The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Nigerian child

  • ‘Every Nigerian child deserves education’

    Founder, Out of School Empowerment Foundation, Mr Akeem Kelani, has said every Nigerian child deserves education as he or she is a beacon to the future.

    He said this at a forum held for secondary school pupils tagged: “Ameliorating out of school children in Nigerian context”, organised to commemorate of the Day of the African Child.

    Kelani, quoting a UNICEF data, said one in every five out-of-school children in the world was a Nigerian.  He, therefore, appealed to well-meaning Nigerians to contribute in cash and kind to help the foundation actualise its stated objectives.

    “Educating a Nigerian child is a responsibility for all of us and no one should ever be comfortable at the sight of children of school age roaming the streets,” he said.

    Kelani said the six-year-old Foundation, despite being self-funded has lived up to its vision of giving respite to indigent children, who are out of school by giving them the opportunity to access basic education and advocate against child abuse and trafficking.

    The Day of the African Child is set aside to commemorate the dastardly massacre of students during the Soweto uprising in South African on June 16 1976.

    Mrs Atinuke Ogunbajo of the Women Consortium of Nigeria and her counterpart, Mrs Victoria Ajayi from Centre for Peace and Environmental Justice spoke on the essence of quality education at the event, which was attended by pupils of Motivation Comprehensive High School and Highlight Comprehensive College both in Oshodi.

    The event featured a discussion on the history of Africa, ways mobile education can be decamped and how to radically improve the state of primary education in Nigeria.

  • Celebrating the Nigerian child

    A child is a young person, below the age of puberty, who has not yet reached adulthood or one below the legal age of majority. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child defines child as, “a human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier.” Children are a source of happiness to the parents. They represent a physical reflection of our biological part. Childhood comes in three stages – early childhood, middle childhood and early adolescent. In every society, children are in all ways defenseless, helpless and powerless. They therefore deserve to be protected by this same society due to their vulnerability. Children are not responsible for themselves; they are to be taken care of by parents or guardians.

    Here in Nigeria, Children’s Day is observed annually on May 27. This day is set aside to recognize, honor, celebrate and appreciate children and of course childhood. According to the website of United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, UNICEF, Childhood is defined as follows: “It is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with love and encouragement of their family and extended community of caring adults. It is the precious time in which children should live free from fear, safe from violence and protected from abuse and exploitation…Childhood means more than just the space between birth and attainment of adulthood. It refers to the state and condition of a child’s life, to the quality of those years.”

    The Child Rights Act (CRA) 2003 is a legal document that sets out the rights and responsibilities of a child in Nigeria, and which also provides for a system of child justice administration. It therefore expectedly became mandatory for all Nigerian children to be protected, with punishment for offenders who breach this law. With the CRA 2003 in place, are the Nigerian children aware of their rights as enshrined in the Act? And if by chance they do, to what extent are children’srights being protected and enforced in Nigeria? Is the Child Rights Act a mere law or lifeline to a Nigerian child?

    According to a 2014 survey by the National Population Commission, with support from UNICEF and the United States Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention, six out of every 10 Nigerian children experience at least one form of violence or child abuse before they attain the age of 18. Some months ago, UNICEF revealed that Nigeria has about 10.5 million out of school children, aged six to 14. These figures of vulnerable children being exposed to violence or child abuse and those out of school are staggering as it does appear as if the Nigerian child is not protected by any law.

    As we celebrate and honor the Nigerian Child, it is of great importance that caring parents and guardians teach their children certain facts and realities about life from their early age. This is expected to be reflected in the conduct and character of the parents as they live and lead by examples in the society. Children learn good and bad habits from their parents, siblings and peers. They mimic styles and copy habits easily at young age. While we all know that the child may not be held responsible by law for his actions, they must be taught in their early ages how to take responsibility for their action.

    It is instructive to know that the life of the child teaches every adult sincerity and genuineness in all things. Just like the ‘contagious’ smile of a child is to anyone who sees him smiling, the child can also be ‘infected’ with respect. Children should be respected so they grow up too by learning to respect others in the society.

    Old folks can then go to bed with all eyes closed as these well-trained young ones grow to maturity. They become better and more prepared heading for the daunting challenges that await them in adulthood. The strong and resilient child is better positioned to take informed decisions when faced with peer pressure and juvenile delinquency in the society.

    It has also been observed that most northern states in Nigeria are yet to domesticate the CRA 2003, hence reason for the prevalence of various forms of violence on the Nigerian Child in these areas. Government at the central level is expected to prevail on these states to ratify the laws for the CRA to be effective nationwide. I am of the opinion that Nigeria will be failing in her duty if all those who play down on the rights of any child are not severely dealt with.

    The government is urged to ensure that the right of everyNigerian child isfullyprotected by ensuring compliance to the laws in the CRA 2003. Trafficking, forced marriages and abuse of these minors may imply doom for the Nigerian State if draconian measures are not taken to protect children from societal ills. For these young ones to make a quantum leap in life, they must be empowered and equipped to function maximally at adulthood. Let it be said that, sometimes what is appropriate for an adult may not be suitable for a child. So in preparing the children for the life ahead of them, there must be a balance in the way the children are trained so they won’t misrepresent training for punishment.

     

    • KayodeOjewale writes in via kayodeojewale@gmail.com.

  • Plight of the Nigerian child

    “I believe that children are our future
    Teach them well and let them lead the way
    Show them all the beauty they possess inside
    Give them a sense of pride to make it easier
    Let the children’s laughter remind us how we used to be”
    – George Benson

    As the nation marked yet another Children’s Day yesterday, the spotlight is again shed on the plights of the Nigerian child. The international Children’s Day is observed globally by several countries in celebration of children.  Different countries have different dates set aside for this purpose. In Nigeria, May 27 is officially designated as Children’s day.

    I was returning from work one evening in the last week of January 2017, when I became an unwilling witness to a grisly affair: a boy about eleven years of age, who was hawking bread, was run over by a speeding car. I still recall the image of the smashed skull each time I see young boys and girls hawking goods and running after moving vehicles on busy roads. Social apathy and desperation everywhere in the country reproduce scenes of abuses and exploitation. Children of school age work at various unexpected places and are subjected to rigours meant for adults.

    The family appears to be compromising all family ideals in the face of biting economic realities. The Nigerian Government, aware that it is partly responsible for this negative phenomenon, has refused to be proactive in this area despite being a signatory to the World Declaration on the Survival, Protection and Development of Children since 30th September,1990.

    Without controversy, the future of every family, community, society and nation lies in the future and wellbeing of her children. It therefore takes a joint effort between parents and the society represented by the government to raise a child. It follows therefore, that securing the future of our children, is securing our collective future.

    The government has the responsibilities amongst others to:

    • Ensure that children survive and develop healthily
    • Protect children against trafficking
    • Ensure that children are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents, or anyone
    • Ensure that children’s right to good quality healthcare, clean water, nutritious food, and a clean environment, are not violated, so that they can stay healthy and grow properly.

    These responsibilities are well enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which came into force 2, September 1990. Needless to say the Nigerian government is a signatory to the Convention, hence the plight of the Nigerian Child.

    Our collective future seems to be in jeopardy due to the poor welfare of children across the nation.  It takes a village, like the adage says, “to raise a child” However, the Nigerian child seemed to have been totally abandoned to face the brunt of life.

    The Nigerian Child is increasingly becoming victim of social vices such as unhealthy cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilation- FGM, child labour and child molestation which seems to be an emerging scourge in the society today.

    Trafficking is still alarmingly high in Nigeria as our young teenage girls are helplessly constantly being ferried abroad for prostitution with the façade of a better life oversea.

    Across the federation especially, in the busy city capitals, young children could be seen involved in one form of high-risk activity or the other in a bid to make ends meet even during school hours. According to the United Nations Children Education Fund – UNICEF, “one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria”. Statistics from UNICEF further reveal that the total number of out of school children in Nigeria (aged 5-14 years) are about 10.5 million.

    The government whose primary responsibility is the welfare of her citizenry could justifiably be said to have abandoned her responsibilities of care especially to hapless children.

    A good number of Nigerian children have shown resilience in their commitment to get good education despite adversities that stand on their way as shown by the recent story of little Success who was sent out of school because of inability to pay the prescribed school fees. Success, the brave girl from Warri, like many Nigerian children would rather choose to be in school even if it comes at the price of being “beaten”, than stay illiterate. These children seem to understand the importance of education better than the government.

    What is our fate as a Nation if all we do is to groom an army of mass illiterates in a world that is dynamically advancing the frontiers of knowledge?

    How do we ever hope to attain global relevance and significance as a nation when we keep treating the fruits of our loins, our strength and glory like a piece of cabbage?

    Even parents who are the primary caregivers of a child seemed to be culpable in the menace that has become the lot of the Nigerian child.  Most Nigerian parents still think all they owe their child are “things” such as; clothes, food, education and for a few who can afford them, cars and vacations abroad. While these things are good, children however need more than these things  “to feel loved and human”. Children crave for emotional connection with their parents more than anything else.

    The absence of emotional connection with parents have forced many innocent children into the cold and callous arms of the street. Young ladies have been victimized, defloured and abandoned by rousing but callous boys who once feigned love and friendly.  Young boys have become victims of drug abuse, cultism and crimes as a result of emotional disconnection with their parents.

    Love and its attendant emotion are the element that glues any family and society together and is best demonstrated by actions and attitudes. It is therefore possible for children to interpret “hates” from some parental actions intended for the child’s correction. Hence, parents need to step up their game of parenting by seeking new knowledge in child’s psychology and emotional intelligence.

    Government should urgently begin taking pragmatic steps that will institutionalized and drive efforts to help children at self-discovery and mastery from a tender age.

    No price is too great to pay to help our children live their full potentials. It is only when we enable children to live their full potentials that our collective future as a family, community, society and a nation, could be said to be truly and prosperously secured.

    Agreed, children are our future, but that future will only materialize into something pleasant if we all take responsibility to:

     

    “Teach them well and let them lead the way

    Show them all the beauty they possess inside

    Give them a sense of pride”

     

    • Elomien is Executive Director, Community Social Welfare Foundation and Child Rights activist

     

  • Still nothing for the Nigerian child

    SIR, An estimated 25,685 babies were supposedly born in Nigeria on New Year’s Day, according to UNICEF, with Nigerian babies making up 6.5 percent of the estimated 395,072 babies born on New Year’s Day globally.

    Within Africa, Nigerian babies will account for almost 40 percent of all those born in West and Central Africa, and more than 23 percent of those born in sub-Saharan Africa.

    Globally, over half of the world’s births are estimated to take place in just eight countries, including Nigeria.

    At current life expectancy rates, a child born in Nigeria today is likely to live only to the year 2074 – 55 years of age. A child born today in Denmark is likely to live until the 22nd century.

    Only children born in three countries today have a lower life expectancy than that of Nigerian children: Central African Republic, Chad and Sierra Leone.

    Globally in 2017, about 1 million babies died the day they were born, and 2.5 million in just their first month of life. In Nigeria, each year, about 262,000 babies die at birth, the world’s second highest national total, while every day in Nigeria, 257 babies die within their first month of life.

    Among these children, most died from preventable causes such as premature birth, complications during delivery, and infections like sepsis and pneumonia –  a violation of their basic right to survival.

    2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which UNICEF will be commemorating with worldwide events throughout the year. Under the convention, governments committed to, among other things, taking measures to save every child by providing good quality health care.

    Over the past three decades, the world has seen remarkable progress in child survival, cutting the number of children worldwide who die before their fifth birthday by more than half. But there has been slower progress for newborns. The progress made doesn’t seem to include Nigeria and here lies the fact.

    So alongside many African nations, Nigeria will in the year 2019, look at six overarching themes with recommendations for tackling the challenges that lie ahead. Sadly, none deals with how we are preparing for those that manage to escape death at childbirth, a population that will be increasing at an alarming rate.

    While as the year rolls forward, a lot would be said and done about harnessing the country’s youth dividend, the fuse and the noise that trailed the not-too-young drama has shown that there’s need to first create an environment and secondly look at new approaches for large-scale jobs creation.

    The working age population is growing rapidly, with estimations that are scary. While this youth bulge is a potential economic boon, a stagnant industrial sector and the increasing adoption of labour-saving technologies in production present a massive hurdle to overcome before dividends can be realized.

    In 2019, it is estimated that 70 percent of the world’s poor will live in Africa—mostly in Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo. By 2030, 13 African countries will see an increase in extreme poor. Based on these forecasts, poverty will continue to strain government institutions and threaten stability. Climate change will exacerbate the challenge, with disproportionate effects on the Sahel and other unstable areas. Boko Haram, violence and drugs, where do our children feature in the future?

    So if the Nigerian child does not die at childbirth, if he doesn’t end up orphaned by avoidable circumstances, if he is no almajiri, and does not end up in one form of child labour or the other. If that young girl does not have to tackle child marriage or unwanted pregnancy, if Ali, Chukwuma, or Biodun escapes the lure of drugs, there is little in terms of examples being set by the older ones; the child that eventually does break the barrier into youth is faced with the reality that leadership, and governance in this clime has not put him in the scheme of anything.

     

    • Prince Charles Dickson, PhD; <pcdbooks@gmail.com>

  • Conoil celebrates Nigerian Child

    CONOIL has urged teachers, parents, governments, non-governmental organizations and all well-meaning Nigerians to take more interest in stemming the growing negative influence on children.

    The company in a goodwill  message to the Nigerian child on the occasion of   Children’s Day entreated parents, leaders and every adult to lead by example by imbibing hard work, diligence, discipline, honesty, prudence, selflessness and patriotism.

    It also called on parents to strive at all times to nurture, educate, mentor and pride their children to be the best in whatever endeavour they find themselves.

    It counselled private sectors to partner with government at all levels to guarantee better living conditions for the Nigerian child by providing access to quality and affordable education, effective transportation system, good healthcare and other basic necessities so that they can grow, flourish and keep our nation strong.

  • Curse of the Nigerian child

    In our bedevilled times it seems like it is a crime to be born a Nigerian.  Some may say a child has no choice as to where he/she eventually emerges, but our times have no patience for the logic of choices; our times swallow our children even before they think geography. Poor Nigerian child.

    As nations sit back this day, November 20 to think of strides or otherwise made in the actualization of the Rights of the Child set forth by the United Nations (International Children’s Rights Day), it is common knowledge that the child fated to be born these times in Nigeria ranks one of the most endangered species on earth.

    Or, what do you make of this heart-breaking scenario: all that those kids had in mind were futures decked in gold, and some were probably already bagging laurels on their way to reclaiming those futures. A big bang and that was all. What did we see? Fifty eight body bags containing dreams sliced to unrecognizable bits in a shattered school in Potiskum.

    And, as it was in Potiskum, so it was in Buni Yadi: 69 innocent school children consumed in  one fell-swoop—bombed, slaughtered, burnt; parents’ high dreams up in the smoke of an insane insurgency.

    Then think of the Chibok girls. What exactly was their crime? In the era where their peers settled squeamishly in the discomfort of forced child marriages, of forced violations, fragile bodies primed by a shameless norm for unripe tasks,  unspeakable maternal suffering, these girls dared to dream. They dared to step up their lives, to be enlightened, to be elevated and to shine as harbingers of light to their families – future and present, to be pride to Nigeria. Those adventurous dreams ended in the thick of the night, borne to the bushes on the craggy backs of Boko Haram’s lorries, carefully guarded by the Kalashnikov.

    Seven months later, no word about their welfare. And except for international pressures, their matters would have long been buried in the face of 2015 electoral exigencies. Delicate dreams buried deep in the thick of Sambisa forest, bygone girlhoods, children sold off as slaves, so the mad men bragged. Those who escaped owed their freedom to self-help, nothing more. And yet these are people’s daughters, people’s investment, and communities’ hopes. But then, who cares? Those who have cried themselves hoarse asking for the innocent girls to be brought back have been labelled enemies of progress, opposition party members.

    Naturally, the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs should care, as sensitive women would, if only they haven’t now become superb event managers for powerful women married to powerful men in the days of the cobra. They are experts in organizing rallies to #BringBackJonathan’, incredibly, at a time the world remains united in their plea to #BringBackOurGirls’. Some may say they are supposed to be mothers, but then so what? These are children of faceless peasants, Nigerians of no consequence, children who choose to their peril to be born Nigerians!

    And lest we forget, there was something called the Safer School Initiative in which school children were to repose their trust as to the protectiveness of the learning four-walls amidst terrorist threats. Propounded by former British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, its launch came like ice cold water to a desert traveller. But today, if you have a clue as to how the programme is being implemented and how many lives are truly safe from the bombers of childhood dreams, let’s know. If you do not know and you ask me, who I go ask?

    And, better believe this, the endangerment of our children are not only restricted to the Boko Haram-harassed North.  Within well-fenced, well-adorned homes in elitist Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt brimming with over-dotted and sometimes overweight children, other underage children with ‘’irrelevant parents’ live in domestic slavery. Unschooled. Underfed. Unkempt. Overworked.  But again, who cares?

    Haven’t you heard that Nigeria now tops the world in the number of out-of-school children? According to UNESCO, it stood at 10 million as at last year. This year, with more violence, more fears, more forced migration, it is certainly more. And, please, do not ask me if the government has yet asked after the welfare of Nigerian children, families now refugees in Cameroon, Niger and Chad, but I do know we are now a top ‘refugee nation’.

    And here we are, consistently ranking high on the global negative index when it touches on children. One of the highest in under-five deaths, according to Save Our Children. Very soon, perhaps, cases of battery, child rape, kidnaps and other crimes splashing our local media pages daily may no longer be news after all.

    Or, can we ever speak exhaustively about Nigerian newborns being virtually hawked on the streets of Aba, Owerri, Enugu, Port Harcourt and exchanged for naira and kobo to buyers from Lagos, Abuja, London, Paris? We are talking about children of vulnerable teenagers, fellow children, babies who will grow up, never knowing their biological parents neither history. Some, we even hear, end up in ritualists’ altars.

    Who is really there for these unlucky children? Remember it took the plea of Pakistani teenager Malala to get our darling president to see distraught parents of the Chibok girls? Remember the jamborees that usually follow the news of the slaughter of citizens? Buni Yadi. Chibok. Nyanya. Potiskum. Remember? Who really gives a damn?

    And if the president does not give a damn, is it any surprise that majority of the citizenry, especially the well-off, act completely aloof? Isn’t it why, whenever children are bombed out of existence, innocent lives hacked down for no single fault of their, the rest of Nigeria instantly  go on tweeting deliriously about Arsenal’s trophy or cooing on Facebook about Angelina Jolie’s killer dress sense?

    It is this indifference by the majority of the populace and lack of action especially by policy makers on so many child-related fronts that makes this particularly tragic.

    But the aloofness may not even be restricted to government and the tired citizens. In the recent past, we have had UNICEF offices in Palestine, South Sudan and many other places ravaged by conflict building international coalitions to attract help for hapless children of those countries. If you ask me if Nigeria has a UNICEF branch and what they do, na who I go ask? Go to its website and social media pages and see them gathering cobwebs and you will know, like government, like people, even our UNICEF and most international child’s rights groups in Nigeria don’t give a damn. After all, these children embarked on the suicidal trips to be born Nigerians. It’s their fault, isn’t? But God is watching us all on a 5-D camera, His quill in His hands. History too is not sleeping.

    Alas, lest we forget in a detached hurry, it may be pertinent to ask the right questions about what awaits us:  What manner of children are we breeding? If we do not show them love, show them that our well-oiled government has the resources and capacity to protect them, fight for them and fend for them when necessary using all sorts of tastelessly insensitive alibis, what manner of adults, leaders do we assume they would grow up to be? Will we adults be safe, supposing we reach that future, together with the children of today?

    It is the more reason, compatriots, we must halt the parties, halt the ineptitude, the corruption and aloofness and ensure that the lives, rights and future of the Nigerian child is protected, starting now.

    • Abah is founder of CEE-HOPE Nigeria, a child’s right and welfare NGO.

  • Prison kids

    Prison kids

    •This is shameful; government must address it immediately

    Prison is one hellhole that no one would wish to experience. It is primarily a place of punishment for crime. This reality makes it absurd and horrifying to learn that there is a high population of kids who committed no crimes and are languishing in the country’s prisons. Even if they did commit crimes, minors are, by law, exempted from imprisonment. The appalling news is from a report by the African Union (AU) on the rights and welfare of the Nigerian child. An estimated 6,000 children reportedly live in prisons and detention centres across the country, many of whom were born there.

    The 2012 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices recently released by the United States’ Department of State painted a picture of the deplorable circumstances of children in the country’s prisons. According to the document, “Authorities sometimes held female and male prisoners together, especially in rural areas, and prisons had no facilities to care for pregnant women or nursing mothers. Infants born to inmate mothers usually remained with the mother until weaned. Juvenile suspects were often held with adult prisoners.”

    Since the law clearly forbids the imprisonment of children, this situation of caged kids opens the prison authorities to the charge of lawlessness. This irony in which the custodians of law breakers have themselves shown disrespect for the law is made even more pronounced by a piece of information in the US report. “Despite a government order to identify and release such children and their mothers, authorities had not done so by year’s end,” said the report.

    It is pathetic to visualise such children behind bars, both literally and metaphorically. It goes without saying that they are likely to suffer arrested development in various aspects, including growth, education, and socialisation. The country’s prison environment, as described in the report, is certainly not a place to raise any child. The document said, “Most of the country’s 234 prisons, built 70 to 80 years earlier, lacked basic facilities. Lack of potable water, inadequate sewage facilities, and severe overcrowding resulted in dangerous and unsanitary conditions.” Furthermore, it said, “Disease remained pervasive in cramped, poorly ventilated prison facilities, which had chronic shortages of medical supplies. Inadequate medical treatment caused many prisoners to die from treatable illnesses.”

    Even if children in this context are lucky to survive the harsh conditions, it can only be imagined the degree of damage that would have been done to their psyche. Hardened, as they would surely be, by the tough terms of existence in prison, can they possibly grow into socially well-adjusted adults? In a regrettable sense, they just might be embryonic criminals. This scenario should prick society’s conscience. It must be acknowledged that through no fault of theirs, but by birth and environment, these unfortunate children have found themselves exposed to negative influences that would likely shape their future. This is as unsettling as it is unacceptable.

    It is immensely disappointing that the activities of prison monitors in the country have had little or no positive effect on this state of affairs. Both the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which compiles an annual prison audit, and the Federal Ministry of Justice, which executes the Federal Government Prison Decongestion Programme sadly fall short of public expectation in this matter. These bodies should not only be aware of the improper circumstances of the prison kids, they also ought to take urgent steps to correct the anomaly.

    It is worrying that the US report highlighted the failure of prison authorities to carry out the government’s directive on the identification and release of prison kids and their mothers. The government should promptly address this apparent disobedience of authority. The continued existence of children in jails does the country a disservice.