Recently, we have been inundated with horrid tales and grim pictures of children who have been domestically abused by their parents, guardians or relatives. Most of the tales and pictures are so vile that one wonders how humanity sank this low. The tale which broke the camel’s back for me was the abuse of a young boy sometime in July. In the course of that month, news began making rounds that the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), in Ogun State rescued a nine-year-old boy, Korede Taiwo. The boy was accused of stealing meat from his family’s cooking pot by his step mother and so his father who is a pastor tied the boy’s hands and legs with chains. Reports further had it that the boy had been chained for one month and after he was rescued, he was extremely tired and pale and was not able to talk. After seeing pictures of the boy in chains, as a parent, a mother and aunt, I wouldn’t wish such for my enemy.
Reliable data on violence against children in Nigeria is scarce because violence is often not reported as it occurs. Physical and psychological violence against children occur in many forms and many places, but I am focusing more on the violence within the home and family circle because it hardly gets noticed and rarely talked about. In our clime sadly, it has become an accepted norm as a way of disciplining children. Our predominant cultural belief is that children must be submissive to elders therefore behaviour not in conformity with this is punished. Making matters worse, there is also a generally high level of acceptance of domestic violence against children even amongst law enforcement officers and court personnel. This makes it difficult for perpetuators of this heinous crime to be persecuted.
Children are our biggest assets and our biggest investments. Yet, everywhere, in the home and outside it; in schools and in places where they should be protected; as individuals, institutions, community and country, we violate, fail and endanger them. Day after day, month after month and year after year, millions of children in Nigeria suffer violence – physical, sexual and emotional. The effects can be traumatic, life-changing and sometimes even fatal. Yet few ever get to be held accountable for these acts. The Child Rights Act hasn’t done much to stem the tide of violence against children; as many states within the country haven’t even ratified it; likewise federal legislation.
According to the recent Nigeria Violence Against Children Survey (VACS), a survey which assembles the most authoritative information on the pathologies of violence against children in our country and addresses violence of the most serious kind, of which, if they were to be prosecuted, could easily be felonies, found out that: Violence is a significant problem in Nigeria affecting over 60% of children; Up to 25% of girls and 10% of boys suffer sexual violence; Violence against children is rarely isolated and tends to be systematic. We tend to tolerate it with cultural alibis; for most children, who suffer it, violence begins early in their lives; its effects can be fatal and for the children who survive it, the adverse consequences can last a life time and beyond; perpetrators of violence against children are overwhelmingly people of authority in the lives of children: family, teachers, and elders. Bonds of trust are broken and children who survive can have difficulties forming trusting relationships through life; we lack the mechanisms in our society to acknowledge that these happen; we discourage children from speaking out. When they do, we don’t believe them; and for the children who are believed, support skills and services are lacking.
From the above findings, one doesn’t need a soothsayer or rocket science to know that violence against children in Nigeria is becoming grim. All across the country, this dastard act of violence is inflicted on children in different forms. It takes honesty and courage for anybody or the government to acknowledge the kind of findings in the above survey. The former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, while in office, also attested to burgeoning violence against children in our clime when he stated that “violence against children is the greatest single category of violations we receive. It is also the one that we appear least equipped to deal with and in respect of which we have the most need to upgrade the skills of our staff.”
It should be noted that violence against children is not someone else’s problem. It is a problem for all of us. The things we need to do in order to curb this malaise are many. We may need to adopt new laws and legislation that would effectively protect our children and severely punish perpetuators of violence against them. We need to encourage children to speak up, not shut the up when they are abused. We need to improve the quality of support services for children and make institutions for their care work. We need to ensure accountability for acts of abuse against children and prioritize them. To achieve this we need a different kind of lens on how we view children. We need to begin seeing them as human beings like us, but more vulnerable. Above all, we need to foster a responsible country and government that truly commits to promoting the dignity, worth and wellbeing of every child as citizens, without discrimination on grounds of race, ethnic origins, creed, sex, status, circumstances of birth or other irrelevancies. Indeed, we need to nurture a country where every child counts and is counted.
