The Nation Newspaper

Tag: plight

  • 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

     

  • Plight of a campus journalist

    Sir: Two years ago, precisely in 2016, Kunle Adebajo wrote an investigative story titled, “UI: The Irony of Fashionable Rooftops and Awful Interiors” published by The Guardian. The piece in question, objectively criticized the school’s policy on infrastructural development and routine maintenance as supported by facts.

    Having perused the piece, an objective reader would agree with the issues raised in the article. A sincere stakeholder in the university community will concur with the findings of the report in toto.   This is because, the article is balanced, ethically approving, and morally sound.

    Expectedly, as the norm in most tertiary institutions of learning in Nigeria, Kunle Adebajo was slammed a two-semester rustication as a reward for his action of speaking the truth without fear or favour.

    While it remains incontestible that a tertiary institution has a right to determine the nature or form of its own internal affairs and proceedings (particularly on disciplinary cases), it is equally important to state that the school system is not a law unto itself — it is regulated by the constitution of the country.

    Asking some relevant questions might help in a bid to underscore the issues involved in Kunle’s ordeal, to wit: are the issues raised in the controversial article factual or fictitious? Is the article objective and balanced? Does it comply with ethical standards? Does the writer have a right to express himself, howbeit in a dissenting manner? Has the writer committed any known crime recognized by extant laws?

    The answer to the first question is an emphatic yes. The content in the report is factual. Even relevant stakeholders in the University of Ibadan community are aware of the infrastructural deficiencies in most halls of residence. The writer only helped in giving a widespread coverage of the unsavory situation via the instrumentality of the mass media.

    On the second question, I believe the article is an offshoot of painstaking investigation which complies with basic journalism ethics. The views of the university authorities and other relevant parties were duly captured in the report. As such, from an ethics point of view, the piece is in order.

    Regardless of the bye laws of the University of the Ibadan, section 39(1) of the 1999 Nigerian constitution (as altered), provides that “every person shall be entitled to freedom of expression, including freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart ideas and information without interference”.

    The above cited section of the supreme law nullifies any bye-laws which seek to gag students from freely expressing themselves particularly on matters bothering on their well-being. As such, the so-called oath form students are required to sign upon matriculation is not, in any way, superior to the Nigerian constitution.

    Kunle’s situation aptly captures the plight of campus journalists and student activists in Nigeria. The school system has not been particularly fair to them. The power vested on the mass media under section 22 CFRN to “uphold the fundamental objectives of the constitution and to uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people” is almost nonexistent in virtually all the campuses in Nigeria.

    It is important for the highest echelon in the tertiary school system to have a paradigm shift on the role of campus journalists and constructive criticism towards the growth and development of the citadel of learning.

    We must learn to accommodate dissenting voices because it’s an integral part of the developmental process. By so doing, no campus journalist will be tempted to externalise the shortcomings of his alma mater in the public space. In turn, developmental and peace journalism become the new narrative of change.

     

    • Chima Osuji,

    University of Ilorin.

  • Plight of Plateau corps members

    SIR: After graduation, graduates are mandatorily required serve to their father land under the National Youth Service Corps scheme. This is a scheme established after the civil war in other to integrate and re-integrate Nigerians. People are posted to different parts of the country to serve, interact and learn the culture and tradition of the people.

    Government on its part pays a monthly stipend for the upkeep of corps members. Although this is hardly enough considering the realities of present day Nigeria, it goes a long way to facilitate their transport fare to their places of primary assignment and sometimes feeding. Considering the fact that they are prohibited from working during the service year, their monthly stipend is thus the only means of survival. It should therefore be paid regularly and timely too.

    Corp members in Plateau State are not having the best of times. Many of them can no longer go to their places of primary assignment. The ability to get a meal in a day is left to fate or miracle to decide. Why is this so? Many of them, if not all of them, have not been paid their monthly stipend for the month of May. The month of June has gone half way already!

    The issue of late or no payment of corps members in Plateau State is a recurring decimal. For the month of April, their monthly allowance did not come on time; many of them are still being owed for that. Again, they are faced with the same situation for the month of May, who knows what will happen with June allowance? May be it would be paid in September!

    Given the fact that corps members depend of this allowance for survival, it doesn’t make sense to owe them. If you ask me, it is sheer wickedness to send people to an area where they don’t know anyone and abandon them to their fate.

    If we don’t pay corps members, we cannot get the best from them. We would also lose the moral right to reprimand corps members who abandon their places of primary assignment.

    This is a plea to NYSC to make the welfare of corps members its primary responsibility. It is wrong to owe members their monthly stipend. I doubt if any staff of the NYSC has not been paid their salary for the month of May. Corps members are frustrated. More frustrating is the fact that officials of the scheme are keeping sealed lips over this issue.

    Dear Director General of the NYSC, your children in the Plateau State are suffering and are in need of your urgent intervention.ý The federal government should ensure the timely release of funds meant for the payment of corps members.

     

    • Frank Ijege,

    frankijege@yahoo.com

  • Again, on the plight of pensioners

    SIR, The woes of pensioners and to certain extent those of regular workers appear an unending phenomenon in many states of the federation. Apart from unpaid gratuities which piled up over several years of “democratic” or civil dictatorial rule, the payment of the mandatory monthly pension to bona fide retirees has become a subject of unmitigated disaster and controversy with arrears ranging from a few months to more than one year owed in some instances.

    It may appear as nothing that workers and pensioners who have contributed to the growth of the country must continue to bear the brunt of the selfish fiscal administrators or unconcerned chief executives. The greatest fiscal mistake of the federal authorities was the doling out of the so-called bailout funds to states without any publicly known stringent conditionality attached. Many commentators in the political space allege that the funds ended in a cul-de-sac. Ideally pensioners with arrears of gratuities should have been the first to be cleared followed by the unpaid salaries of workers. These senior citizens have been badly treated and disgraced instead of being honoured.

    In the   circumstances, I urge President Muhammadu Buhari and the National Assembly to put heads together and initiate appropriate legislation to authorise the President as a matter of doctrine of necessity and overall public interest, to dissolve the administration of any state that is adjudged bankrupt and could not pay poor citizen pensioners or workers for more than two months. What further evidence of bankruptcy more than this? The Presidency should take direct control of administration of such states. The affected governors must be made to render full account of their stewardship and face the full wrath of the law if they fail. The suggested measures would send a clear and sharp message that institutionalized impunity, brazen corruption and cronyism have no place under the present dispensation. The people would also be freed from the shackles and menace of modern day imperialism.

    • Alh. Abubakar Usman

    Madakin  Kasar Tirwun, Bauchi.

  • Plight of an untethered generation

    SIR: There appears to be a vacuum in the recording of history in Nigeria. At its heart, history is the story of individuals who have by their actions or inactions at specific time periods shaped the narrative of the human existence of a people within a specified geographical space. Thus history is not about circumstances, but about the individuals and the actions taken by them which invariably brought about the circumstances being experienced or reported.

    It is mind boggling that the heady days of the June 12 crisis of a little over 20 years ago, has by and large been forgotten and most youths have no clue about what went on then, talk less about the person of MKO Abiola , and his centrality to the issue. Stretch back to the days of pre-independent Nigeria and mention the names of the founding fathers and the youth’s only link with them is the portraits of some of them on our currency.

    The disconnect between the vast majority of Nigerian youths and our national icons is not only unfortunate, but is largely responsible for the untethered ambition and relentless pursuit of material gain by the youths, who have no knowledge of the noble lives of our heroes past to serve as a moral compass. The only history available to them is the one that glorifies the lifestyle of degenerate celebrities gleaned from social media.

    The most unfortunate aspect of it all, is the fact that our youths are acutely conversant with the “Kardashians” of this world to the exclusion of every thing else. While the average “ western youth” not only knows about the “Kardashians” but is also acutely aware of the contributions of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln to the emergence of the USA as a word power. This is because their society has evolved formal and informal ways of inculcating the spirit of patriotism in them, through the exemplary lives of their national icons. The fact that the American tradition of celebrating “Thanksgiving” has more or less eclipsed the pomp of the celebration of Christmas in the US is eloquent testimony of how highly successive generations of Americans have esteemed the heroism of the early settlers in America. Not only is the History of America taught in schools, stories of their heroes past are subliminally infused into their youths through a variety of means, like TV, movies, monuments etc.

    In Nigeria, not only have we not institutionalized the teaching of Nigerian History, but we have gone several steps backwards by eliminating the teaching of history from our primary and secondary schools. In our various vernaculars, we have wise sayings that underscore the imperative of inculcating a sense of history in every generation, how we have departed from this truism to embrace collective amnesia beats me hollow. It would seem as if we have no icons to draw inspiration from, when in fact we have hundreds if not thousands of worthy persons to be proud of. Men like, Hebert Macaulay, Samuel Ajayi Crowther, Mbonu Ojike, Sam Opara, Aminu Kano , Ahmadu Bello and women like Queen Amina, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Margaret Ekpo etc.

    This year will be a good place to begin the “History Appreciation” initiative, I am proposing. The year will mark the 50th year of the two military coups that have more or less defined the fortunes of Nigeria to date. Indeed, the events of 1966 and the actions of the principal characters of that era are to this date still reverberating in our national psyche. That era witnessed the heroic examples of people like Adekunle Fajuyi, who gave up his life in the defence of an honoured guest. Without a doubt, that was perhaps the greatest example of loyalty ever displayed by a Nigerian. This story needs to be retold to the present generation of young Nigerians, so as to engender a spirit of loyalty and patriotism, which is sorely lacking in our youth.

    The government and for that matter everyone else ought to heed this clarion call to bring back history telling to our educational institutions, as well as to forge informal ways of acquainting the youth with the nobility of our heroes past.

    • Patrick Doyle,

    Lagos.

  • APC accuses Fayose of insensitivity to workers’ plight

    APC accuses Fayose of insensitivity to workers’ plight

    The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State has described Governor Ayodele Fayose’s Christmas Dubai trip as a reckless insensitivity to the workers’ plight, saying it was a height of irresponsibility by the governor to embark on private comfort abroad while state workers live in miserable conditions during festive Yuletide season.

    Specifically, the party accused the governor of refusal to pay workers salary for three months while embarking on Christmas foreign trip through over-bloated expenses costing Ekiti people N250m.

    Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, in a statement described the governor’s Sunday trip to Dubai as the height of insensitivity and wickedness for a governor who always calls himself peoples’ governor. “It is more worrisome that the governor prepared and collected travelling allowances for 10 aides who he claimed were to travel with him to Dubai, but only one eventually made the trip while money running into millions for the remaining nine was pocketed by the governor,” Olatunbosun alleged.
    He added that the Dubai trip “confirmed our earlier alarm that Fayose is taking Ekiti money out to the Middle East country whenever he receives allocation from the Federal Government”.

    He added: “Fayose just visited local governments where he lied to the  workers that the state government is broke whereas he has appropriated N250m for his needless trip and those of ghost aides after setting aside another N250 million for his monthly personal security vote.

    “This is a governor who few days ago accused his colleagues of extravagant spending through foreign trips even though he himself is the greatest culprit. This confirms our allegation that Governor Fayose is an incorrigible con artist that ever lives.”
    Regretting that Fayose was dehumanising Ekiti people through anti-people policies, such as heavy taxes that could not be accounted for, he said this was unlike in former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s era in 2013 when workers collected their December salary a week to Christmas in addition to 30 percent of their annual basic salary as Christmas bonus.

    “Fayose again conned Ekiti workers by paying ten percent of their monthly basic salary which translated to about N700 (seven hundred naira) to most workers while he shamelessly boasted he had paid workers’ bonus,” he said.

    He added that even though he collected over N9b cash for bailout to clear arrears of workers’ salary, pensions and allowances of former political office holders, the money was allegedly diverted to other purposes.

    “He is owing Ekiti workers three months salary arrears, pensioners’ four months arrears and has not paid severance and furniture allowances of former political office holders,” he explained.
    Calling on EFCC and ICPC to invite Ekiti State Commissioner for Finance, Accountant General and the Auditor General for interrogation on how the finances of the state were mismanaged on the alleged governor’s instructions, the party reiterated its resolve to institute a legal action against the governor over alleged financial recklessness and refusal to account for all the monies he collected from the Federation Account.

  • The plight of deceased soldiers’ families

    I write to humbly bring to the notice of Mr. President, the plight and injustice been suffered by the kiths and kin of deceased soldiers, notably soldiers that died in the ongoing onslaught against Boko Haram.

    On June 14th, I received a call from the military authorities in Yola, Adamawa State, informing me that my elder brother in the army (Amos Erekose) was killed by Boko Haram fighters on May 16, 2015 in an operation code named ‘Operation Zaman Lafiya’. As devastating and heartrending as that incidence could be, the adverse effect on every member of the family is better imagined than said. But why did it have to take so long to notify me?

    However, the gross and unacceptable action of the whole matter is the stoppage of my late brother’s salary. I wish to use this medium to draw the attention of Mr. President, the military high command, and the appropriate office of the Army to look into this injustice and identify those involved in this sharp practice. Enough of this wickedness, where some people benefit and thrive on the death of others. It is normal that under any employment condition, the salary of a worker who died in active service is paid for at least three months after his death, not to talk of a man who died fighting for his country.

    It beats me hollow why my late brother’s salary has to be stopped abruptly just one month after his death.

    Mr. President, I wish to bring to your notice and passionately appeal for prompt and adequate compensation to the bereaved families.

    The nonchalant manner in the handling of safety and security of its officers by the Army leaves much to be desired. Devastating and most unfortunate as the case may be.

    It is my fervent prayers that the Boko Haram scourge will be a thing of the past soon.

    • Erekose Peter,

    Benin City, Edo State.

  • The plight of the Almajirai

    SIR: Almajiri (singular), Almajirai (plural), as they are called in Hausaland is a long standing tradition of Islamic education in which the individual leaves his locality to far away places to learn. Usually, an Almajiri is sent away at childhood, handed to his teacher at a very young age.

    Nigeria is not the only country with Almajirai population in the world. Sudan, Niger, Egypt, Tibet, Burma, India etc all have Almajarai.  What make the Nigerian Almajirai totally different from all others is the fact that government and all other relevant stake holders have not been giving them the necessary attention and assistance they need. Until the coming of President Jonathan, I don’t know if there was any other regime at the centre whether civil or military, that offered them any form of assistance.

    In 2012, President Goodluck Jonathan promised to assist the Almajirai by building special schools that include both Islamic and western education for them. For this, the sum of over N1 billion was said to have been allocated. Two years after, not much has been achieved. The Almajirai are still roaming about scavenging for food, shelter and clothes. Even the schools constructed in Katsina State near Army barracks, and in Sokoto near Rima Basin Development Commission are not put to use. The buildings have been completed, but the schools remain closed and under lock.

    The people and government in northern Nigeria should make a special allocation for Almajirai in their budgets to better their lives.

    Above all, the federal government should ensure that the money voted for this class of Nigerians are utilized judiciously.

    • Comrade Abdulbaqi Aliyu Jari,

    Katsina

  • Plight of house-helps in Nigeria

    SIR: Girl Child Rights have hitherto been ignored across the country. Rapid population growth characterized by poverty and food insecurity has resulted in demand continuous for child labour to enhance agricultural productivity and fortify domestic services.

    The Rights of most Nigeria Children are far from being respected despite the country’s signing to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child since 1999 and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child that Nigeria signed in 2001.

    As confirmed by UNICEF, trafficking of girl children for the purpose of domestic service, prostitution and other forms of exploitative labour remains widespread in Nigeria. In Nigeria, hapless young women and girls in the age bracket of 10-21 years have fallen victims of human trafficking as they are deceptively procured by some barons through their Nigerian agents who traffic them to different countries abroad where they suffer sexual exploitation, emotional distress, disorientation, depression and sometimes death.

    Despite the fact that the Child Rights Acts was specific on rape and other forms of abuses directed at girl children, cases of sexual harassment against girls as domestic servants remain rampant in Nigeria.

    Instead of moral support, proper up-binging, good education and respect for Child Rights, thousands of girl children are enslaved by parents or guardians to engage as domestic workers or forced to early marriage across the country, primarily to mitigate socio-economic challenges facing their families as against AU Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which promotes right to live and personal integrity. Section 33 and 35 of 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria promotes rights to live and personal liberty respectively; same with 2003 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Conventions on Child Rights.

    Poverty, high level of illiteracy, existing socio-cultural resistance, inadequate awareness, have threatened efforts to address challenges facing girl child in the country. Consequently, girls are paid maximum of N10, 000 monthly for domestic services. This is not isolated from unwarranted utilisation and abuses through frequent beating and raping by their employers.

    Experiences have revealed that many households in Nigeria are incapable of caring for another man’s child; they employ the services of house-helps who they (employers) subject to horrible experiences.

    There have several reported cases of dehumanisation, abuse, rapping and violation launched by employers against their house-helps across the country. These include infliction of injurious scars in their body; over-utilisation through restless and long working hours; regular panicking arising from frantic state of mind; and sometimes, death.

    It is time to demand for full implementation by all levels of governments, various regulations/laws backing child rights including access to education, to encourage and re-install personal liberty and dignity of girl child. There is need for concerted efforts by all level of governments, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), civil society, Community Based Organisations, Faith Based Organisations to effectively combat human trafficking scourge and abuses against girl child.

    Strengthening Nigeria’s criminal justice system to checkmate abuses and violation against girl child has become imperative.  Creation of massive employment opportunities and workable poverty alleviation structures across the country will help to avert girl child labour and early marriage for a living.

    All level of governments should improve access to education and eliminating gender gaps in education, proper individual orientation, mass public awareness and sensitization on the provisions of the Child Right Act. Also it is important to institute effective rehabilitation, recovery and reintegration programmes through medical, psychological and legal services for the victims of child labour, sexual abuse and human trafficking.

    • Tola Ojo

    Wuye, Abuja.

  • ‘Taraba govt insensitive to citizens’ plight’

    The Christian community in Taraba State has accused  the  government of being “insensitive” to the plight of the citizens.

    It accused the Garba Umar administration of breaching the constitutional provision, which guarantees protection of life and property.

    This was contained in a communique at the end of 108 CRCN General Church Council (GCC) in Takum, Taraba State.

    The communique was signed by the CRCN President, Rev. Osheka Caleb Ahima and Vice President Rev. Isaiah Jirapye Magaji.

    The General Church Council  is the highest decision and policy making body of the Christian Reformed Church in Nigeria.

    It said the continuous attacks on Christians, in the southern and central districts of Taraba have led to the death of hundreds of people and destruction of property.

    It said the sustained silence by the government on the killings of Christians, particularly the Tiv, and their forceful relocation to Benue State is “not only politically motivated but a calculated and coordinated plot to exterminate Christians in Taraba.”

    It urged the Federal Government to compel security agencies to operate within the  law, instead of promoting sectional interest, which often made some people sacred cows and others scapegoats.

    It said: “The free movement of people claimed to be Fulani herdsmen with sophisticated weapons terrorising innocent villagers in southern and central Taraba under the nose of security operatives be halted immediately in the interest of peace and development.

    “The federal and state government should bring back and compensate the Tiv  who were forced out of their dwelling places.

    “The mass exodus of Tiv people from Taraba state, if not addressed, will lead to famine in the state; government’s quest for food security and export of agricultural products to raise foreign exchange earnings for the state and country would be a mirage.

    “We view the expulsion of Tiv people from Taraba State as a scheme to undo the Christian community because of their numerical strength.”