President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been urged to summon an emergency strategy meeting on measures to end the various problems confronting children before next year’s Children’s Day.
Founder and Chairperson Women Empowerment and Legal Aid (WELA), Mrs. Funmi Falana (SAN) made the call in a statement to mark 2025 children’s day.
According to Mrs. Falana, there are 18.5 million children out of school, 60 per cent of whom (more than 10 million) are girls.
Mrs. Falana stated that Nigeria has the second highest number globally according to UNESCO.
She said the crisis has been compounded due to the failure of most state governments to contribute counterpart fund to access the matching grant of about N135 billion from the Universal Basic Education Commission.
“As a result, millions of children are forced into early marriage while others are recruited regularly by terrorist groups, bandits, kidnappers and other criminal gangs.
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“It is estimated that three million Nigerians are internally displaced due to poverty, terrorist attacks and climate change.”
She recalled: “On 27, May 2025, political leaders in Nigeria joined their counterparts in other countries to celebrate the Children’s Day.
“Beyond the celebrations, the Federal Goverment and the 36 State Governments as well as the Federal Capital Territory should, as a matter of urgency, address the crises that are confronting the majority of children in the country.
According to the WELA Chairperson, “Nigeria has the second-highest number of stunted children in the world, with 37 per cent of children under five, suffering from chronic malnutrition.”
Reports, according to her, have also confirmed that Nigeria has the highest number of unvaccinated children in the world. “According to UNICEF, over two million of the country’s estimated 8.7 million children under one year, have not received a single dose of any of the critical vaccines meant to prevent deadly childhood discases.
“The diseases which have severe consequences on unvaccinated children include diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever.
“The infant mortality rate in Nigeria is currently around 60 deaths per 1,000 live births. This means that for every 1,000 babies born in Nigeria, about 60 will die before their first birthday.
“This rate has been steadily declining over the past fewO decades, but remains high compared to many other countries.
“On a regular basis, hundreds of school children are kidnapped from school by terrorist groups.
“Parents and guardians have been compelled to pay ransoms to secure the release of abducted children. In the last few years, millions of children have withdrawn from schools to avoid being kidnapped by terrorists and other dangerous gangs”, she lamented.