….Nigerian Children’s Future

By Prosper Okoye

Amidst the spate of hardship, the future of the Nigerian child is full of hope, said the Child Protection Network (CPN).

Things have become so tough lately that a majority of Nigerians are unable to afford the basic needs of life.

“Child labour remains a burning issue in Nigeria,” said CPN FCT Coordinator, Michael Adeniji.

“The recent data released by the NBS states that 43 percent of children in Nigeria are involved in child labour.

“Child hawking, street begging, trafficking of children, and other things remain burning issues,” emphasized Adeniyi, who has just taken over the leadership of the Network.

Corroborating this issue, a member named Modukpe Adelanwa said she intervened in a case where a woman bit her maid, who is still a child. “I don’t understand why a woman will eat the flesh of her maid,” she said.

Adelanwa also alleged that a powerful cabal is profiting from the exploitation of children in the FCT.

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Additionally, another member, Vital Anyadike, pointed out the increasing use of children by the “yahoo-yahoo” boys for rituals. The trafficking of children abroad for internet fraud was also decried.

Furthermore, the CPN coordinator acknowledged the dilemma of giving alms to children or patronizing a child laborer’s trade, thereby fueling the trend of abuse, vis-à-vis the fear that the child may die without patronage or alms.

“It would be against the ethics and values of my work to patronize children who are hawking or begging. However, it does not mean I don’t see them,” he said.

“What we do as actors is that when we see cases like this we try to intervene, ask questions, and rescue them. And when the need be we invite the state actors.

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“We handled one such case where two children between the age of five and nine, were begging on one of the major roads of the FCT suburbs, we rescued them and provided shelter for them in one of the shelter homes in the FCT. Now we have a plan to empower the family economically so the children are not put out to work,” he explained.

“To members of society who are in this dilemma, of having children begging or you noticed that there is a lot of child work going around, whilst is not morally wrong to give children money when you see that a child looks impoverished, it is usually best when we do this the right way. If we can identify local organizations in those areas who are working with children and volunteer with them, those resources can be put towards supporting the family of those children, and calling them off the streets, because that should be the goal,” he added.

The removal of fuel subsidy coupled with the economic and monetary policies of President Bola Tinubu is said to have caused the spate of recent hardship which has created protest in a state.

A participant, Uzoma Aneto, called on the government to engage stakeholders that deal directly with the local poor for proper data and to ensure the proposed palliatives get to the people that really need them.

Adeniji continued: “We need to do better and it goes beyond the NGOs and the government organizations to even private citizens, we need to know that all forms of child abuse are wrong, we need to contribute our quota to making sure that we have a suitable environment for children. Cases of child sexual abuse, trafficking, and hawking should be made a taboo in our society, and that’s when we can say we are approaching the development of our nation.”

“We know that the country is going through very difficult and tough economic times, however, we should always do the right thing. I am very optimistic about the future of the Nigerian child. Have you looked around the world and seen what the Nigerian child is able to accomplish? Being the best in mathematics, and winning global awards, we would say that some of them are privileged, but some are those that have risen from grass to grace.

However, the CPN Coordinator stated that they are actively taking measures to address the trend of child abuse in the FCT.

“People like me that work with the children, we will make sure that we do not relent, and we continue to advocate for change, and do better.

“Child labour is not the solution, as a matter of fact, it further causes problems to the family and the society.

“We have mapped out a strategy to engage communities to make them understand why education is most important for children. This time we want to double our efforts and make sure we go to local communities to engage stakeholders, market women union, youth groups, leaders on why children need to be given the needed support to grow optimally,” he added.

The meeting also featured a didactic session by Chioma Odogwu taking the participant on the journey of crafting stories that can reach their program goals.