Today is Children’s Day in Nigeria. In 1954, the United Nations General Assembly, on November 20, adopted the Declaration of the Rights of Children and thus declared the day as “International Children’s and Youths Day”. However, member countries are at liberty to mark the day on different dates as may be convenient for them. In Nigeria, it is observed on May 27 every year. The day seeks to protect children from dangerous conditions, as well as guarantee them access to education and other basic needs of life.
In the past, series of activities were organised for children to mark the occasion. Sadly, the day now gets little attention in the country. Even the annual ritual of match past has, in recent years, become a passive event in most parts of the country. While leaders in other climes use the day to appreciate children and address their plight, it has become a day to soberly reflect on the dismal state of Nigerian children. With disturbing statistics of out-of-school children, not every child may be celebrating today in Nigeria. Many may not even be aware of it because too many of them are victims of deprivation, including illiteracy, poverty, hunger, disease and squalor. Unlike in the past, children scarcely look up to the occasion nowadays.
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Education and health are two critical areas in which Nigerian children have inexcusable predicaments to endure. While government’s effort, with the support of relevant UN agencies, significantly succeeded in its national immunisation programme against polio and other childhood diseases, access to qualitative education is yet a problem to many children. For many years, over 10 million school-age children have continued to remain out of the formal school system; swelling the population of illiterates in a country that should have, given its resources, wiped out illiteracy before the close of the 20th Century. Children who manage to make it to school have bitter experiences resulting from the challenge of poorly trained teachers and lack of critical infrastructure needed for effective teaching and learning to take place.
In many states, school buildings are dilapidated, workshop equipment are either obsolete or non-existent. Where parents cannot provide classroom furniture, children sit on bare floors or share desks; sometimes under trees. Teachers spend most part of the academic year organising strikes rather than imparting knowledge; an action they often blame on poor remuneration or unpaid salaries. Yet, leaders call children left to endure this huge set of challenges “leaders of tomorrow”. The country’s leaders must stop paying lip service to the needs of the Nigerian child by sparing a thought for them.
In the Northern part of Nigeria, the almajiri syndrome is symptomatic of the sickening denial of access to basic education. Such children often become preys in the hands of unscrupulous persons. The serial failure, particularly by affected Northern states, to adequately address the almajiri phenomenon has grave repercussions for the nation. The refusal by many states of the federation to access counterpart funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission is also a great dis-service to the Nigerian child.
Parents too share some blame for the plight of the Nigerian child. Many have put their businesses and other interests above the education, care and love due to their children; thus exposing them to all forms of abuse. The high prevalence of broken homes and the menace of drug and substance abuse have separately had negative consequences on the upbringing of children and youths.
Agencies responsible for combating child trafficking, child labour, prostitution and other forms of child abuse should ensure that Nigerian children are protected against these dangers. We call on governors of the 11 states that have not domesticated the Child Rights Act passed by the county’s National Assembly in July, 2003, to do so. The states are Bauchi, Kano, Sokoto, Adamawa, Borno, Zamfara, Gombe, Katsina, Kebbi, Yobe and Jigawa.
Government, the school and the home must work out synergies that will aid the building of a culture of security for the Nigerian child. If the future of the country depends largely on the quality of today’s children, their future must unequivocally be guaranteed.
In the meantime, we urge the Nigerian children not to lose hope, but to take time out to celebrate their day. And from Daily Trust newspaper, we wish all Nigerian children a happy Children’s Day.
