When Nigerian children tell leaders to listen

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the 2017 International Children’s Day, children across the country have called on leaders to pay attention to challenges they face in the areas of health, education, nutrition and security among others. The United Nations’ (UN) Universal Children’s Day, which was established in 1954, is marked […]

As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to celebrate the 2017 International Children’s Day, children across the country have called on leaders to pay attention to challenges they face in the areas of health, education, nutrition and security among others.

The United Nations’ (UN) Universal Children’s Day, which was established in 1954, is marked every November 20th to commemorate the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and to promote international togetherness and awareness among children worldwide.

Challenges facing the Nigerian child include poor education; though primary school enrolment has increased in recent years, the net attendance is only about 70 per cent.  Nigeria still has 10.5 million out-of-school children, the world’s highest figure, as reported by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). 

Sixty per cent of these children are in northern Nigeria. About 60 per cent of out-of-school children are girls.

It’s a day set aside for children, by children, all over the world to help save children’s lives, fight for their rights and help them fulfill their potential in life.

With this year’s theme, ‘#KidsTakeOver’, children across states ‘took over’ high-profile roles in media, politics, business, sport and entertainment to focus on the most pressing challenges faced by their generation.

The UNICEF, in celebrating the day, released a new survey highlighting some of the challenges facing the Nigerian child. The survey revealed that poor education, violence against children, and terrorism are among the biggest concerns for children in Nigeria.

The survey, which was carried out in 14 countries across the world, revealed that  in Nigeria, eight in 10 children admitted to worrying about poor education while seven in 10 children worry about being personally affected by poverty. The results also indicate that 59 per cent of children do not trust their country’s leaders.

UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Muhammed Fall, said that it is clear that children are acutely aware of the challenges their peers face across the world and are afraid of being affected by these issues themselves, adding that the fact that our young people are telling us they do not think their opinion is heard or does not have any impact, reflects that they feel powerless and disenfranchised.

“The result of the survey also revealed that two out of three children in Nigeria do not think their opinion is heard at all or does not have any impact, while 99 per cent believe the world would be a better place if children’s voices were listened to by world leaders.

“It is our duty to listen to children and recommit ourselves to the goal of seeing every child treated fairly,” said UNICEF Representative, Fall.

UNICEF hopes World Children’s Day will inspire governments, businesses and communities across the world to listen to children and incorporate their opinions in decision-making processes that affect them.

UNICEF chief of communications,  Dounne Porter, during the #KidsTakeOver at Transcorp said there is an urgent need for Nigeria to invest more in children as that is the only way to invest in the future of the country. 

“It is the anniversary of the establishment of the conventional right of a child. Today is all about raising awareness on the issues that are facing children around the world and in Nigeria. 

 “We need to invest in children all over the world and especially in Nigeria which has a huge population. We need to invest in the future of Nigeria and by doing that, we need to invest in the lives of children,”  she said.

 She added that the occasion is to raise children’s voices and to stand in solidarity with children who are living in poverty, who have no access to education and those who are living in conflict affected areas.

“They will use the day to address the plight of those less fortunate from platforms they would ordinarily be too short to reach,” Porter added.

In fulfilling the theme of this year, #KidsTakeOver, guests at the Hilton Hotel were intrigued to find children in some of the key roles including guest relations, security and even the general manager role handled by children.

Eight children of Model Secondary School, Maitama who took over various roles at Transcorp Hilton Hotel in marking the day were excited by their one day function.

 The management of Transcorp Hilton Hotel in celebrating the day with the theme, #KidsTakeOver, posted the children to different departments to have the opportunity of knowing how it feels to be in those capacities.

 Nine-year-old Israel Balogun who stood in as the General Manager (GM), Transcorp in marking the day, said his function as GM was to attend to documents and every management related issues and make sure everybody was comfortable.

 The day front desk officer, 10-year-old Gloria Ochu, who was seen attending to clients also said her role included being nice to clients and calming down any situation by apologising when things go wrong and making sure no client was dissatisfied with services rendered.

Transcorp Country General Manager, Etiene Gaillier, explained that they were using the opportunity to motivate younger people to come to the hospitality industry, to know that the hotel is not only about service and front desk but much more.

“Today it is important to involve them in the process here at Hilton and that is why together with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) we brought  them for a full day’s experience of how it feels like to work in a hotel with some of them working as security, front desk officer, general manager and so on. It is good for us to prepare them for active leadership role.”

 UNICEF communication specialist, Geoffrey Njoku, said the theme suggested that the children would be taking over activities from work for one day and that it was to let them have an idea symbolically of what they would be doing in a few years’ time.

 “More importantly, it is to give them opportunities to begin to advocate for their right because nobody can advocate for you more than yourself. That is why we are doing this to draw attention to issues of children in Nigeria and globally,” he said.