Human Rights Resource

In 1996 a very good friend of mine Ebube by name had his only sister taken away by his aunt on the promise that his aunt who lives in Obosi, Anambra state was going to send her to school. But the case was different when Chidinma instead of been sent to school was taken to Onitsha main market where she was forced to close his eyes and pretended that she was blind when indeed she was not.  Though it was not on her mind to do that but out of fear she had no option but to turn a blind child and was making money for her aunt who took her from her parents on the disguise that she was going to put her in school.

But Chidinma story changed one day when the eldest brother went to Onitsha main market to purchase some items and saw his youngest sister singing sorrowful song with a middle aged woman holding her hand and people were given out money to her because of the kind of sorrowful song that came out of her mouth which she had taken time to learn over time.

Ebube on observing that told his friend that the small girl who closed her eyes and was singing a sorrowful song is his sister and she was not blind when their aunt took her away. Then the friend suggested that if he was very sure of what he was saying he should go and give the small girl a very powerful slap and the small girl will open her eyes by force on receiving that kind of slap. Ebube did exactly the way he was instructed by a friend, went ahead and slapped her and the small girl opened her eyes on receiving the powerful slap. Immediately the girl opened her eyes the middle aged girl who was holding her and begging for arms wanted to scamper for safety but the people around ran after her and she was caught and she was beaten to stupor and handed over to police.

When the small girl narrated her experience the people followed her to the home of the aunt but the aunt got the news and ran away from her house before the arrival of the angry youths. And as am telling you till today the aunt who turned this small girl to blind beggar is nowhere to be found.

In Nsukka local government of Enugu state in Okpuje community, a lad had a fire put on her palm by her custodian just because she ate meat as alleged by her aunt who was her custodian. The lad was hospitalized but she died a day after in the hospital.

In Croos-River many children have been killed, ostracized, castrated, and sent packing together with their parents because they were alleged to be witches and wizards. Not only in Cross-River Nigeria had recorded this ugly incident. In Enugu state, the story is the same, in Ebonyi, Anambra, Imo states, the story is the same just to mention but few.

The children in Nigeria and other African countries have enormous record of the story narrated above. The number of children that undergo maltreatment on daily basis as to slavery and ill treatment from their parents, the society they find themselves is alarming and is unbearable.

In most urban centers in Nigeria and other African countries, children of school age are the one who constitute 40% of hawkers on the street. In Nigeria the children are the people seeing every now and then in all the streets hawking sachet water and other items and the government see them on daily basis and pretend that all is well too bad for all of us.

Right from the outset there have been agitation for justice and equality among men which everybody will have equal right and justice. Many groups including non-governmental organization (NGO) and other stakeholders have tried in so many ways to achieve the right of a child, and unfortunately in the case of Nigeria and other African countries it seems as the right of a child does not matter to anybody. But if one probes further he understands that in Africa there is no respect for human right and that alone is a major factor affecting the actualization of the right of a child in Africa.

Hunger and poverty are the major problem affecting the right of a child in all the African countries. Most importantly, the parents of the child who is suppose to be the custodian of the child have not even seem food to eat let alone pursuing the right of the child. The poverty level found among the parents of a child is a big problem affecting the actualization of the right of the child.

There has been increase in the alarming rate of hunger among African states, and the extent of this hunger is making the fight for child right hit doom on daily basis. Presently most African states are facing both economic and food crisis and the child who resides on the continent bears the consequence most.

In Nigeria the fight for child right will take a longer period because the economic and political problems facing the parents of the child in Nigeria and Africa at large affect the child directly.

Nigeria no doubt is a signatory to MDGs which has eight targets to achieve, and all these no doubt are some of the efforts geared towards child right actualization. These are

(1)   Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

(2)   Achieve universal primary education

(3)   Promote gender equality and empower women

(4)   Reduce child mortality

(5)   Improve maternal health

(6)   Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases

(7)   Ensure environmental sustainability

(8)   Development a global partnership for development.

Obviously, besides the direct factors that affect the right of a child the above eight factors affect the right of child directly and indirectly.

But of great concern among these is eradication of poverty and hunger and to achieve universal primary education. The poverty level found in Nigeria negates what government is in the nation and also presents Constitution of Nigeria as a fraud document. Most parents who are suppose to provide for these children are unemployed and are swimming with abject poverty and the children bear the direct consequences of this poverty. The children who are supposed to be catered for by their parents go about looking for what to eat in order to live life. And this leads to child labour, child trafficking, child prostitution, child slavery etc.

Then we look at the number of parents whose the poverty level greeting them in their respective homes do not even give them room to send their children to public school.

It is nonsense for any state in the world to say that it is working towards the actualization of the right of the child without giving jobs to the parents of the child who the child will in turn benefit from the parents income. However the Nigeria government must look at the social and economic implication of the poverty level in Nigeria has on a child before she brags on her efforts towards the actualization child right in the state.

The fight for the actualization of child right goes beyond the act of legislation where the child’s right Act can be passed into law in a couple of weeks. The social and economic factors affecting the right of a child must be adequately considered on the pursuit of child right if the right of the child is to be adequately affected.

Nigeria and other African states must know that children are the most vulnerable in the society and the economic predicaments most parents suffer in Africa has direct consequences on the life of a child. Thus the child must be considered when putting up a national budget of any nation as whatever affects the economic status of the parents of a child affects the child.

There can be no success story on the fight for the right of a child in Nigeria and other African countries so long as poverty and starvation are found in abundance, and this is because the child bears a direct consequence of the social and societal problems the most.

In conclusion the future and the actualization of the right of a child in Nigeria and Africa at large looks doom since they are denied most basic necessities of life and this is even more manifest on the ground that most parents in Nigeria and Africa suffer from economic penury and starvation and to that effect the struggle for the actualization of the right of a child will be a mirage in decades to come in Africa and Nigeria in particular.

These children whose development is stunted are a threat to the entire society as they are likely to become social deviants and recalcitrant in future as it will be done on them that they are victims of the society not beneficiaries of the society and they will lose nothing when the society disintegrates.

Whether we like it or not in years to come if nothing is been done, these children may likely become prostitutes, robbers, fraudsters, assassins, rogues, area boys etc. And obviously, when you have tremendous number of persons who are social deviants, it may become very difficult for the society to exercise control over them and they will constitute security threat to all of us.

We must say kudos to UNICEF whose efforts to the actualization of the right of the child is felt globally.

More grease to your elbow.

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