‘We’re out to transform the indigent child’

What are the issues you think the less privileged Nigerian children are facing? Foremost, I want to state that most Nigerian children are suffering. A majority of them are made to live such lives that are so indigent. They do not have enough care either from goodwill Nigerians or the government that will help them become […]

What are the issues you think the less privileged Nigerian children are facing?
 Foremost, I want to state that most Nigerian children are suffering. A majority of them are made to live such lives that are so indigent. They do not have enough care either from goodwill Nigerians or the government that will help them become the kind of people that will ensure a greater Nigeria tomorrow
Take for example, the reason most of us became the type of people that we are presently is because we had elderly ones who made efforts that gave our lives a meaning. For myself, I was born in America but I remember that during my secondary school days that my parents drew me out of a private school and made me go through a public school here in Nigeria.
The experience was not exciting but the end result is that I  got experiences that made me appreciate what life is really about. I see life for what it is and not what people portray it to be and that is what this NGO seeks to do for these children, part of which is to give hope to children that have no hope. These children are going to be leaders of tomorrow.
We are going to grow old one day and even die and these children will take over the affairs of this nation so if they are not shown the way now, who will? It appears nobody is willing to affect these children positively and that is why our NGO is trying to do a lot that will effect positive change and goodwill in the lives of every indigent Nigerian child we can reach out to. We do our best to instil values and good characters in these children that normally, they do not get to learn ordinarily. This is what our NGO is about.

Can you tell us what the government is not getting right as regard equipping Nigerian children for the future?
 I believe that the govern-ment has its means of reach-ing out to these children. Unfortunately, I do not consider the approaches right when it comes to building the children properly.  When compared to other countries, the Nigerian government does not seem to be caring for its children as they ought to. A country as developed as America also has impoverished children and the American government treats them better.
The government there supplies their families with housings; they send the children to schools on scholarship up to university levels. You will agree with me that it is quite different from what we have here in Nigeria. Nobody gives these rights to less privileged children in Nigeria, rather they are made to pay for everything here in the country and due to the poverty rate being experienced by some families in Nigeria. Most families do not have the capability to send their children to school and still feed them properly at the same time. Thus, I will say that government is trying but they have not tried hard enough.
 They can do better and with the collaboration of NGOS, I am sure that these children could be given better lives. An NGO like ours, we have various approaches that we use to build these children. We have vocational programs through which these children are trained, and made to acquire basic skills that will be of tremendous help to them in the future.
 Over the years, we have sent some children abroad to show them other levels of discipline and how people function in other societies. We do this with the aim that when they return  to Nigeria, they will show other children how things should be done naturally. Presently, we also have an on- going project titled Back to school Project for 10, 000 vulnerable children in Nigeria. These are part of our efforts to improve the life of every impoverished Nigerian child we can reach.

You talked about the child rights. Are you comfortable with the enforcement of Child Rights Acts in the country?
I attest that there is Child Rights Acts in the nation; I will also give them the credit of being benevolent but I still maintain that they can do more. They can actually do much better than they are doing now. The issue of making lives better for indigent Nigerian children still centres on the ability of people to do the right thing. We have had various policies and even many agencies created to ensure better lives for children however, our government seems to be missing it still. The Nigerian children are still neglected. They do not have social amenities such as good roads in their areas, no good schools. The issue of amusement parks seems to be such a high luxury yet these are part of what build up leadership personalities in children. Thus, we are here to help alleviate the plights of these children and we hope earnestly that the government will partner with us to make the vision realizable.
Insurgency is one of the challenges Nigeria is facing presently and even children have fallen victims to that.

What do you think can be done to protect children?
 There are different ways. If we should borrow a leaf from America, they have a child protection agency that goes after children as well as enforce the protection of the American child.  Nigeria does not have this but we need such strategies in place for the children. Most social vices such as kidnapping, molestation equally affect children in other countries; the only difference is that our country is a place where it happens freely thus the need to set up agencies whose responsibility will help to strictly address the situation.