President Goodluck Jonathan on Sunday
urged state governors to stop refraining from signing death warrants of
criminals condemned to death by courts of competent jurisdiction.
He said the governors ought to know that the job they were elected to do had both the sweet and the ugly parts.
The President added that the states
chief executives must be willing to carry out all their responsibilities
according to the law, no matter how painful such might appear.
Jonathan stated these in his remarks at the special Fathers’ Day service, organised by the Aso Villa Chapel.
He said, “Discipline can be in various
forms. In the states, it could be admonition. Magistrate can just
admonish and allow an offender to go. From admonition to various forms
of punishments; it could be imprisonment. The extreme is capital
punishment.
“In the case of capital punishment, the
state governors will sign. Even governors sometimes find it difficult to
sign. I have been telling the governors that they must sign because
that is the law. The works we are doing have a very sweet part and a
very ugly part, and we must perform both. No matter how painful it is;
it is part of their responsibilities.”
The President urged fathers to ensure
that they discipline their children when the err, stressing that the
love they showered on their children might come to nought if the
children were not properly brought up.
He said it was important for parents,
particularly fathers, to continually impress it on their children on the
need to be upright in all their endeavours.
He recalled how he and his siblings
always resorted to crying once they heard the voice of his late father
approaching, after they might have committed an offence.
He regretted that discipline at home was gradually becoming extinct because of modern life.
Jonathan said, “If we look through all
the references that have to do with the father in the Bible, you will
see that we expect a father to show love. The father is the breadwinner
of the family, to take care of the mother and the children; to provide
food for them and take care of their education. We expect fathers to be
role models, where children will want to be like their fathers.
“I want to urge all of us who are
fathers to discipline our children. No matter what you do, even if you
show love and provide the needs of the family, if you don’t discipline
your children, it is not good.
“Like my late father, when we were
small, anytime we committed an offence and we heard his voice that he
was coming, we would start crying. You would not wait to see him because
you know what would happen to you.”
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