By Victor Ochieng’
vochieng.90@gmailcom
In the recent past, there was this hot debate about homo sexual behaviour encroaching into secondary schools. One of the head honchos at the Ministry of Education (MoE) came up with a knee-jerk reaction towards this wide-spread menace. His new-fangled idea was that students in boarding schools, who are homosexuals, should be transferred to day schools. When I heard about it, like the dead in the gourmand graves, I cringed curiously, because one of the causes of aberrant sexual behaviour is general-permissiveness in the society. For instead of condemning the act, we want to tolerate it in some sense.
Just to be blunt about it. There is no way we can save students steeped in perverse sexual behaviour by transferring them to other institutions. The time has come for schools, families and various places of gathering to put puissance on Sex Education. We cannot continue to bury our heads in the sand like ostriches. This taboo topic of sex controls every ambit of the society to such a great extent. Rev. Dr. Gyang Pam, the author of Sexual Perversion: An Evangelical Appraisal writes: There are three things that permeate, direct, dictate and dominate, control, influence, our society – power, money and sex.
Back to the point of general-permissiveness, which I believe contributes immensely to chaste children mutating to homosexuals, there is this erroneous discussion about sexual-orientation quite preponderant among some prominent pundits of Psychology and Sociology. Homosexuality – male or female – is an orientation towards same sex romantic feelings and behaviour. Male homosexuals are gays, while female ones are lesbians. This sensitive issue has become a global concern with lots of clamour to either legalise or ban the bad behaviour.
In Africa, two countries – Nigeria and Uganda – have enacted stringent laws to prosecute those who are involved in it. Some countries in both oriental and occidental world that support this perverse practise threaten to withdraw financial aids to countries that stand firm to condemn it in its entirety and totality. Part of the church in the Western World is not left out. Unlike in Africa where Romans 1:21-26 is given careful thought and consideration.
It is high time, we admit that apart from drug abuse and misuse, our teens, tweens and youths are grappling with all forms of aberrant sexual behaviour and disorders, which include: Fornication, rape, incest, bestiality, exhibitionism or nudity, voyeurism, sodomy, homosexuality and many more. The best thing to do, is to identify the root causes, and address them to the core. Let us stop treating the signs and symptoms. Let us stop slashing the bushes and focus on felling trees.
Various sane and sober institutions in the society should endeavor to address the causes of aberrant sexual behaviour by coming up with possible solutions. People find themselves caught in the craze of these sexual disorders due to umpteen factors, which may include: lack of sufficient sex education, moral decadence (decay), poor parenting, ubiquity of sex-charged environments, weird western influence, drug abuse, negative peer influence, media malady, lack of good role models, misleading mentors, lack of life skills and lack of strong Christian convictions.
Also, the habit of keeping the same sex in one place for a long time, contributes to the weird and wicked homosexual behaviour. That is why, in case schools want to curb gayism and lesbianism, they must promote healthy interaction between boys and girls. That trail of thought justifies the essence and presence of inter-school activities like sports, music, drama, exchange programmes, bench-marking and academic duels. When Covid-19 pandemic invaded us in March 2020, inter-school activities were banned in the bid to curb the rapid spread of that deadly disease. Of course, schools have witnessed the dire consequences of lack of socialisation among students which is captured within the frameworks of education – being a multi-dimensional concept. Due to lack of healthy mixing and mingling of boys and girls, some boys have attempted to cross the Rubicon, twisted the lions’ tail and sneaked into girls’ schools in the dead of the night to look for stolen waters that seldom taste sweet. This should be addressed because it makes schools unsafe and inconducive for learning. Albeit, don’t judge me wrongly. I am not writing to support this misconduct. But I am just saying that mandarins at the MoE and school arrowheads should have a critical approach into things, and balance realism with optimism.
Lastly, we should address all forms of sexual perversion crawling stealthily towards young people because they lead to low self-esteem, shame, guilt, regret, obsession, early pregnancy and Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs). Instead of being swift to condemn and criticise, let us play our part. Mwalimu Julius Nyerere sagely said, “Play your part. It can be done.” This thing needs concerted effort and social-corporate responsibility. Families, schools and churches – should move with swift speed. Parents and guardians should engage in active parenting by inculcating in their children acceptable code of conduct; useful values and virtues. By and large, schools should teach nuts and bolts of life skills, strengthen psycho-social and spiritual programmes. Apart from grounding people on spiritual truths and awakening their moral conscience, churches and Faith-Based Organisations (FBOs) should come up with well-thought-out mentorship programmes for tweens, teens and youths during the holidays. Seminars and workshops should be there.
The writer rolls out talks and training services in schools.
