ZUL-QA’ADAH 23 1430 A.H.
WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER . 11 2009.
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Nigerians abroad embrace extended family system
Some Nigerians resident in UK, yesterday in London said the extended family system practiced in Africa should be sustained.
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) some of them explained that the system helped to sustain love and care for both the young and old in the family.
Mrs Idowu Aliero, a midwife based in London, said the system witnessed in UK was too harsh for the elderly especially when they are old.
``Most of them are too old and their children care less about them. In Africa and in Nigeria we are trained by our parents so that later we take care of them.
``With what I witnessed here, though the system cares for the old but as an old woman, I will die more happy when all my children are around me caring for me,’’ she said.
According to her, it is only within the practice the extended family system that this is possible.
She said that though the extended family system could be stressful but its values could not be over emphasised.
``Life will always be boring when it is just with a minimal number of people’’ she added.
Also contributing, Mr James Kayode, Representative Care for the old Foundation London, an NGO, said government should ensure that the extended family system should not be abolished.
`` You know we are very good in copying other people, but from experience over here, the young people care less about the old.
``You see an aged man still going to do things for himself and a lot of them die out of depression in the old people’s home.
``If they have the kind of practice we have in Nigeria and also in Africa, some of them will live longer, yesterday, an ambulance came to carry the corpse of an old man next door to us . I am sure he died out of loneliness.
``Weather it is nuclear or extended family system, I know that a child with good parental upbringing will not forget his parents when they are old.
``We parents have that role to play for our children to be responsible,'' she said.
