ON THE NIGERIAN CHILD AND AN ENDANGERED FUTURE

ON THE NIGERIAN CHILD AND AN ENDANGERED FUTURE

BY OLANIBA BOLAJI OLUWATOBI

           Over the years our children have been victims of unusual and unfounded circumstance ranging from sexual abuse to child labor/child abuse across all fonts of first; economic activities (from mild to hard labor) in extractive, manufacturing and service industry, to the social, Educational and cultural sphere and in the hands of religious devils.  worst still is the spate at which sexual abuse against (most especially) the girl child has become pervasive in our society and perpetuated surprisingly by close relatives and neighbors, which includes those who are old enough to be the fathers and grandfathers of these girls, and even their own biological fathers, uncles, and Brothers, etc. sexual exploitation against the male child is also mounting, and should not be overlooked. Hiding sodomy agents lie around the corner pouncing upon the male children at school, in the homes and neighborhoods. But of considerable heights is the rate at which the girl child has constantly become a victim of sexual exploitation over the years.

             Recently, I read on the crime watch news section of punch online news, the story of 6 months old Baby Khadijah Bashir who was raped by a man known to be the husband of her mother’s friend in Kano state. The man and his wife were discovered to have executed this inhumane act in the guise of curing their foretold inability to bear children according to a native doctor they consulted. The little baby was traumatized has her private part was gravely injured, and worst still this culprit of a man was said to have hired the service of 10 lawyers in the quest of escaping justice. This and many more rape cases against infants and girl children looms court rooms unsolved and new stories of the same occurrences saturate the pages of our newspapers and internet forum almost every day. This occurrence resurges the array of vital questions that I have been seeking answers to; about the values we uphold as a nation, do we really have any National Values, do we value Human lives as our self made docile constitution claims. Do we consider in high esteem, the wellbeing of our children not to talk of other age groups? I am still highly convinced that with the current tides of conduct in our political and social sphere we do not have a vision or purpose by which we are driven even after 100 years of our co-existence. In 2016 alone Nigerians were reported to consist of 21% (36000) of the total 171,900 migrants seeking economic refuge in the European country of Italy. Amongst this clog of migrants are numerous Nigerian girl children been trafficked into prostitution in Italy and Spain (Details from the Guardian online news metro, title; 36,000 Nigerians crossed to Italy via the Mediterranean Sea; posted on 12^th of Jan 2016).

 Apart from serial Sexual abuse and exploitation meted mostly upon the girl child, other forms of child abuse ranging from child battering. In the guise of not sparing the rod in other not to spoil the child are becoming more rampant in our society. In the Month of April this year, Esther Shogunle (a little girl) who lives in Ibadan with her parents, was seriously battered by her father for watching a television program in their neighbor’s room. The gory picture of the incident makes me remember the inhumane treatment of Slaves during the 18^th and 19^th century Slave trade. All this occurrence and their frequency thereof makes me the question still, the efficiency of the Child Right Act said to have been passed into law in the year 2003 by the National Assembly during Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s presidential regime. The provisions contained in this law are clear in tackling the menace of any form of child abuse, but the pertinent question is; how effective have they turned out to be? We all know that passing or ratifying a bill into law is not the issue but the implementation and execution of the same. This phenomenon is widespread within the confines of Nigeria’s political system and this describes the gross inefficiency of the same.

 Some of the key although not exhaustive provisions of the child right act include:

1.      Every Nigerian child is entitled to rest, leisure and enjoyment of the best attainable state of physical mental and spiritual health.

2.      Betrothal and marriage of children are prohibited.

3.      Buying, selling, hiring or otherwise dealing in children for the purpose of  begging, hawking, prostitution or for unlawful immoral purposes are made punishable by long terms of imprisonment.

4.      Provisions for children in need of special protection measures (mentally, physically challenged or street children): they are to be protected in a manner that would enable them to achieve their fullest possible social integration and moral development.

 

Other offenses considered grave include sexual abuse, recruitment of children into Armed forces, exposure of children to pornographic materials, and other harmful contents. Several other provisions follow still after all these.

But as beautiful and clearly spelled as they seem to be only 23 states out of the 36 states of the federation have domesticated or passed the child right act into law, while only two states (Lagos and Anambra) has implemented the provisions of the Child Right Act according to the reports of the former minister of women affairs and social development, Mrs. Zainab Maina. The numerous questions we are to find answers to remains; 1. How many equipped physically challenged schools do we have in Nigeria? 2. Why is child marriage still so rampant most especially in Some Northern Nigerian states? 3.  How many cases of child and infant rape/sexual abuse have been successfully filed and closed in our Law courts, with the successful conviction and punishment of the culprits without the option for Bail?

If we do not want to fail woefully as a nation then we have to ensure the safety of every child and infant within the jurisdiction of this Sovereign Nation. Even if all Government machinery is failing, I do not expect our judiciary to fail these little children at any cost (I mean how do one explain a policeman offering money to a rape victim or the parents in other for them to close the case up against a culprit). We have nonexistent Government built and equipped distress centers for this little children to voice out their agonies. Thank God for the Mirabel center an internationally funded rape support center located within the confines of Lagos state teaching hospital, Although there might exist some other few centers around. Many parents also have issues to address and questions to answer, as many of them have resulted in personally silencing children victims of rape and sexual abuse, many of them have also be found culpable of trafficking their own children/child, and even raping and battering the children personally. Our schools are also not left out, as many of them have recruited and harbor serial rapist has teachers for our children, even the principals and headmasters are not sitting on the bench in this vain spree, And worst still is that this ugly scenario is gaining ground in our churches and mosques, where one can no longer beat the chest of trust for some pastor/Alfas/Imams, choirmasters, children caregivers, etc again.

Even when we claim that our culture does not augment for nonsensical behavior like the western culture does, I tell us that these people actually value the precious nature of childhood than we that claim we don’t take nonsense in a child. The child as an egg, the child as a mirror, the child is the tenderest phenomenon of all, but the Nigerian child certainly is yet to fully fit into these descriptions as of the closing remarks of this write-up and this will spell doom for us if this trend continues like this.