The Nation Newspaper

Tag: African Child

  • Experts make case for protection of African child

    Experts make case for protection of African child

    Laws made to protect children, norms and local languages are the key factors that will guarantee the sustainability and development of the African child, stakeholders have said.

    They spoke at a public forum to mark the International Day of the African Child in Cross River State.

    The day, marked every June 15, was rescheduled due to the weekend and two-day public holidays, as stakeholders including the Cross River State Government, the Ministry of Women Affairs and Save The Children International, held an interface and discussion session.

    They also canvassed for qualitative education, value addition to African heritage as game changers for African children: Speaking in Calabar on the development, Commissioner for Women Affairs, Hon Edema Irom, warned that, “The future of Cross River, Nigeria and African children is now and the future is the children because no other future is known to us.”

    Also lending his voice, a member representing Yala 2 in the Cross River House of Assembly, Martins Achandu, said, “There is need for enforcement of relevant laws while ensuring that they are implemented fully as this would encourage children and add value to African heritage particularly language.”

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    Also, a Member representing Akpabuyo and chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon Bassey Bassey, assured of more legislations to protect children’s rights including the introduction of local languages into the educational curriculum and the broadcast stations in the state.

    On his part, Deputy Speaker, Children Parliament, Osika Kaghini-Nse Etim, maintained that to curb threats to qualitative education, there must be improved appropriations including critical assessment of the executive, legislature and judiciary, as well as strengthened infrastructure, administration and funding.

    Field Operations Manager of Save The Children International, Oluseyi Abejide, represented by Regina John, believes that every child should have the opportunity to learn, be protected and survive.

  • 10-YEAR-OLD WINS ‘THE REAL FACE OF AN AFRICAN CHILD’ COMPETITION

    AFTER a rigorous competition among seventeen contestants between the ages of 5 and 13, 10 year old Ezewuzie Collins emerged the overall winner of The Real face of an Africa Child competition which took place last weekend at Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac, Lagos.

    Ezewuzie won a brand new Hyundai i0 car and education scholarship from primary to university level, while 5years old Gwendolyn Mesembe Okon who came second won 1million naira and scholarship from primary level to university level, the third winner, Divine Akponyoma, 10, also won 500,000naira with a scholarship from primary school to university level.

    Nollywood veteran, Emeka Ike, Singer, Sunny Nneji and film maker Triumph Abigail Dominion were the judges.

    The competition saw the kids display their various talents which include Modelling, rapping, Ballet Dancing, Magic Tricks, Poetry and more.

    Also in one of segments of the competition, the kids were also dressed in their native attire where they danced their local dance and also spoke in their native dialect.

    ‘The real face of an African child is a children reality and talent hunt pageantry that seeks to search for, identify and elevate specially gifted and talented children from Africa starting from Nigeria. It is a reality TV show designed to search al the corners and crannies of the country for unique talented and gifted children between the ages of 5-10.

    ‘The African child is a child faced with cultural social and economic challenges, yet budding with gifts and talents and needs to be given the right opportunities to shine because the Africa of tomorrow will inherit the children of today. The real face of an African child presents one the unique opportunity for the African child to shine, said Ambassador Obitex Ngoka, Founder of The real face of an African child.

    Obitex however added that the scholarship is a way of helping the African child to get quality education as it is a major way to make Africa a better place for all.

    The competition, a brainchild of Hope Alive Concepts held its first edition in Dubai last year at Metropolitan Palace Hotel, Daira, where eight years old Miss Jessica Obalu emerged winner.

    This year it had its audition at six venues representing the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria.

  • African leaders not doing enough to stop conflicts

    African leaders not doing enough to stop conflicts

    African leaders are not doing enough to stop conflicts in Africa, said two-thirds of the nearly 86,000 youth surveyed in a recent mobile-based poll conducted in nine African countries.

    Using a messaging tool called U-Report, the short survey was sent to 1.4 million mobile users in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Central African Republic, Senegal, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon and Guinea, from 18 May to 1 June 2016.

    The U-Report users surveyed, who are typically between 15 and 30 years of age, were asked to provide their opinion on conflicts and crises in Africa through short multiple choice questions on their mobile phones.

    The findings of the survey will be shared with African leaders on the Day of the African Child, which is marked every year on 16 June by the African Union.

    “It is so crucial, and even urgent for the leaders to heed the voices of the youth, if we must silence the guns by 2020, as set in our Agenda 2063. This is flagship project to which the youth must also recognize their role and take their responsibility,” said the African Union Commission Chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma.

    Key findings:

    • Asked whether African leaders are doing enough to stop conflicts and crises in Africa, two out of three respondents (70 per cent) believe that African leaders are not doing enough.
    • When asked why Africa is more prone to conflict than other regions, 56 per cent of respondents believe that ‘politicians fighting for power’ is the main reason while 19 per cent said ‘inequality’, 17 per cent said ‘poverty’ and 4 per cent said ‘access to food and water’.
    • What can leaders do to stop conflicts? Nearly a quarter of respondents (24 per cent) said a ‘strong economy’ while 20 per cent believe African countries needs to be more independent in their ‘foreign policy’, 19 per cent said investing in ‘good education’, 14 per cent said ‘talk to each other’, 10 per cent said ‘talk to other country’ and 9 per cent said ‘security’.

    Humanitarian crises in Africa continue to spill over borders in recent years, with children and families increasingly on the move. More than 1.2 million people face insecurity in the Central African Republic due to a complex humanitarian and protection crisis that has spread to neighbouring countries. Nearly 1.3 million children have been displaced by violence linked to the Boko Haram insurgency across Cameroon, Chad, the Niger and Nigeria. Two years into the conflict in South Sudan, nearly 2.4 million people have fled their homes, including 721,000 living as refugees. Burundi is facing a protection crisis that has driven some 265,000 people to flee across borders.

    “The lives of millions of children and their families are disrupted, upended or destroyed by conflict every year in Africa,” said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s Regional Director for West and Central Africa. “This survey speaks to every child’s right to be heard and gives African youth an opportunity to express their hopes for the future of their continent.”

    U-Report is a social messaging tool available in 23 countries, including 15 African countries, allowing users to respond to polls, report issues and work as positive agents of change on behalf of people in their country. Once someone has joined U-Report, polls and alerts are sent via Direct Message and real-time responses are collected and mapped on a website, where results and ideas are shared back with the community.

     

  • Pupils restate rights on Day of African Child

    If those who massacred schoolchildren in Soweto, South Africa, in 1976 sought to silence them or belittle their rights, they failed. Pupils from elementary to primary and secondary schools have continued to raise their voices every year, demanding that they are entitled to the best of education.

    So it was at the anniversary of that mid-year tragedy in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) when the kids said education is their right, never a privilege.

    The pupils were affirmative. They insisted that good and qualitative education should be the right of every Nigerian child especially the girl-child.

    The students made their position known while commemorating the Day of the African Child in the nation’s capital. They demanded government should revisit the education sector and ensure every child in the territory is given special attention. Alongside their teachers, they sought the opportunity to showcase the future they so much craved.

    It was at an event organised by international and local non-governmental organisations (NGOs). They include A World at School, Global Youth Ambassador, Connected Development (CODE), DRPC, Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All and Save the Children. The pupils are majorly from LEA Primary School, Kado Estate; Community Secondary School, Gwarinpa as well as students from a make-shift school for the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), Area 1.

    The day was set aside by the African Union (AU) to remember a tragedy- the massacre of hundreds of children in Soweto, South Africa who were demonstrating for basic right to a decent education. The incident has ever since showcased African child to global spectacle on educational right.

    So, students from the FCT schools wanted government to assist low income earning parents to support their wards; most especially in the area of free education as practiced in selected states in the country.

    They expressed fury over situations where their colleagues get to school late due to reasons that they would need to street hawk early in the morning before proceeding to school. Some of these are among list of circumstances they detest and urged government to address.

    Miss Judith Solomon, Primary 5 Pupil of LEA, Kado said as part of the participants, she was at the event to make her statements to the celebration of the Day for the African child. “I want the world to know that there is goodness in girl child education. I want the world to know that I am proud of myself and that I have right to education.”

    The 10-year old pupil emphasised that as Nigerian child, “We will stand for our right to get this education.”

    “I want government to develop my school by bringing more staff and providing more facilities necessary for the school.” Among other requests, relevant government authorities were tasked to perform their mandate and ensure every child gets access to good education.

    “Government should also ensure that all children in Nigeria have access to education. It is our right and not out privilege”

    “Government should ensure they provide whatever is possible for the children to get what they wanted and education is what we want,” Solomon, who aspired to be a medical doctor, said.

    As for Mohammed Garba, a student in one of the IDP camps in the territory, life without education is worthless. Garba, just like every other pupil in the IDP camps sacrificed his pains, despite previous encounter subjected to terrors of the Islamic sect. He strove to undergo some basic learning even barefooted with much struggle with hunger.

    “I am here to talk about my education. I just want to be in school. All I want is education. I want to become a doctor, so government should build school for us and give us good teachers,” Garba admonished.

    Community volunteered teacher who is also a victim of the Boko Haram attack in Maiduguri, Borno State, Abdul Tashiu pleaded with the government to come to the rescue of internally displaced children, especially in the area of feeding and education.

    Tashiu explained he chose to sacrifice his time for the children because when you educate a child, it is believed you have educated the society. He was able to voluntarily teach about 132 pupils in basic classes such as after their stay at the camp, they could continue their education.

    “I decided to become a volunteer in the society because there is low acceptance of education in the north which leads to early marriage.

    Children lack access to schools in IDP camps. Some of them even come from rural areas where they have no school around. So I decided to intervene providing three classrooms for the 132 pupils.”

    But he lamented over paucity of funds which he said had discouraged about four other teachers who joined him in the humanitarian work to suspend work. “The children come in mufti, barefoot. They need teachers and the environment is so poor so they need teaching aids such as desk, writing materials and are very hungry.

    “When the children come to school, they complain of hunger. So these children need to have breakfast before they go into their classrooms.”

    Maimuna Sidiham, an SS2 student of Community Secondary School, Asokoro advocated for every child to be in school. As for her, it is inhuman for parents or guardian to give young girls out for marriage.

    Describing the child marriage as worst thing that could happen to any girl child, the 16 year old student queried rationale why some children will be in school while others are on the street hawking to either feed themselves or guardian.

    The programme, according to her would enlighten them of their rights as a girl child and the essence of educating a female child. “I wonder why they will stop a child from school to get married in some states. Such action is so wrong.”

    “When you go to Karu, Nyanya, you will see young girls hawking when they are meant to be in school. Sometimes, it could be that the government cannot afford to take them to school but government could help,” she said.

    “I am not trying to discriminate here but the Muslims believe it is important for girls to get married early and not be in school be in their husbands house,” she added.

    She urged the organisers to do more of public enlightenment to change orientation of the parents.

     

  • Did you know that the International Day of the African Child was Tuesday 16 Jun 2015?

    June 16 every year is dedicated to honouring  children killed protesting in Soweto, South Africa in 1976.

    Thousands of black schoolchildren took to the streets to protest the inferior quality of their education and to demand their right to be taught in their own language. Hundreds of them were shot dead; and in the two weeks of protest that followed, more than a hundred people were killed and more than a thousand injured.

    To honour their courage and in memory of those killed, in 1991 the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) established the Day of the African Child. The Day also draws attention to the lives of African children today.