Saving children from kidnappers’ clutches

The children’s kidnap marks the climax of the senseless abductions for pecuniary gains, which have been going on for some time in Nigeria. Concerned citizens say that the kidnappers have increasingly become more ingenious and dastardly in their activity. From the days when workers in oil companies in the Niger Delta region were the primary […]

The children’s kidnap marks the climax of the senseless abductions for pecuniary gains, which have been going on for some time in Nigeria.

Concerned citizens say that the kidnappers have increasingly become more ingenious and dastardly in their activity.

From the days when workers in oil companies in the Niger Delta region were the primary targets, apparently for political reasons, every individual is now vulnerable, they add.

The growing fear in the country is quite understandable and is exemplified by the outrage and public condemnations which greeted the seizure of four journalists some months ago.

Many people then thought that the criminals have gone to extremes with the journalists’ kidnap.

However, five female members of the National Youth Service Corps scheme (NYSC) serving in Port Harcourt, are still being held captive. Their colleagues have resorted to prayers and fasting, just as in the case of other kidnap victims.

Numerous incidents of kidnap, ransom demand and payments, killing of captives and similar events are now becoming commonplace, even as the country is in the festive mood of its 50th independence anniversary.

In line with the axiom that says that serious problems require desperate solutions, a traditional ruler of an ancient town in the southern part of the country recently resorted to invoking the spirits of the gods to confront this relatively new trend.

Yet, in a few days in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a global conference is to hold. The conference with a theme, “A Child Today, a Leader Tomorrow’’, will focus on the holistic development of the child.

But a question still remains: Why would anybody take hostage a busload of children?

The Child Rights’ Act, which was enacted in Nigeria in 2003, gives the child the right to survival, development, protection and participation, as part of the overall welfare of the child.

It is a derivative of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the AU Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. More than 20 states have adopted the Act, in accordance with their socio-cultural idiosyncrasies.

In its efforts to enhance the welfare of the child, Nigeria, in partnership with development partners and non-governmental organisations; have put some measures in place. These include healthcare development, policy formulation and implementation, as well as infrastructure development.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) says that over the last decade, Nigeria’s exponential growth in population has put immense pressure on the country’s resources and on the already overstretched public services and infrastructure.

With children under 15 years of age accounting for about 45 per cent of the country’s population, the burden on education and other sectors has become overwhelming.

“Forty per cent of Nigerian children, aged between 6 and 11, do not attend any primary school, particularly the girl-child and despite a significant increase in net enrolment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school,’’ says UNICEF.

However, this dismal situation is being addressed by current efforts of the Federal Government via the implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme.

The UBE Act, which makes basic education compulsory and free, was passed into law in 2004 and it represents the government’s strategy to fight illiteracy and extend basic education opportunities to all children across the country.

Apart from infringing on the rights of the child, the kidnappers are seemingly bent on truncating the few achievements made by stakeholders in children’s education, placing their lust for money above any other interests.

Observers note that in a situation where many children are not in school because of their parents’ inability to afford the costs, where school dropouts are daily increasing, owing to factors such as child labour, economic hardship and early marriages, the efforts of parents who struggle for their children’s education should be commended.

While declaring his intention to contest the 2011 presidential election recently, President Goodluck Jonathan sounded a note of warning to kidnappers.

“Let all the kidnappers, criminal elements and miscreants who give us a bad name be ready for the fight that I shall give them,’’ Jonathan said and observers say they are watching.

Gov. Theodore Orji of Abia, whose state is being rocked by the kidnap saga, said that “the kidnappers have not been realistic to the issues as they affect the society because they are mere gold diggers looking for easy money’’.

The governor said that his government has put in place an amnesty programme which the kidnappers have shunned.

UNICEF has also described as craven the schoolchildren’s kidnap story, saying that “under no circumstances should children be the target of violence. “Kidnapping children for financial gains is simply heinous,’’ Dr Suomi Sakai, UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, said.

“Communities in which children are safe and well are communities in which everyone is safe and well,’’ says UNICEF, which advocates the inviolability of schools across the world.

A mother, Mrs Arase Agharese, views child kidnap as a “total breakdown of the social, moral and security systems of a society and an acceptance of the poverty of the mind, body and spirit.’’

Sharing similar sentiments, Prof. Peter Ebigbo, a clinical psychologist, stressed that the kidnappers were completely irrational and obviously ignorant of the consequences of their action on the children.

“One of the conditions of good development in human beings is a sense of security and if a child loses that, he or she may be destroyed forever,’’ he said.

“With their physical release, who will cure them of the trauma some of them may carry forever?  Who will they trust as they grow up in life?’’ another psychologist, Mr Ben Olowu, asked.

“What does education mean to them if what they will intermittently be thinking of is whether another kidnapper is lurking somewhere? Will they be able to sleep well without having repeated nightmares,?’’ he further queried. Ebigbo, however, said that the children should undergo psychological treatment to divest such fears, through drawing, paintings, role plays and dramas, while their parents should undergo counselling.

Observers say that these issues should be part of the immediate concern of parents, guardians, teachers, clerics, legal draftsmen and counsellors, as the citizens clamour for a decisive end to kidnap bestiality. (NANFeatures)