Nigeria News
Securing A Better Future For The Nigerian Child
By Bilkis Bakare
It has now become an aberration in Nigeria to refer to the younger generation as the future of the country, due to the numerous bashing and various forms of abuses the children are now being subjected to. It is now common to read on the pages of newspaper cases of child labour and trafficking, defilement of minors as young as 2 years old even by their fathers or grandfathers. It is that bad!
By paying lip service to various laws on the rights of a child, the impunity with which their rights are being violated has now reached an alarming proportion. Recently, a 2-year old boy, whose mother died as a result of complication from cancer, was abandoned by his father and left in the care of his uncle. The latter who cannot shoulder the responsibility of feeding an extra mouth, solicited for help from Nigerians in order to fulfill the aspiration of the child for education.
But by far the most commonly abused group of children are the orphans, who due to their situation are left in the care of their parents’ relatives. Even those kept in orphanages suffer worse fate, as the home supposedly meant to give them succour become a slaughter slab where they are serially raped by their guardians or care givers.
In the olden days, the family setting in Africa did not give room for the word ‘orphan’ as every child is incorporated into the extended family safety net, where a relative raise the orphan as his own. But due to the weakened family system , due to the adoption of western lifestyle, poverty , increasing population of orphans and reduced number of care givers, orphans and vulnerable children are finding it increasingly difficult to be incorporated into the extended family safety net.
The United Nations Agency for International Development defines an orphan as a child under 18 whose one or both parents are dead. Therefore there are maternal, paternal orphans [half orphans] and double orphans , while vulnerable children are those that experience loss of their education, morbidity and malnutrition at higher rates than do their peers due to their minority status, disability and residence in underserved area. Therefore, it should be noted that not all vulnerable children are orphans but all orphans are vulnerable.
The religious texts [The Holy Bible and The Holy Quran] of the two most popular religions, Christianity and Islam, contain the idea of helping and defending orphans which they consider as very pleasing to God. Notable and famous orphans include Prophet Muhammad, world leaders such as Nelson Mandela of South Africa, writers such as Edgar Allan Poe and Leo Tolstoy.
It is approximated that there are about 17 million orphans and vulnerable children in Nigeria, considered to be one of the highest in the world including over 2 million orphaned by HIV/ AIDS.
Generally, orphans and vulnerable children face a lot of challenges ranging from economic to social and psychological in form of malnutrition, reduced access to education and health care, child labour, migration, homelessness, low self esteem, involvement in drug and alcohol. Other challenges are depression, guilt, anger and fear caused by parental illness and death.
It is believed that rights and needs of all human beings are also applicable to orphans and vulnerable children. However, this group of children need more support to get what they lack due to the absence or lack of capacity of their parents. It is the right of every child irrespective of social status to enjoy physical protection i.e. food, shelter, clothing and health care; emotional care in form of love, security, sense of belonging and friendship; social protection in form of acceptance, identity, formal and informal education, life skills and general knowledge; mental stability, that is stress prevention and management and spiritual support like freedom of worship, identify with the creator, have hope and faith.
Every segment of the society has a role to play in ensuring that the rights of all children including those of orphans and vulnerable children are protected. Government at the centre alone cannot provide comprehensive care for every orphan and vulnerable children, hence the need for collaboration of all stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, community-based organisations, faith-based organisations, government at all levels, corporate bodies as well as everyone in the society. Strategic partnerships and linkages among stakeholders and the affected children, including community responses should be developed to ensure orphans and vulnerable children have access to comprehensive care.
The Federal Government through the support of President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief [PEPFAR] launched the children of hope project in 2008. The project is being implemented in partnership with the European co-operative for Rural Development and Widows and Orphans Empowerment Organisation. It is being implemented in Edo, Imo, Oyo, Abia, Ebonyi states and the federal capital to meet the nutrition, protection, education and psychological support needs of orphans and vulnerable children and link care givers to loans and income generating activities.
Through the Children of Hope Project, HIV sexual prevention activities and capacity building programmes for staff and partners [Society For Family Health] are carried out.
In 2007, the Child Rights Law was adopted and domesticated in Lagos to protect all children resident in the state and the yellow card introduced to enlighten the public and familiarise them with telephone numbers to call in cases of child/ children abuse. The yellow card is issued to parents and care givers as a form of warning. And if the abuse is reported again, the child will be taken away from the caregiver and the latter prosecuted.
In Benue, a state with the highest cases of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, large numbers of households are left to care for children orphaned or otherwise made vulnerable by the disease. To tackle this problem, the United States Agency For International Development [USAID] through the Centre For Development And Population Activities [CEDPA] developed the Vulnerable Children Project [VCP], with the goal of improving the quality of life of these children through the provision of opportunities for them in areas of health and education.
Other areas of opportunities include the identification and strengthening of existing community support structure for orphans, vulnerable children and people living with HIV/AIDS and developing the capacity of the community to advocate for policy and social change towards them.
In conclusion, as the country celebrates Children’s Day with the rest of the world, it is important for all stakeholders to know that the rights of every child are also those of the orphans and the vulnerable. Let us all give every child equal opportunity to achieve their maximum potentials, as this is an assurance of a secured future.
•Bakare is of the Features Unit, Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.
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Posted in Nigeria News. A DisNaija.Com network.
Source: PM News
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The Kano State Government on Saturday said it has transferred 1,098 ‘almajiris’ to different states of the country.
The commissioner for local government, Murtala Garo, disclosed this while presenting a report before the state’s task force on COVID-19 at the government house, Kano.
Almajiris are children who are supposed to be learning Islamic studies while living with their Islamic teachers. Majority of them, however, end up begging on the streets of Northern Nigeria. They constitute a large number of Nigeria’s over 10 million out-of-school children.
Mr Garo said the Kano government transported 419 almajiris to Katsina, 524 to Jigawa and 155 to Kaduna. He said all of them tested negative for coronavirus before leaving the Kano State.
Despite the coronavirus test done in Kano for the almajiris, the Jigawa government earlier said it would quarantine for two weeks all the almajiris that recently arrived from Kano.
Mr Garo said another 100 almajiris scheduled to be taken to Bauchi State also tested negative to COVID-19.
In a remark, Governor Abdullahi Ganduje said the COVID-19 situation in Kano was getting worse. He appealed for a collaborative effort to curtail the spread of the virus in the state.
Mr Ganduje, who commended residents for complying with the lockdown imposed in the state, said the decision was taken to halt the spread of the virus.
Kano State, as of Saturday night, has 77 coronavirus cases, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control.
The decision to transfer the Kano almajiris is part of the agreement reached between Northern governors that almajiris in each state be transferred to their states of origin.
However, even before the latest agreement by the governors, the Kano government had been transferring almajiris to other states and neighbouring countries after it banned street begging in the state, most populous in Northern Nigeria.
Despite the transfers, however, no concrete step has been taken to ensure such children do not return to Kano streets as there is freedom of movement across Nigeria although interstate travel was recently banned to check the spread of the coronavirus.
Sourced From: Premium Times Nigeria
By Ugochukwu Alaribe
Operatives of the Abia State Vigilante Service, AVS, popularly known as ‘Bakassi Boys’ have arrested 24 market women hidden in a container truck, at Ekwereazu Ngwa, the boundary community between Abia and Akwa Ibom states.
The market women, said to be from Akwa Ibom State, were on their way to Aba, when they were arrested with the truck driver and two of his conductors for violating the lockdown order by the state government.
Driver of the truck, Moses Asuquo, claimed he was going to Aba to purchase stock fish, but decided to assist the market women, because they were stranded.
A vigilante source told Sunday Vanguard that the vehicle was impounded while the market women were sent back to Akwa Ibom State.
Commissioner for Home Land Security, Prince Dan Okoli, who confirmed the incident, said that smuggling of people into the state poses great threat to the state government’s efforts to contain the spread of COVID- 19.
Sourced From: Vanguard News
Operatives of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Yaba of the Lagos State police command have arrested one Mrs Nene Steve for allegedly killing her maid, Joy Adole
The maid was allegedly beaten to death by Nene for requesting for her salary at their residence located at 18, Ogundola Street, Bariga area in Lagos.
Narrating the incident, Philips Ejeh, an elder brother to the deceased said that he was sad when they informed him that his sister was beaten to death.
He explained that the deceased was an indigene of Benue State brought to Lagos through an agent and started working with her as a maid in January 2020.
‘’She reported that her boss refused to pay her and anytime she asked for her salary she will start beating her.
She was making an attempt to leave the place but due to the total lockdown she remained there until Sunday when her boss said she caught her stealing noodles and this led to her serious beating and death,’’ Ejeh said.
He called on Lagos State Government and well- meaning people in the country to help them in getting justice for the victim.
The police spokesman, Bala Elkana, stated that the woman and her husband came to Bariga Police Station to a report that their house girl had committed suicide.
Detectives were said to have visited the house and suspected foul play with the position of the rope and bruises all over the body which confirmed that the girl had been tortured to death and the boss decided to hang up the girl to make it look like suicide.
He said: “The police moved on with their investigation and found a lot of sign of violence on her body that she has been tortured before a rope was put on her neck.’’
He added that the police removed the corpse and deposited it in the mortuary for autopsy to further ascertain the cause of the death.
Elkana said the matter has been transferred from Bariga police station to Panti for further investigation while the couple have been arrested and will be charged to court.
Ostensibly alarmed by the latest killings of dozens of soldiers by Boko Haram insurgents, President Muhammadu Buhari has summoned an urgent meeting of Service Chiefs to find ways to stop the trend.
He has also dispatched the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali, to the neighbouring Republic of Chad for an urgent meeting with President Idris Deby and his defence counterpart.
Knowledgeable sources said in Abuja on Friday that the president is worried by on the deterioration of security situation on the Nigeria – Chad Border that has led to the recently increased Boko Haram terrorism in the area.
The sources which did not want to be named in Abuja said: “Nigeria has a Chad problem in the Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF) put together to secure the Lake Chad basin areas and repeal the Boko Haram terrorist attacks against all the countries neighbouring the Lake.”
The sources noted that Chad is believed to be having their own internal security challenges and this has reportedly led to their pulling away their own troops manning their own border around Lake Chad, saying: “That lacuna is being exploited by the Boko Haram terrorists, who go in and out of Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon to launch terrorist acts. This is a clear illustration of the fact that terrorism is beyond national borders.”
When contacted, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, confirmed that the Defence Minister is going to Chad but said he is unaware of the purpose.
Meanwhile, the military authorities are said to be in the process of identifying the families of the latest victims with a view to making contact with them.
Credible sources revealed that it is the reason the president is yet to make any pronouncement on the matter.
“The President has called an urgent meeting with the Service Chiefs, as well as the fact that families of the latest victims of the Boko Haram are being identified and contacts made before a government pronouncement on the tragic attacks. This, it is understood, is the reason for the silence of the government over the incident,” the source said.
Sourced From: Tribune
Nigeria records 55 new COVID-19 infections, total now 165,110
Military, Police Ring Abuja to Forestall Boko Haram Attack
UFC: Usman gets N584m after beating Masvidal
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