A lecturer in the Department of Mass Communication, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Dr Chidi Ezinwa has tied Nigeria’s quest to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals to the enforcement of child rights.
The don noted that Nigeria can’t realise the SDGs without prioritising and realising the rights of children.
Ezinwa, in a paper he presented at a two-day Training of Trainers (ToT) on the reviewed curriculum on child rights reporting in Lagos, organised by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), added that some of the goals are tied to child rights.
He said: “We can’t realise SDGs without realising the rights of the child. Realising the SDGs is tied to the rights of a child.
“Without pushing for the fulfilment of the children’s rights, we cannot achieve the sustainable development goals.
“Pushing the rights of children will help us to achieve the SDGs faster. A sustainable future depends on how we meet the needs of children today. We don’t give our children the time. We abandon them on their own.”
He warned that inequality may deepen with the denial of children some of their rights.
He, therefore, called for the protection of the rights of children to ensure a secured future.
“The way we treat children now will determine the kind of future they will have.
“So many children are out of school. But those that are in school, what kind of education are they having?
“With the denial of these rights, inequality will deepen. Inequality in our society should be reduced and we should try and talk about them.
“At the end of the day it is the child that suffers, it is the rights of the child that are being denied. This will make the achievement of the sustainable development goals difficult,” Ezinwa said.