Insecurity and children’s rights in Nigeria: Urgent need for action
Insecurity and children’s rights in Nigeria: Urgent need for action
By Benson Ezugwu, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
World over, children are regarded as vulnerable persons because, by nature, they are dependent on their parents and the larger society for survival.
According to the Children Rights Act 2003, and the United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Children (CRC) 1989, a child is a person under the age of 18 years.
There are four basic provisions in the CRC: rights to survival, rights to development, rights to protection, and rights to participation.
Interestingly, Nigeria ratified the CRC in 1991, and the African Charter on Children’s Rights (ACR), in 2000.
The Child Rights Act 2003 has a provision which says that: “No Nigerian child shall be subjected to physical, mental, or emotional injury, abuse or neglect, inhuman or degrading punishment on his/her honour or reputation. ”
However, the recent security breaches in parts of the country have posed a serious challenge to the implementation of the children’s rights agreements which Nigeria is signatory to.
Recently, some states government issued directives for the closure of schools in their states until further notice following panic and fear arising from reports of threats by non-state actors.
Experts say these are clear violations of the rights of children in these states, even though the actions may have been taken in good faith.
More so, the Federal Government of Nigeria has ordered the closure of no fewer than 47 Unity Schools in parts of the country, owning to the reports of planned mass abduction of students by bandits.
A statement by the ministry of Education said: “Following the recent security challenges in some parts of the country and the need to prevent any security breach, the Minister of Education has approved the immediate closure of 47 federal government colleges.’’
It would be recalled that, the first report of the abduction of school children occurred in Chibok Borno State in 2014, when more than a 100 school girls were initially abducted by Boko Haram
In 2016, some school girls from the Girls Secondary School, Dapchi, Yobe, were abducted by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), though some of the girls were later released, one of them Leah Sharibu still remains in captivity.
More recently, two major kidnappings took place, one in Maga Comprehensive Secondary School, Kebbi in Kebbi State, where 25 school girls were abducted and another in St. Mary’s Private Catholic Secondary School, in Niger, where scores of students were forcefully taken to the forests.
The Maga girls have been freed, though.
Experts say these abductions of children amount to clear violations of the rights of children because the nature of their abduction will surely inflict a life-long, if not a lifetime mental agony on those children.
They say the humiliation, the punishment, the physical, mental, psychological torture, inflicted on those children will surely be hard for them to bear even if they are eventually freed.
In a recent workshop on media and reportage of child rights organised by the Federal Ministry of Information in collaboration with the UniCef, in PortHacourt, a participant from Benue State painted a pathetic picture of some of the happenings at the IDP camp in the state, as it concerns children and their rights violation.
According to the participant, some men now capitalise on the unfortunate situation of the children, particularly girls in the camp to woo them to marriage with just three tubers of yam.
“Some men just go to the IDPs camp and present as little as three tubers of yam to parents or guardians of the girl, sometimes as young as 13 or less, and a marriage is agreed settled.
“These children have no choice but to follow the man, at least to see where they can eat,” the participant lamented.
Such stories abound in many IDP camps where young, unassuming, innocent, helpless persons, especially girls are exploited and manipulated by some satanic adults to their unscrupulous advantage to trample on the rights of children.
Speaking on the matter, an Educationist, Mr Basil Ossai, said the situation was pathetic and needed more government interventions.
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Ossai, who is the Headmaster of Amaechenu Primary School, Eha-Azuabor Community in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, described the closure of schools as additional trauma for the Nigerian children.
“It is a tragedy, a total disaster for the Nigerian children; their rights have been infringed upon because it is their right to go school and to be educated.
“Abduction of children inflicts fear, despair and psychology on them, which they may live with all their lives,” he said.
Ossai urged government at all levels to do everything within the ambit of the law to protect school children across the country.
In the same vein, Dr Chinedu Aroh, a seasoned educationist and educational consultant, said that the current abductions of students was a dangerous trend that should not be allowed to continue.
“The development is very dangerous; the development will surely create a lacuna in our education system.”
According to him, the affected children will feel unsafe and insecure while pursuing their educational carrier, when they eventually regain their freedom.
“The kids involved will be mentally derailed; they will always remember the situation with shock; and it will make their academic prospects bleak.’’
He lamented that some of the abducted students in the past were kidnapped for life.
“Like the case of Leah Sharibu; we also saw the situation of some Chibok girls, who came back as mothers, while some never even wanted to return,” he said.
He said that the abducted students needed proper rehabilitation upon their release.
Aroh advised the Federal Government to do all within its power to stop the development, so that Nigerian children would not lose their fundamental rights to education.
More so, Dr Ambrose Igboke, the Chairman of Association of Public Affairs Analysts in Enugu State, said the situation portended danger to both the children and the country.
According to him, apart from the psychological trauma that the children face, the international community will see Nigeria as a country that cannot protect her citizens.
“They instill fear on the children, psychologically diverting their attention from education and making them to lose interest in school.
“School is a place where these children meet their mates, play together and share ideas on different subjects,” he said.
He said that with the abduction of the students at will, the parents would become traumatised and unwilling to release their children to schools.
Igboke said parents could no longer guarantee the protection of their children by the authorities.
It is worth noting that since September 2021, an ongoing trend known as the Monday Sit-at-Home or Lockdown has been observed in the Eastern region of Nigeria, to protest the incarceration of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB).
Observers say while it is the right of people to protest in whatever manner, provided they do not violate the law, it is also very lamentable that the action has affected the mental and psychological structure of children in the zone.
In seven days of the week, children go to school for only four days while being forced to stay at home every Monday.
Analysts say this has affected the psyche of many children in the zone such that children, as young as eight years have mastered the word ‘lockdown’.
All in all, stakeholders say it is also necessary for the non-state actors to bear in mind that children all over the world are the beacons of tomorrow’s hope, and that no matter the cause one is pursuing or fighting for, children should not bear the brunt. NANFeatures)
