Nigerian children are under siege and it’s mainly because the country has no respect for them
This week, reader, I am sharing tales of woe. Have you noticed that when a new leaf is in the birthing process, it is protected by the old ones in any number of ways: supported, surrounded or downright cocooned in pristine conditions? Have you also noticed that the new-shorn leaf, delicate, green and, oh so beautiful, often comes out closest to the top facing upwards so it can receive more sunlight than the other old leaves on the branch? I don’t know about you, but I have noticed that should you come near the whelp of a dog, you will need more than a prayer to escape the leap and bound of the mother.
By some strange coincidence also, I seem to have noticed that western countries have sooooo many laws in place to protect their wee ones. Sir/Ma’am, you may not put the child in the front seat, thank you; you must put the child in a baby carrier facing backwards as you drive; you may not leave the child hungry, cold or without a bed, etc.; and yes sir/ma’am, you have to give the child his/her own room or you go to prison to cool your obstinate head, thank you. I don’t know if it is the same principle of protection that exists in the tree, lion, dog, western countries, etc., or if it is just a coincidence; whatever it is, I tell you, that bug has not bitten the Nigerian.
What I consider to be the eighth wonder of the world is the complete disregard this nation has for her children. It baffles me endlessly. I find it so incredible that since this nation’s government woke up a long time ago, thought long and hard and declared that parents should send their children to school, it promptly washed its oily hands off the matter. So, till today, this very unmotherly nation has consigned her children’s welfare into the hands of the unholy alliance of inattentive parents, poverty-battling teachers, and now boko haram.
So, around here, we watch with insouciance as children are transported around by ignorant mothers and fathers in the front seats of vehicles, sometimes even sharing the driving wheel with daddy, all the while giggling. Naturally, that puts the little tots in the first position to be thrown out through the windscreen when a crash occurs; that is, if they don’t hit their tiny little heads on the driving wheel first. I say, we watch as traffic wardens see these wonderful sights and pass such vehicles on, even smiling and waving to those stupid mothers and fathers. I don’t believe any nation could more unkindly put her offsprings under siege.
That’s not all. One of the sights that get my goat anytime is seeing children being moved around the nation on motor bikes that we call Okadas. It practically sinks this country below soil level anytime I see children in their twos or threes propped gingerly behind an Okada rider. Sometimes, I see a pregnant woman, or a woman with a child strapped to her back, riding on those death-is-waiting traps. Honestly, those things risk the children’s limbs and bones, apart from waking up the national shame or shamelessness.
Wait, reader, there’s more. Take a trip to any public primary or secondary school classroom and see how our children are crammed into a tiny learning space; and you will leave wondering how there ever can be any space for learning. The seating arrangements actually befuddle the brain for the children are seated so closely together that they practically exchange air. You guessed it; the supply is higher than the demand. Somewhere along the line, even the principals have forgotten the exact number of children those rooms were originally built for; so everyone has to use what is available in space and resources.
Wow now, did you say there is an alternative? Oh yes, there is: for some children, it is to be catapulted abroad by indulgent parents; for most other children, it is to be consigned under the good ol’ Baobab tree. Under the tree would sound idyllic in this hot African sun, but then come the rain, thunder and lightning. So, you see, most of our young ‘uns find themselves between the devil and the deep sea while the policy makers find themselves ensconced within the deep recesses of leather chairs in air-conditioned rooms. And I am telling a national story, believe me.
As if all these were not enough, Nigerian children have to bear even more indignities. Listen as I tell you, many sociopathic and psychopathic parents there are who have now taken to killing off the poor young things in their care under some erroneous belief that those children are possessed by witchcraft or are preventing the progress of the lazy, self-indulgent parent. Just a few days ago, I read of a soulless pair of parents who killed their twelve-year-old child for having the temerity to complain that he was hungry, and they kept the body under their bed.
According to the report, the pair had been in the habit of beating the child, once to a coma, and had been arrested by the police for it, but no one had taken the child from them. And that’s just it. We know a welfare department exists in our ministries of Youth, Sports, etc., presumably run by sociologists, to do just that. NOW, WHY ARE THEY NOT EFFECTIVE IN THIS COUNTRY? WHY CAN THEY NOT BE POSITIONED TO SAVE YOUNG CHILDREN FROM SUCH SOCIETAL ABUSE? Why is this Nigerian society not protecting and supervising the growth of its young ones like the tree is doing its own?
It gets worse. Now, the Nigerian society has taken to abducting children for political and commercial ends. For years now, news media have regaled us with stories of how young people are abducted and sold into slavery to be bought by unconscionable, wealthy western and Arab men and women in need of sex or domestic slaves. I mean, that just boggles the imagination. Unfortunately, the market appears to be yawning and getting more and more widened. I cannot shake off the feeling that the Chibok girls abducted over seven weeks ago were meant to be used not only for political ends but for commercial purposes also. But, as they say, hope springs eternal on their eventual safe return.
Clearly, Nigerian children are under siege, and it’s mainly because the country has no respect for them. Daily, many children are taken through the grind of social and psychological torture by their parents who refuse to feed them, or ask them to hawk some silly ware or the other before they go to school or even before they can be fed breakfast. My fellow countrymen and women, these things need not be so. There is no reason to take children through psychological traumas in the exercise of the power of protection that we parents and society have over them. As they say, there is no dictatorship in this world that can match that of a parent over his/her child. We parents should do well to remember that with such great power comes great responsibility. Just as an overindulged child soon comes to grief, so also will an unprotected child soon come to ruin. Unfortunately, a ruined child makes a ruined society.
True, our leaders right now do not appear to care about the society even though the effects of ruined children are all around us. Look no further than boko haram members. They are the children of yesterday in whose lives there was no social welfare intervention, whose parents, where such existed, did nothing to protect them. Do we want to keep replicating them? It is time now to take the children seriously. If the inanimate tree can get it, then why can’t we Nigerians?
