An officer of the United States Army, Captain Sunday Adebomi, has organised an essay competition to help secondary school pupils in Ekiti State fight drug abuse.
Adebomi, who hails from Ise-Ekiti, headquarters of Ise/Orun Local Government Area of Ekiti State, was concerned that many youths are hooked on drugs.
He bankrolled the initiative in conjunction with Youth Saving Lifestyle Creation Initiative (YSLCI), a non-governmental organisation, and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) to create awareness on the evils of drug abuse.
Forty-one pupils were short listed after undergoing series of tests in their schools to participate in the final competition.
All 41 wrote an essay titled: “Drug Abuse, Cultism and Youth Violence in Secondary Schools in Nigeria” in the presence of the audience at the Sheikh Ibiyemi Hall of Olaoluwa Muslim Grammar School, Ado -Ekiti.
The essays were graded and results were announced immediately, producing three female winners who would represent Ekiti in the southwest zonal competition. Deborah Ekunloluwa of Comprehensive High School, Ado-Ekiti, came first with 80.5 percent; Kolawole Kehinde of Ijaloke High School, Emure-Ekiti came second with 77.5 percent and Fabunmi from Okemesi High School, Okemesi-Ekiti came third with 77 percent.
Adebomi, while presenting laptop prizes to the trio, congratulated them for their outstanding performance.
He promised to pay the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) fee of the overall winner. The top 10 students also got certificates and notebooks.
Ekiti State Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Sulaiman Jadi, hailed Adebomi for the gesture which he said would go a long way in discouraging drug abuse among pupils.
The programme was chaired by the Onikun of Ikun-Ekiti in Moba Local Government Area of the state, Oba David Olatunde.
Tag: abuse
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Army officer fights drug abuse in schools
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Union urges Buhari to halt expatriate quota abuse
•’Nigerians’ jobs threatened
President Muhammadu Buhari has been asked to end expatriate quota abuse by foreign construction companies in the country.
Workers claimed that the practice is taking a toll on the welfare of the few Nigerians in the industry.
Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association (CCESSA) President, Comrade Isaac Egbugara, said at the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Owerri, the Imo State capital, that the jobs of Nigerians in the industry were now threatened.
He called on the regulatory authorities to monitor, enforce and sanction erring construction companies.
Egbugara said: “The NEC-in-session observed with dismay that numerous construction companies operating in the country deliberately flout the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, especially as it concerns expatriate quota. While seriously frowning at this, we call on the Federal Government and the National Assembly to revisit the ‘Local Content Bill for the construction industry’, which has dragged-on for longer than necessary.”
He regretted the mass retrenchment of construction workers across the country, blaming it on the poor funding of projects, especially those belonging to the government.
While urging the government to, as a matter of urgency, pay the debts owed construction companies, especially for completed projects, Egbugara urged the government to adequately fund ongoing projects in order to reduce the high level of job loss in the industry.
The union, he said, also advocated a bailout for the industry as was done to the state governments, urging the government to declare a state of emergency in the industry as one of the major employers of labour to avoid a total collapse of an industry that employs more workers outside the civil service.
Concerning the improvement in the nation’s security, most especially the significant progress recorded in the fight against insurgency in the Northeastern part of Nigeria, the construction workers said it was commendable as it would be in the best interest of the construction industry and favour even infrastructural development of the country.
Also commended was the government’s resilience and doggedness in fighting corruption and its resolve to save the nation from the serious rot and decay that has almost brought the country to its knees, especially the ongoing drive to recover looted public funds.
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Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications
Poverty and child abuse
Baby factories are springing up all over the country. The big idea is to get pregnant first and then pray that a good customer comes around to buy. Many of the girls involved do so for reasons of poverty. When there are no buyers, the babies are either thrown away or abandoned .they will end up in motherless baby’s homes , and probably grow up without the moral instructions available in intact homes
Also, many women send out their daughters to hawk, ending up as street girls and girls of the street
In addition, women celebrate when agents of traffickers come to take their daighters to Italy and other parts of the world as sex slaves………
Single parent hood,fractured marriages ,same sex marriage and child abuse
In homes where there is harmony and parents or guardian are fully involved in the growth and development of their kids, there are formidable challenges. For reasons too numerous to state here, it is an up hill task, raising a girl child on your own. Family values are very likely to be completely absent, truncated or deliberately misinterpreted. As always there are exceptions ,but the bottom line is that chances are higher that a girl child in any of these arrangements will suffer abuses, in particular sex abuse ,the nature or severity depending on other circumstances.I am not against any one or particular group here. I am only stating circumstances
Child abuse in schools and institutions
In the first part of this article, much waswritten about the possibility of individuals entrusted with the care , health and education of a girl child actually contributing to her destruction by first tormenting her by many ways and means in order to weaken her capacity to refuse sexual advances.Given anuncompromising environment, as found in many of our boarding institutions the world over, where a college student is afraid to tell, any thing can happenand sexual abuse can go on unchecked for years creating a cycle that will see an abused girl child becoming an adult female abuser of women. In many parts of the world,a disturbing trend in remand homes, homes for the disabled and other places established to serve as correction centres for children with extreme degrees of stubbornness and ,those that have been described as children on the street, is that many of them have become victims of sex abuse, and by individuals employed to take care of them. In boarding schools across the globe, children are for many reasons shut out from their parents and guardian. This has encouraged different forms of abuse; the understanding that except for serious medical emergencies, parents are allowed to communicate with their parents only during visiting days creates near perfect conditions for adults with deviant behaviour and abnormal orientation to prey on victims too young and too fragile to understand inappropriate and potentially harmful situations and negotiate themselves out and into safety.
Religion, culture and child abuse
It is well known that doctrines exist that encourage polygamy, polyandry and same sex marriages. Some of these doctrines are fired by religious organizations and fiercely defended. There may be advantages but the dis advantages are numerous. Large families are prone to deprivations, incestuous relationships from poor or conflicting parental control measures, and unhealthy rivalries. In all, the girl child is seriously at a disadvantage since in the understanding of the Nigerian African, the girl child is both an asset as well as a liability. In some communities, men are pressured into marrying more wives in order to have moremale children and so ensure they have stronger capacity for full representation in family matters.
Education and child abuse
The woman with little or no education pays little attention to logic, finds it very difficult to break with traditions that are harmful to health, even her own health, most likely to accommodate absurdities .She is likely to look the other way if reporting unhealthy family practices threaten her matrimony .
Politics and child abuse.
Only few politicians consider dangers derivable from their actions and inactions. By extreme policies designed to maintain them in power and very comfortable lifestyle, sometimes running with the hares and eating with hounds, they create wars and disputes where women and children become vulnerable-as street hawkers, brothel and non brothel sex workers ,women of comfort etc.
Genetics and child abuse
There are some individuals who are born with body composition and mind set tailored towards the abnormal, the absurd, and the wicked. Knowledge about the disconnect between the acts that these classes of people are capable of and the normal human feeling is not readily available.The traits can be picked up early if parents care and are watchful. They are in the province of Doctors who are Specialists in disorders of the brain, mind and body.
Science and child abuse
Exposure to social media has it’s good, bad and ugly sides; only few parents monitor their kids, many of whom may be exchanging messages of sexual nature with men old enough to be their fathers . Inappropriate relationships for age are frequently the hall marks of child abuse.
Way Forward/recommendations
What Government can do
Data bank on sexual abuse will notonly help in knowing the extent of the problem, it will also help in the design of programmes to address the issues involved
Policies
There should be conscientious efforts with regards to conflict resolutions, to tackle issues of inequalities in the distribution of the common wealth. More peace committees like the one that saw Nigeria through the 2015 elections are needed in various aspects of our social and geopolitical life as a nation .As has been canvassed, ‘eyes to eyes is better than eyes for eyes’. Dialogue and patience with groups that have genuine and reasonable grievances will prevent clashes and conflicts that place women and children in harm’s way .
As concerns poverty, eradication and not alleviation should be the right thing to do. It is the height of insensitivity and inhumanity for any one to complain about payment of eighteen thousand Naira as minimum wage, even as the current economic situation drives people to eat from waste dumps. Women should be empowered by way of interest free loans, with government assisting them to form cooperatives. The campaign promise to pay five thousand Naira to unemployed should begin immediately with adequate statistical support. The arithmetic and methodology can be worked out by setting up task force units drawn directly from the federal and state ministries of economic development where you have statisticians and enumerators among others that can do the job. This will save costs and avoid the mistakes being realized in the implementation of the single treasury account(TSA). Government should also clear the mess created by corrupt officials in the administration of pension funds and then go ahead to look into social well fare services for the elderly .
Child healthand Child rights
Many of the children that have suffered physical abuse including sexual molestation did not know any thingabout rights until many years after . There should be health education using social media , and other cheap and simple means .Children need to know they have their own rights, that they don’t have to be afraid to report any inappropriate advances, unusual and unofficial punishment etc. Authorities can use local and other means of communication so children become aware that there are channels through which an abused child can report past and current abuse cases.
Governments at federal and state levels should give due considerations legislative backing to the child rights act and also provide support in the area of finance and logistics to individuals and organizations involved in anti childtrafficking activities
Family planning: for over two decades efforts to assist Nigerians accept behaviour change towards healthy family planning services have not been largely successful; Ignorance due to the very high rate of illiteracy ,religious injunctions and cultural practices that place the girl child second as necessary but not essential, have been responsible. Sadly, the poor seem to think it is fun, producing boys and girls they have no means to feed and send to school.
-
Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications
Poverty and child abuse
Baby factories are springing up all over the country. The big idea is to get pregnant first and then pray that a good customer comes around to buy. Many of the girls involved do so for reasons of poverty. When there are no buyers, the babies are either thrown away or abandoned .they will end up in motherless baby’s homes , and probably grow up without the moral instructions available in intact homes
Also, many women send out their daughters to hawk, ending up as street girls and girls of the street
In addition, women celebrate when agents of traffickers come to take their daighters to Italy and other parts of the world as sex slaves………
Single parent hood,fractured marriages ,same sex marriage and child abuse
In homes where there is harmony and parents or guardian are fully involved in the growth and development of their kids, there are formidable challenges. For reasons too numerous to state here, it is an up hill task, raising a girl child on your own. Family values are very likely to be completely absent, truncated or deliberately misinterpreted. As always there are exceptions ,but the bottom line is that chances are higher that a girl child in any of these arrangements will suffer abuses, in particular sex abuse ,the nature or severity depending on other circumstances.I am not against any one or particular group here. I am only stating circumstances
Child abuse in schools and institutions
In the first part of this article, much waswritten about the possibility of individuals entrusted with the care , health and education of a girl child actually contributing to her destruction by first tormenting her by many ways and means in order to weaken her capacity to refuse sexual advances.Given anuncompromising environment, as found in many of our boarding institutions the world over, where a college student is afraid to tell, any thing can happenand sexual abuse can go on unchecked for years creating a cycle that will see an abused girl child becoming an adult female abuser of women. In many parts of the world,a disturbing trend in remand homes, homes for the disabled and other places established to serve as correction centres for children with extreme degrees of stubbornness and ,those that have been described as children on the street, is that many of them have become victims of sex abuse, and by individuals employed to take care of them. In boarding schools across the globe, children are for many reasons shut out from their parents and guardian. This has encouraged different forms of abuse; the understanding that except for serious medical emergencies, parents are allowed to communicate with their parents only during visiting days creates near perfect conditions for adults with deviant behaviour and abnormal orientation to prey on victims too young and too fragile to understand inappropriate and potentially harmful situations and negotiate themselves out and into safety.
Religion, culture and child abuse
It is well known that doctrines exist that encourage polygamy, polyandry and same sex marriages. Some of these doctrines are fired by religious organizations and fiercely defended. There may be advantages but the dis advantages are numerous. Large families are prone to deprivations, incestuous relationships from poor or conflicting parental control measures, and unhealthy rivalries. In all, the girl child is seriously at a disadvantage since in the understanding of the Nigerian African, the girl child is both an asset as well as a liability. In some communities, men are pressured into marrying more wives in order to have moremale children and so ensure they have stronger capacity for full representation in family matters.
Education and child abuse
The woman with little or no education pays little attention to logic, finds it very difficult to break with traditions that are harmful to health, even her own health, most likely to accommodate absurdities .She is likely to look the other way if reporting unhealthy family practices threaten her matrimony .
Politics and child abuse.
Only few politicians consider dangers derivable from their actions and inactions. By extreme policies designed to maintain them in power and very comfortable lifestyle, sometimes running with the hares and eating with hounds, they create wars and disputes where women and children become vulnerable-as street hawkers, brothel and non brothel sex workers ,women of comfort etc.
Genetics and child abuse
There are some individuals who are born with body composition and mind set tailored towards the abnormal, the absurd, and the wicked. Knowledge about the disconnect between the acts that these classes of people are capable of and the normal human feeling is not readily available.The traits can be picked up early if parents care and are watchful. They are in the province of Doctors who are Specialists in disorders of the brain, mind and body.
Science and child abuse
Exposure to social media has it’s good, bad and ugly sides; only few parents monitor their kids, many of whom may be exchanging messages of sexual nature with men old enough to be their fathers . Inappropriate relationships for age are frequently the hall marks of child abuse.
WAY FORWARD/RECOMMENDATIONS
What Government can do
Data bank on sexual abuse will notonly help in knowing the extent of the problem, it will also help in the design of programmes to address the issues involved
Policies
There should be conscientious efforts with regards to conflict resolutions, to tackle issues of inequalities in the distribution of the common wealth. More peace committees like the one that saw Nigeria through the 2015 elections are needed in various aspects of our social and geopolitical life as a nation .As has been canvassed, ‘eyes to eyes is better than eyes for eyes’. Dialogue and patience with groups that have genuine and reasonable grievances will prevent clashes and conflicts that place women and children in harm’s way .
As concerns poverty, eradication and not alleviation should be the right thing to do. It is the height of insensitivity and inhumanity for any one to complain about payment of eighteen thousand Naira as minimum wage, even as the current economic situation drives people to eat from waste dumps. Women should be empowered by way of interest free loans, with government assisting them to form cooperatives. The campaign promise to pay five thousand Naira to unemployed should begin immediately with adequate statistical support. The arithmetic and methodology can be worked out by setting up task force units drawn directly from the federal and state ministries of economic development where you have statisticians and enumerators among others that can do the job. This will save costs and avoid the mistakes being realized in the implementation of the single treasury account(TSA). Government should also clear the mess created by corrupt officials in the administration of pension funds and then go ahead to look into social well fare services for the elderly .
Child healthand Child rights
Many of the children that have suffered physical abuse including sexual molestation did not know any thingabout rights until many years after . There should be health education using social media , and other cheap and simple means .Children need to know they have their own rights, that they don’t have to be afraid to report any inappropriate advances, unusual and unofficial punishment etc. Authorities can use local and other means of communication so children become aware that there are channels through which an abused child can report past and current abuse cases.
Governments at federal and state levels should give due considerations legislative backing to the child rights act and also provide support in the area of finance and logistics to individuals and organizations involved in anti childtrafficking activities
Family planning: for over two decades efforts to assist Nigerians accept behaviour change towards healthy family planning services have not been largely successful; Ignorance due to the very high rate of illiteracy ,religious injunctions and cultural practices that place the girl child second as necessary but not essential, have been responsible. Sadly, the poor seem to think it is fun, producing boys and girls they have no means to feed and send to school.
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Child abuse still thrives
It’s so painful how we fail to recognise the fact that we are the cause of our own miseries; even though we tend to blame some factors for working against us and as such causing problems in our lives. In spite of the outcryby human right bodies, we still find some heartless, callous and cruel people in our society who have no appreciation for the rights of others. These people are still found in the act of maltreating children, mostly maids or children of other people.
In this technologically advanced age, we still find people who are victims of the brutality and nasty tinge of the past. Maltreatment is an act of the past, and should remain so. Why on earth should we abuse the dignity and rights of others? What pleasure do we gain from making life worthless for others? It is hard to comprehend why some sadists are fond of this barbaric attitude.
A girl walked up to me in tears one morning; her eyes were swollen. I inquired to know what was wrong. At first I got no reply. The girl in question kept mumbling things I could not understand. “Calm down, talk to me what’s wrong” I pestered. She told me her madamplaced a heavy curse on her for nothing.She said she had done all she had to do – sweeping, and other chores as instructed, only for her to return from her journey to start cursing her over not taking proper care of her children. She wallowed in her tears while pointing at the children who looked smart in their suave wears, dinning happily. I wondered what sort of care she could have rendered differently from what I had seen. From her account, the madam had done pretty nastier things to her in the past but the poor girl was too emotional to hold the false claim that morning.
Obviously, her madame just wanted to display her ego because I did not seem to comprehend the reason why one would decide to frustrate a young girl who had stood the gap while her boss was away. I also had this type of people as neighbours while growing up. So their modus operandi is nothing new to me. A particular experience comes easily to mind. They had this hefty boy as houseboy. He would do virtually everything in the house; even tasks naturally designated to ladies. Whenever one sees this chap, he was always humping from one chore to the other. It was shocking to learn that he fled that home in frustration. Knowing how b ad his condition had been, I had no empathy for the family which bore the brunt of his absence. After all, who wants to live to be maltreated like a piece of rag?
Unfortunately, the dictionary meaning of maltreatment is even small compared to what some get as the share of what life throws at them. Why should this menace continue to grow in our society?We hurt ourselves thinking we are hurting others. Life is the best of judges; it pays everyone according to how they treat their fellow humans. It rewards every seed sown; good or bad.
A video footage went viral sometimes ago. A housemaid poured her venom on a little baby in her care. She stepped on the baby like someone marching on a carcass. Beyond the public outcry, one fact we could not deny was the cruelty of the human mind; its capacity for evil and destruction.
How can one be that heartless to hurt a baby who cannot speak for himself? Why the callousness? That I could not provide the answer. Was her action an offshoot of revenge? Perhaps to fight back her boss who must have sullied and insulted her humanity? If the lady was treated well would she take revenge for nothing?
At the end, my conclusions were simple. Parents who maltreat another people’s children are doing so at the detriment of their own children. If those who stay with us are treated badly, they sometimes have a way of repaying their maltreatment. The lady who took revenge on her boss’s child went too far, and of course there are better ways to resolve issues rather than take the law into one’s hand.
The act of maltreating others – especially disadvantaged kids from troubled homes – is one thing that should be fought to a standstill. It is a menace that should be given no breathing space in our society. We should provide reporting structures and platforms for victims. They must not be allowed to die away in their silence. The world must rise against this evil. The time is now.
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Abuse of the girl child: Different shades, perpetrators and health implications
For normal reproductive life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child; for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained. Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to have the first menses occurring within a range of time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.
When well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control . Stressful conditions also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections compared with older women facing similar challenges.
Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not informed that a child is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets beyond the capacity of the Medical team employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused to consider the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible
How did it all begin? Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide to confide in the Nurse at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?
In the present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations, most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the passion to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have failed to take into consideration, the need to establish a routine health check and balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .
Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets
By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.
As the world burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind. Studies have shown that whether a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare . It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse, an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or the family she is born into.
Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family. Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex
A young woman took a nine year old girl to the Children emergency room of a busy government hospital crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted and barely able to stand without support . Whereas the young lady; later identified as her Step Mom claimed she fell down from a tree and fainted , there were scars distributed asymmetrically on the left side of the body of this girl . The back regions of her arms and fore arms showed well marked healing stripes . As soon as she was left alone with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .
The situation just described is probably an example of the physical form of child abuse .
Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated. Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.
As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE physical , social and emotional well being. Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes. On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered or continues to suffer abuse.
-
Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications
For normal reproductive life, a woman must have normal developmental milestones, which must necessarily begin in the girl child; for an example, the first menstrual flow requires a body weight of 40kg or more. Though early menses may not be regular , it steadies as the girl child grows into maturity and in good health as defined earlier, so that any deviations from an established normal pattern can be better understood and explained. Lack of regularity developing within the normal reproductive age can then be used as a diagnostic aid . Children born into happy homes, with adequate nutrition tend to have the first menses occurring within a range of time period considered normal. They also tend to have less troublesome issues with menses compared with children who are obese, undernourished or malnourished.
When well nourished, stress free young cycling teenagers of the same age are kept together in the same apartment or Hostel for some time, they tend to have menses coming about the same time . Stress arising from physical, social or emotional trauma apart from being diabetogenic also places more cholesterol in the pathways for the biosynthesis of the female hormones, particularly estrogen. More estrogen than necessary at a particular time for the girl child is capable of evoking stimuli that will force responses out of her which she may not have the capacity to control . Stressful conditions also have a way of weakening the immune system and reducing the ability of the individual to fight infections. It is therefore more likely for the girl child in persistent situations of sexual abuse to die from infections compared with older women facing similar challenges.
Examine the policy that is currently in place in many of the Federal Government owned secondary schools where parents are not informed that a child is ill and on admission at the Sick Bay until the illness gets beyond the capacity of the Medical team employed by the School. One wonders if the relevant authorities have paused to consider the fact that some certain disease conditions do not give the patient time to become ill ;that by the time it is finally understood that a disease or illness is beyond the professional competence of the managing medical team an affected Child will have reached the point where her conditions are no longer reversible
How did it all begin? Why would any one imagine that a secondary school teenager who happens to know the symptoms and signs of early pregnancy will decide to confide in the Nurse at the Sick bay in preference to her mother?
In the present arrangement of policies, rules and regulations, most if not all the schools and colleges where our young girls are kept are modified , glorified and regimented correction centres . In the passion to get the best out of these children and position them for better life, we have failed to take into consideration, the need to establish a routine health check and balance system that should be reviewed from time to time ,and in accordance with the School Health programme .
Cases of child abuse occurring in schools and colleges remain untold until ten twenty and thirty years later, in some cases, victims die and are buried with their secrets
By keeping them caged, with limited access to communication with their parents except visiting days, substantial periods of the life of the growing and developing girl child are spent with people about whom the children know but very little.
As the world burns and conflicts spread like wild fire burning in the Harmattan period, the girl child is at the greatest risk with little or no room to negotiate herself out of conditions that are clearly unsafe and unfavourable for health . Many will agree that when families are small, quality of life is better for the girl child for the simple reason that Mom and Dad will want to hold and to cherish .However ,even in polygamous families, every child wants to be loved and cherished ,to belong and appreciated, and out of sight is never out of mind. Studies have shown that whether a family is polygamous or not, the girl child demonstrates unalloyed taciturnity, love and understanding. She sees her father in her male teacher and her mother in her female teacher . This is the normal expectation. There are exceptions of course , but these are rare . It is therefore natural that outside the family system, patterns of behaviour of the girl child can be used as an instrument to measure the degree of family cohesion available for the child to enjoy and vice versa . And so depending on the source of abuse, an abused child is likely to grow up and become an abuser either in the family she will build or the family she is born into.
Under the conditions forced upon families by wars and conflicts, the girl child within the families of internally displaced persons finds herself vulnerable to physical and sexual abuse even from members of the extended family. Outside that, conditions that cause the girl child to lose one or both parents catapults the girl child into sudden poverty, with little or no capacity to escape physical abuse (including sex abuse) and negotiate for safe or safer sex
A young woman took a nine year old girl to the Children emergency room of a busy government hospital crying effortlessly . She appeared exhausted and barely able to stand without support . Whereas the young lady; later identified as her Step Mom claimed she fell down from a tree and fainted , there were scars distributed asymmetrically on the left side of the body of this girl . The back regions of her arms and fore arms showed well marked healing stripes . As soon as she was left alone with the Nurses, she asked to be given something to eat .
The situation just described is probably an example of the physical form of child abuse .
Long periods of separation from siblings ,mom and Dad have their own independent effects on the girl child. Any forms of abuse by way of verbal, physical ,emotional and psychological insults serve to weaken the ability of the girl child to resist abnormal temptations, either internally or externally generated. Compared with an adult of the same sex, the brain of the growing child is not as stereognostic. However, it is likely to accommodate a mental diary of with a larger volume , to absorb and retain for longer time periods.
As will have been known by many, to be in good health is not the absence of infirmity or disease conditions, but a state of COMPLETE physical , social and emotional well being. Depending on the type, nature and duration, an abused child finds herself fighting to maintain emotional balance throughout life. If she grew up in an environment where she was persistently shouted down, and never allowed to express her self , she is likely to grow up timid and afraid of every move she makes. On the other hand if she was forced to keep secrets as a result of incidents or activities forced on her, she is likely to grow up confused, with guilt, intra psychic conflicts and thought broadcasts . It is also important to note that depending on particular circumstances, explosive types of behaviour, suicidal ideation and actual suicide are more likely to arise or develop in a girl child that has suffered or continues to suffer abuse.
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Abuse of the girl child Different shades, perpetrators and health implications
Sixteen year old Omonsiegho(not her real name), an SS3 girl in a mixed sex Boarding School was asked to stand on her desk ; her offence? Not paying attention . For the rest of that class, the punisher; a middle aged, unmarried ‘Geography Teacher’ ignored her pains ,suffering and tears as she shifted weight from one lower limb to the other , seeking any position that will reduce her pain and give her some comfort . A few days later, Omonsiegho was called out to the front of her class and asked to sit on the floor .The rivulets of tears as she tried to express her innocence were made irrelevant by the relentless instructions and counter instructions shot at her to stand, sit, move away, and lie down .The old ‘angel and arch angel of Geography as he was often referred to, and whose selective notoriety the School Authorities seemed resigned to put up with was at it again. The young girl went through emotional trauma she alone can truly describe, as she tried to make sense of it all . The questions on the minds of many of the boys and girls who may have watched several episodes of this type of behaviour from the Geography teacher may not be too difficult to imagine ; many of them would have liked to know if he would do this to his own biological daughter if she did whatever. As it turned out following investigations, the Geography teacher was in the habit of coming down hard on female students, and especially the bright and beautiful ones .It was his way of softening them up before launching attacks. He was however friendly with the boys and always ready to assist them ,even financially.
If one might ask; is there something fundamentally different between people who have willingly gone through the God given process of reproducing themselves and those who have not or are unwilling to do so? Considering that the human mind is the most complicated and unpredictable entity known to man, how do you tell which Classroom teacher is capable or incapable of doing what ,when it comes to health of School children and child abuse?
Mr Geography teacher is using the persistent physical and emotional abuse of Omonsiegho as a way of getting something he alone badly wants? How many other young girls have gone through similar experience? Can Omonsiegho find the peace of mind to read her books in the prevailing conditions?
Child abuse comes in as many shades as can be imagined . In majority of cases and for those cases involving sex, the perpetrators are not people you very readily suspect;
Commonly under continuous subordination, senior students may subject junior others to various forms of abuse .
Teachers at the top may engage in all sorts of inappropriate behaviour if they find themselves in positions of absolute power ,where no one cares
There have been well documented cases of heads of religious organizations sexually abusing daughters and their mothers among their followers, doing so for years without any one daring to cry out about the evil acts. Where such followers are regarded as mere numbers, physical abuse may take many forms including excessive chores, whiplashing , shaking , pinching and kicking
Cases involving Moms and Step Daughters have also been followed where the girl child is starved , placed on long periods of starvation diet or low quality diets for refusing to get involved in abnormal or inappropriate sexual relationship with the woman she calls mother
Uncles, Aunties , care takers and care givers who are deviant and yet see nothing wrong with their brains have in several studies been found to subject children kept in their care to different forms of abuse including those which place sexual health and reproductive career of the girl child in jeopardy.
There is indeed a possibility no matter how remote, that in those situations where fathers are said to have forced themselves on their daughters, they are not the biological or true parents of the girls involved. It is the opinion of experts in DNA research that only women know the biological fathers of their kids, as most first born children do not belong to the men who claim them.
When the cat is away , the mice play without ceasing ;incestuous relationships are more likely to be common in polygamous and polyandrous relationships as well as those involving single parenthood where multiple partnering is the norm. In the study by this writer and late Dr George Chinyere Uzor, the researchers were surprised to observe that family heads were frequently in support and at times pressed on to suggest it . The girl child in these settings apart from the risk of growing up to be a disjointed woman also suffers physical and other forms of abuse . If the language she understands is vulgar, crude and harsh, such will be her best way of expressing her self as she grows up with a character and an attitude. Whereas she sees nothing wrong in getting into quarrels and with the free use of verbal invectives, accepting own faults and the use of words like ‘sorry’ may be strange to her. The researchers observed that religion, level of education, socioeconomic status culture and inability of Governments to give legal backing to the Child rights act were among the important factors which influenced abuse of the Nigerian girl child.
It is important to remind readers and stake holders in the educational sector particularly at the primary and secondary school levels, something only very little about how the strict rules and regulations in many of these schools and the ways and methods they are applied place majority of the female pupils and students in these schools at very high risks of child abuse , including sexual forms of child abuse. Unless the relevant authorities are constantly at alert and are able to maintain vigilance even during unguarded hours, loads of abuse can go on under the cover of darkness and with people least expected to be involved. Shame and pride will battle themselves within the abused child to prevent her from reporting any such activities. Beyond that, there will always be the fear on the side of the abused child that she will end up being the one to get the blame . Moreover, she will have been warned to expect unpleasant consequences if she told any one any thing. After all , students are usually not represented at meetings of Parents and Teachers’ Association.
We should also realize that it is not only in Catholic schools that young boys get abused by Priests and Holy Fathers for long periods of time without any one doing anything. Deviant patterns of behaviour are now being forced on children in secondary schools all over the globe By many standards, females have higher capacity for stress management and have demonstrated higher reserve with regards to practical coping device and ability to keep it inside, but girls mostly are at the receiving ends and would rather suffer in silence than tell .When a woman wants to tell, she is likely to tell it all, but when she chooses not to tell, she tells nothing to no one. If similar abuses are being perpetuated by women of the same faith, no one will know until some one tells , which as is the pattern with the males usually takes decades. What if routine psychotherapeutic checks were carried out in these schools, would it have helped to reduce the number of victims and the length of time the abuse lasted? We may never know . What must be emphasised is that in many of the secondary schools and colleges in the world today, including my country, Nigeria, there is need to seriously sit back and ask if some persons who have been entrusted with positions of responsibility are not regularly taking advantage of some certain policies, regulations and rules meant to keep the girl child away from falling into the province of abnormal and dangerous life style, to actually do more to cause more damage in respect of her physical ,emotional and sexual health.
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Jega to pharmacists: Check drug abuse
Former Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) chairman, Prof Atahiru Jega has urged the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria (PCN), Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAP) and other key players to check counterfeiting and how ‘prescription’ drugs were being sold over the counter.
According to him, people, especially youths, buy drugs over-the-counter, which should not be.
Jega, who was conferred with the Nigeria Academy of Pharmacy (NAP) Lifetime Achievement Award at the Investiture/Award Dinner of NAP in Lagos, said the practice was destroying Nigerians, especially the youths because the drugs are addictive.
He said: “Any youth can just walk into any patent medicine store or pharmacy to buy as many bottles of these drugs as they wish without restraint.”
“Many youths as a result of easy access are now addicted to the drugs”, he added.
He continued: “This has consequences as it has created many problems in many parts of the country, especially where I come from.
“So, I believe having been given the award, that has given me the opportunity to urge leading Nigerian pharmacists to begin to pay attention to ethical issues associated with selling prescription drugs over-the-counter because the damage this is doing to our youths, really, is going to be phenomenon. It needs to be addressed appropriately.
“I hope my suggestions will find receptive ideas. But, it is not just the pharmacists alone, the society needs to start addressing this issue by regulation,”he said.
He urged the country to take a cue from other countries that have a functional policy to guard against purchase of prescription drugs over-the-counter.
“In every country, walk across the borders, they are very serious about what is sold as prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs.
“In our country, regrettably, we are very complacent on this process. And that is why as my contribution I have drawn attention to this phenomenon and the need to urgently do something to tackle it,” Jega said.
He said Nigeria needed progress in many fundamental areas of the health sector.
“If you look at the statistics, whether it is infant or maternal mortality, our incidences are very high and we need to do something serious and I hope that we would be able to get a very good minister of health, who can pay a lot of attention to address some of these challenges and to generally re-position the health sector so that Nigeria can become a leading country in terms of health provisions,”he said.
According to him, it was shameful that most Nigerians travel abroad for ailments that could easily be treated in the country.
The Federal Government, Jega said, has the responsibility of creating a legal/policy framework and enabling environment to ensure that those challenges are adequately addressed.
On Jega’s conferrement, former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon said the award was well deserved.
Advising NAP on counterfeiting, he said although the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has done well over the years to rid the country of fake drugs, more needed to be done by professionals in the sector.
On why fake drugs litter the markets, Gowon, who was the special guest of honour, charged NAP to join hands with other agencies of government to ensure that drug counterfeiting is checked.
“We can achieve that if we all join hands,” he said.
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The evil of drug abuse
The University of Benin (UNIBEN) chapter of Anti-Drug Misuse and Abuse Programme (ADAMP) has sensitised youths of Uselu community in Benin City on the effects of drug abuse and alcohol. EZEKIEL EFEOBHOKHAN (500-Level Pharmacy) reports.
The action was informed by their concern to save the vulnerable – the innocent young ones and the addicted elders. This was the aim of members of the Anti-Drug Misuse and Abuse Programme (ADAMP), who held a two-day campaign against mental illness.
Members of the group are Pharmacy students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) who are concerned about the increasing rate of drug and alcohol abuse in Uselu, a community close to the Ugbowo campus of the school.
At a campaign held at AB Academic Centre to sensitise the children of the community, a teenager among the participants explained how his father usually abused him with alcohol. He said he would be given a half-filled cup of alcohol each time his father bought alcoholic drinks.
“If you say alcohol can cause mental illness, do I stop drinking and buying alcohol for my Dad?” the pupil asked.
Answering the question, ADMAP chairman, Isaac Ehimen, said young children are obliged to obey their parents but should resist being abused with alcohol. He said regular intake of alcohol could lead to addiction, stressing that the substance could lead to dysfunctional Central Nervous System (CNS) in young alcoholic drinkers.
Isaac told the teenagers: “You can run any errand for your parents, but never accept alcohol from them if they offer you, because it destroys.”
The Pharmacy students took their anti-drug campaign to Uselu Secondary School, where they spoke with a large number of pupils. Speaking, Austin Aigbagenode, an ADMAP member, described a child’s brain as tabula rasa, saying any habit picked by children at tender age would be difficult to drop as they grow up.
He advised the pupils not to engage in taking harmful substances, such as marijuana, Indian hemp and alcohols, saying the abuse of the substances could lead to mental illnesses and other embarrassing effects. “Don’t allow any friend to tempt you into trying any substance for the first time. They may persuade you by telling all sort of stories, but never believe them as a lot of the cases of mental illnesses are currently caused by addiction to some of these substances,” he advised.
The group took the campaign to other schools, with the aim to reach out to thousands of children in the community. At each event held, the session was usually ended with questions and answer. Gifts were also given to student, who participated in the discussion excellently.
While addressing the pupils of Eagles College, president of Pharmaceutical Association of Nigerian Student (PANS), Benjamin Idiakhoa, encouraged them to only become addicted with their books and resist peer pressure to engage in act that could derail them from fulfilling their goals and future.
Benjamin said the reason why many people suffer was not because of poverty, but because of bad companies and wrong choices. “You must be the first beneficiary of your success. Be serious with your studies, because it can take you anywhere in the world. Drinking alcohol and smoking harmful substances cannot lead you anywhere,” he said.
Ehidiamen Olobor, another member of the group, said the objective of the campaign could be realised since teenagers were the target of the campaign.
Praising the Pharmacy students, the proprietor of Eagles College, Phillip Imonlega said he was highly pleased with the campaign strategy and gave optimism that the encounter with the pupils would make positive impact. He told the pupils: “These people who spoke to you today were once like you, if they had indulged in smoking and taking alcohol, they would not have been here today. Look at their way of life and try to be like them.”
Maxwell Esebanmhen, a member of the group, hailed PANS and its president for supporting the campaign.