(A reflection on this year's Children's Day celebration by CEE-HOPE's Executive Director, tasking the newly elected Nigerian president on the need to work on child-friendly policies that would guarantee a safer and happier country for Nigerian children against the background of widespread incidences of grievous violation of children's rights in recent years).
It is a sweet coincidence that the International
Children’s Day now falls within two days of change of government in
Nigeria. It is even sweeter that this change of government is not just another
sonorous self-succession scheme but a new person ascending the helms of power
and screaming the message of a much-needed change. Yet it will be sweetest if
when seated in power, Muhammadu Buhari can shed his stern stance and just for a
moment, smile at our children.
Children in Nigeria, one of the most endangered
species in the world, need this pain-effacing smile. It may be understandable
if the general’s unsmiling carriage increases in light of the Augean
stables that must be cleansed, of mountains that must be moved and of sacred
cows that must be tied up so that Nigeria can be whipped into line again and so
that the shame of a nation can end. It will be a hard time for political
criminals and executive pen robbers if Buhari remains true to his name, yet, in
all of these, he must remember to smile at our children.
Why the urgent need to smile at our children? GMB
may ask. Sir, in case you do not know, the global guffaw is on us as to the
bleak statistics on the state of Nigerian children. I believe you are aware
that our country currently has the highest number of out-of-school children in
the world, standing at 10.5 million since 2013, according to UNESCO. With
upheavals in the North especially in the last few years, your esteemed guess is
as good as that of my humble self.
And to add, Save Our Children also rates us as
having one of the highest rates of maternal mortality, and infancy deaths,
ranking in the leagues of war-torn countries such as Congo, Afghanistan and
Sudan. We also have, according to UNICEF’s statistics, one of the highest rates
of girl child marriage in the world, particularly in the North, where VVF is
widespread, a major threat to sustainable development. We can’t discountenance
these reports – the evidence is everywhere. Or, you want to talk of
skyrocketing incidences of rape without consequences, sale of babies (baby
factories), child trafficking and other woes befalling our hapless children and
with hardly any respite?
And ofcourse, you may know that we also have one of
the highest figures of displaced person, including thousands of children. Now,
they are among the world’s highest number of displaced persons and refugees.
Just the other day, we saw that more than 500 of the persons rescued from the
Boko Haram Sambisa hell were children and young girls. Many died on the way
back to ‘life’. Not long after, 11 thousand trooped in, tired, hungry and dying
from refugee camps in Niger Republic.
Many more holed up in Cameroon and Chad will soon
troop back and with many children dying of starvation along the way.
Internally, we have 1.5 Million people who are displaced, according to the
United Nations Humanitarian Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). But we do not even
need those statistics. The horrendous truth stares us in the face on street
corners and school compounds of Maiduguri, Yola, Damaturu, Potiskum, Kano,
Abuja and elsewhere. These humanitarian crises, these great human suffering,
these deaths and the shame were quite avoidable if we had a proactive,
stick-wielding and at the same time, child-friendly government in place. We
won’t wail over spilled milk now, but we will ask you to smile.
Sir, let the very thought of the thoughtlessly and
needlessly exterminated droves of Nigerian children up North make you smile at
the survivors, at the living lot of today. Oh, let the unforgivable
indifference of the past government move you into child-friendly action. Think
of the children of the infamous Dogo Nahawa massacre, 500 lying still,
extinguished by the sides of the cold Plateau hills; think of the 58 school
boys of Buni Yadi murdered in cold blood after which the government joyously
embarked on a senseless Centenary celebration; think of the Potiskum school
kids put out so brutally; think of the bloodbath in Nyanya after which the out-going
president, leader of the nation, went on a shoki dance in Kano; think of
the abducted teenagers of Chibok and all that was done by the Federal
Government to sweep it under the carpet, more than 200 of people’s children!
Think of the fact that in all of these, the
Ministry of Women Affairs which should be the vanguard of protecting these
vulnerable young people was deeply engrossed in organising rallies for the
First Lady. It took international outcries, as you know, for the government to
ever respond. And now the world views us as ugly monsters that care not for
their young. Think deeply, sir of the lack of empathy and be resolved to make a
smile-inducing difference. The world must now see our children smile. Simile,
sir, smile at the survivors and future leaders, but first, frown and say ‘Never
Again’.
History, I trust, will smile at you if in light of
these tear-inducing realities you make the overall welfare of Nigerian children
one of the cornerstones of your administration’s policies. If you ensure
efficient rehabilitation, resettlement and reintegration program for families
and children displaced by Boko Haram and the various ethno-religious crises and
without bias, and rescue those still in captivity. You know that without
tackling this squarely, especially for the young and impressionable, we can’t
say the insurgency battle is over.
We must stop breeding monsters, consciously or
otherwise; if you ensure the effective enforcement of child-friendly policies
littering government offices across the country; if violators of children’s
rights face the law squarely as against what obtains now; if we have much
better and more affordable healthcare and strict child safeguard policies, free
universal basic education and take the life-enhancing light of literacy to
children on city street corners and rural hamlets; if education is subsidized
to ensure the intellectual development of EVERY Nigerian child not withstanding
his or her religion, tribe or background so that he/she turns out as
contributor and not minus, to national growth, then we can truly say you had
smiled. Again, we await you to say Never Again will extremist forces
capitalise on the mass illiteracy of our children to turn them to brainwashed
little devils. Kindly say it with a fatherly smile.
Sir, you know ofcourse that governments world over
which display, allow or accommodate cruelty, in any form, to children are no
longer deemed the mightiest; great powers show their prowess by the care and
compassion they extend to the most vulnerable in society. We will hold you up
to those global standards. We expect that while you must show your unsmiling
face at defaulting adults, please ensure you beam a loving face at our
children. We can’t sit down and expect our children to turn out humane when all
we mete to them is harm. A thinking, forward-looking nation’s resources
and assets must be used for the comfort and protection of its young. You are
now the father of the nation, their father, and they mustn’t know the
sledgehammer of governmental irresponsibility anymore.
Maybe, just maybe, if you would make our children
smile from ear-to-ear, make them feel safe, genuinely loved and proud to be
Nigerians once again, this may just be your most enduring legacy in this second
chance given you by God to serve our bruised fatherland.
May History, ultimately, remember you with a smile
for making us the ‘Most Child-Friendly Nation on Earth’ as you kick-start May
29 with a warm smile at the bruised children of our fatherland.
Mrs Abah is
Lagos-based journalist and Executive Director CEE-HOPE, a child’s rights NGO.
Posts
%2Binteracts%2Bwith%2BMakoko%2Bchildren.jpg)
