at large
We all have a role to play that can curb these menace in the life of our daughters and sisters in the creek.
The government also has a role to play by making basic primary and secondary education available and accessible in every Creek community.
Proper orientation of the girl child on the importance of acquiring the basis of education which will inspire some of them to further their studies to higher levels in which one may become a woman to reckon with in the larger society.
I also implore the government to make primary and secondary education compulsory and free for the girl child in our creeks.
The family and parents have a great role to play here, I think parents most especially mothers should inculcate morals into their daughters, it baffles me the frequency and intensity with these creek teens involve themselves in sexual activities whilst their counterparts in urban areas are full of ambitions of becoming doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.
parents should take it upon themselves to teach the girl child how to abstain from premarital sex and they should watch closely their movements with the male counterpart.
They should also make it a form of duty to know the type of friends their daughters move with, because peer pressure is another dangerous factor luring the creek girl to early sexual relationships which leads to teenage pregnancy and premature motherhood, sometimes birthing bastards in cases of multiple sex partners were the partners denied their involvement with such girl.
Peer pressure has made so many teen girls become mothers overnight, peer pressure has led to the loss of many woman’s dignity at a very early age, parents should give their daughters maximum attention and caution them regularly when found going out with the wrong friends.
Discipline should be instilled into the girl child, as the saying goes “Spoil the rod and spare the child”. Likewise, when you spoil the child you spare the rod but according to the holy book it is profitable to spoil the rod and spare the child, also the bible still reminds us that the Way you train up a child it’s the way the child will go that even when they are grown they won’t depart easily from it.
Even though we have taken it as a norm, I also want to state here that early pregnancy, giving birth to children under their parent’s roof, and having kids with different male folks is never our culture and it should not be a way of life in the creek and such occurrences should be frowned at.
In the olden days, our mothers in the creeks were married gloriously by our fathers as the traditional rites were done before they moved into our father’s house
Then, the big question
Why have things changed, why are ladies not getting married like our mothers now?,
Why the sudden sexual excitement among teens in the creeks?
ATTENTION: Click “HERE” to join our WhatsApp group and receive News updates directly on your WhatsApp!
Why is this early pregnancy without proper traditional wedding rites being performed?
Why the sudden waywardness among our daughters?
So many factors have reduced the creek girl to this stage of a second-class option to men, and all these questions are to be answered by our parents.
Why didn’t they train us the same way our ancestors brought them up?
Why did they forget our pride and never inculcated this womanhood dignity into our subconscious?
Why did they grow cold in disciplining us?
Why are they accommodating the pregnant teen and child without even cautioning against it?
Why call the daughter’s boyfriend my in-laws when no marriage rite has been done?
This cold attitude of creek parents is the bedrock of this menace called child/ teenage pregnancy ravaging potential women’s destiny
A young lady has the right to turn down any unscrupulous approach coming from a man, why can’t our creek girls resist the advances of men?
Why must she get entangled with male folks to belong?
This is nothing but failed parenting and unenabling government policies in our creeks
Our parents never taught the girl child our culture, we were never schooled traditionally, and we didn’t know that we have a heritage.
Bringing forth babies in our father’s house isn’t our culture, teenage pregnancy isn’t our culture, we weren’t taught about our values, our origin wasn’t like this, they never told the girl child that virginity is a pride, she was never aware that losing it like losing a wrapper tied to the waist is lost of dignity.
She was never aware of the unwanted pregnancy and early motherhood consequences, in some cases, it never entered her subconscious mind that she will become a second option to Men, she never thought that settling down in marriage after kids with multiple partners is almost impossible now, and now she’s in the streets playing the game hard, survival of the fittest so goes the saying.
She’s in it now, sometimes broken, shattered, frustrated most times depressed, dejected, and rejected by society, same men who put her in the street aren’t ready to wife her, the reality is dawning on her now, but it’s too late they say when the head is off, some head’s are already off with no bearings I believe we can take drastic measures to save some heads from being off in this case
Our Parents should wake up from slumber, our creek mothers to wake up to motherhood, wake up and teach our girls, wake up to discipline, wake up and be vigilant towards our girls, wake up to the proper responsibility of parenthood, it’s a call to revive the dignity and pride of womanhood in the creek.
I am Bafuere Treasure Dio, let the fluid of my pen never run dry.
