Safeguarding the Nigerian child: Any hope

As the world celebrates Children’s Day today, stakeholders at all tiers of government have organised programmes to commemorate the day, but many worry that despite various interventions the plight of the Nigerian child is not improving at the rate that most would prefer. To push for a better environment where children can have some sense […]

As the world celebrates Children’s Day today, stakeholders at all tiers of government have organised programmes to commemorate the day, but many worry that despite various interventions the plight of the Nigerian child is not improving at the rate that most would prefer.
To push for a better environment where children can have some sense of security and enjoy all their rights, the Nigerian government set aside May 27th to honour children and raise awareness about their plight and the need to promote and protect their rights.
This year’s theme for the celebration, ‘Protect the Rights of the Child in the Face of Violence and Insecurity; End Child Marriage’, is also quite apt to discuss the greatest ills against the Nigerian child.
Unfortunately the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Jummai Alhassan, noted that the country presently is battling with high incidences of violence against children ranging from child rape, defilement, abduction, kidnapping and baby farming.
According to her, the abuse takes place in homes, on the streets, in schools, at work places and child care institutions and perpetuated by adults who are supposed to protect the rights of the child.
Though the federal government had on September 15, 2015 launched the, “Year of action to end violence against children”, sadly the spate of violence against children seems to have escalated across the country with the media awash with reports of various horrendous crimes against children.
Professor Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a human right activist and president general of the Unity Schools Old Students Association (USOSA) believes that the inability of government agencies to adequately carry out their respective responsibilities is one of the reasons why alarming cases of child abuse are still quite evident.
According to him, most of our laws need to change as punishment against such crimes is not commensurate with the offense.
He took a swipe at the judiciary saying, “the judiciary condones such cases and treats them with levity. There is suspicion that the judiciary also has its own fair share of abusive men, that some of such judicial officers treat these cases with a sense of “there but for the grace of God”, and therefore find ways to frustrate criminal accountability for them”.
Making a presentation on accessing justice and support for the sexually abused in school children organized by the Sexual Offences Awareness and Victims Rehabilitation, he lamented that sex abuse in schools is most worrisome because schools are supposed to be centres of learning.
“What we find is people coming up with ways to cover it up. It is said to bring shame to the family of the child involved, or reputational damage to the schools in which it happens. We deny it as contrary to our culture and somehow invent the fiction that it does not happen. Few bother to spare a thought for the child damaged by it, often for life,” he said.
Devastating statistics from the national violence against children survey revealed that one in six children (16.7%) suffer from violence.
“One in four girls (25%) and one in 10 boys (10%) will suffer sexual violence before they reached 18 years old, when they should be in school. In one year alone 9 million of our children will have been subjected to rape and sexual abuse,” it noted.
But these issues are not a Nigerian problem as even across the African region, most governments are struggling to protect the rights of children.
The Commissioner Social Affairs and Gender of the ECOWAS, Dr. Fatimata Dia Sow, acknowledged that despite intervention provided by government to improve the lives of children across the African region, most of them are still grappling with extreme poverty which has strongly slowed their development.
Sow who noted that almost 280 million children in Africa are experiencing extreme poverty, said that a study commissioned by UNICEF in 2003 revealed that child poverty in sub-Saharan Africa (in particular in western and central Africa) was extremely high – around three-quarters of children, almost 280 million, experience multidimensional poverty.
She said: “Fortunately, with the expansion of social protection, the situation has since improved in many countries. Nevertheless, high rates of population growth in the region, inequalities, social exclusion and the depth of poverty still remain as challenges.”
Enrique Delamonica, Chief Social Policy and Gender Equality, UNICEF, said that Nigeria from its interventions is concerned about providing safety nets for its teeming population.
His words: “There are interventions on school feeding, on providing infrastructures for children that need to go to schools and those that need to be supported financially so that they can access certain health services in all of those there is an agreement among agencies of Nigeria for us to provide technical advisory support.”
But the interventions have yielded some level of achievement in protecting the lives of  children says, a consultant with UNICEF, Jan Vandemootele, who noted that there are 18,000 fewer under five deaths, with over 72% birth assisted by skilled professionals.
Ambrose-Kennedy Yibin, area operations manager, Zamfara, of the Save the Children, speaking on steps all stakeholders must take to safeguard the rights of children during a press briefing to celebrate the children’s day, said that there should be an effective implementation of the National Health Act.
According to him, government must approve the National Food and Nutrition Policy and its implementation at all levels in Nigeria while also pushing for the effective implementation of the Universal Basic Education Act with particular emphasis on getting all girls completing (at least) Junior Secondary School.