BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
I used to see this initial “PG” on movie video cassettes and some television programs. I never took it to be a serious sign because I had no cause to think about it. My parents were with us most of the time while growing up, and we didn’t have the luxury of having a video player, nor did we have cable television. We had just one analog television, bought by my mother in 1976, and it was back and white made by National in Japan. It was always covered with a white cloth. It was located on the big table in the living room called the cabinet table. The television would be turned off after 9 p.m. news by Ikenna Nduaguba, Bode Alalade and Siene Allwell Brown, Ruth Benamainsia Opia, Yinka Craig, and many more veteran newscasters. The only people who could turn it off and on were my parents. William, my most senior brother, in all his wisdom and cleverness, was not allowed to go near the television because if you did, there would be a consequence that may not be very sweet. Therefore, I never worried about asking what “PG” meant. Sometimes, we would be privileged to watch movies in the 1980s when Chief Ifeanyichukwu James Nwobodo built a television station for the state called ABS (Anambra Broadcasting Station), Channel 50. The station started in the morning on weekends and ended at 1 pm. That was the only time we could watch movies with our parents, and it was always Incredible Hulk and Get-Smart. I cannot remember any other movie in that era. Bruce Lee and Jango came with the video tapes and the video machine. My family was not that rich, and my parents did not see the value in those accessories.Today there are a lot of movies, ranging from homemade movies that are becoming sexually explosive and foreign-made movies which are selling a different cultural understanding to our younger generation. It is not the era of television on the table anymore. Neither is it the era where all the power and authority are in the hands of the parents. That time has gone by: now we are in a new area where PG is not even a thing. All the kids in secondary school have a smartphone, and without the guidance of anyone except their classmates who know nothing but the simple knowledge of how to buy internet data and hook up to the free highway of social media and YouTube and Facebook and Instagram and Twitter (X) and so on and start watching anything at all. I can assure you many bad stuffs are free on the internet. My 9-year-old nephew was sharing with another person in my presence what was going on in the Big Brother House. I was surprised that he could watch that rated program with that detail and facts. So, I called him and asked him where he watched the Big Brother Naija program. He said that one of his classmates came to school with a small phone and showed them the movie. I said I would tell your father what you were watching in school instead of studying. He did not show remorse; he only added that he was not the only person watching it. Most of the classmates join to watch during break and after school. I made sure the phone was ceased, and the student reported to the parents, who had no idea what was going on.I call on the parents to take time to do the PG work. It is the most important work as a parent now because society has deflected to the worst. Nothing good comes easy. Take their school bags and scrutinize and search. It would not take you anything to do that. When I was working in a village many years ago. My friend called me to come and see what he found in his son’s bag. A boy of 11 years. The kind of movie (CD plates) he found in his backpack was unimaginable. From horror to porn, to initiation ceremonies of occultic powers. I asked him what moved him to do the searching he said that he has been paying attention to him since he started locking his doors whenever he is in the room alone. The movie was given to him by a fellow student, while he bought some with the money he stole from his father’s wallet. I told him not to worry because we discovered it early but that was not the case because on further inquiry, we found it had started when he was 9 years old: two years before the discovery. I would also suggest that the teachers who stand in loco parentis (in the position of the parents) while the students are in school should also pay more attention because most of these challenges are metastasized in the school environment. It may have started at home by one careless parent, but that child would carry it to school where he would engage many kids to the ills. I would not overstretch it now because the 21st century’s parenting is a reversal of what it used to be in the last 20 or 30 years.When your teacher reports you to your parents, that is a big whahla. Now, when the teacher reports the kids to the parents, the parents would attack the teacher and ask him to mind her business and leave his child alone. In some cases, if they are rich parents, they would make sure that the teacher is fired. Please! We should take the PG code seriously right now at home, in the school, and anywhere else because the kids are Nwaora (the babies of the community).
