Uchechukwu Nnaike and Funmi Ogundare
16 June 2009
Lagos — Yesterday, June 16, was commemorated across Africa as the Day of the African Child. Uchechukwu Nnaike and Funmi Ogundare examine the extent to which Nigeria has gone in its effort to guarantee the rights of children, particularly in its desire to achieve Education for All (EFA) by 2015
The Day of the African Child was instituted in 1991 by the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now African Union (AU), and celebrated annually to draw attention to the welfare of children in all African countries.
The special event stemmed from the unfortunate killing by police in the then apartheid South Africa of innocent school children in South West Town (SOWETO), who were protesting poor quality education on June 16, 1976.
At this year's celebration with the theme, 'Africa Fit for Children: Call for Accelerated Action towards their survival', the AU emphasised the need for member states to urgently heed the call for accelerated action to ensure the survival of the continent's children.
In Nigeria, like in other African countries, several policies have been formulated by the governments in an effort to ensure the survival of children. When he assumed office in 2007, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua made the provision of quality education one of his administration's developed action plan known as the seven-point agenda.
The National Assembly also passed a Child Rights Act into law in 2007 to protect the rights of children, particularly the girl-child, with regard to facilitating their access to education, protection against early marriage, and all forms of child abuse.
The Act specifically prescribes that every Nigerian child is entitled to rest, leisure and enjoyment of the best attainable state of physical, mental and spiritual health; every government in Nigeria shall strive to reduce infant mortality rate, provide medical and health care, adequate nutrition and safe drinking water, hygienic and sanitised environments, combat diseases and malnutrition, support and mobilise through local and community resources, the development of primary health care for children; provisions for children in need of special protection measures (mentally, physically challenged, or street children): they are protected in a manner that would enable them achieve their fullest, possible social integration, and moral development; expectant and nursing mothers shall be catered for, and every parent or guardian having legal custody of a child under the age of two years shall ensure its immunisation against diseases, or face judicial penalties; betrothal and marriage of children are prohibited; causing tattoos or marks, and female genital mutilation are made punishable offences under the Act; and so also is the exposure to pornographic materials, trafficking of children, their use of narcotic drugs, or the use of children in any criminal activities, among others.
The exceptions to these provisions are where the child is employed by a family member, in work that is of an agricultural or horticultural or domestic in nature, and if such a child is not required to carry or move any thing heavy that is likely to adversely affect its moral, mental, physical spiritual or social development.
The Act also prohibits buying, selling, hiring or otherwise dealing in children for purpose of begging, hawking, prostitution or for unlawful immoral purposes are made punishable by long terms of imprisonment. Other offences considered grave include sexual abuse, general exploitation which is prejudicial to the welfare of the child, recruitment into
the armed forces and the importation/exposure of children to harmful publications. It further preserves the continued application of all criminal law provisions securing the protection of the child whether born or unborn.
Children also have responsibilities under the Act, which include working towards the cohesion of their families, respecting their parents and elders, placing their physical and intellectual capabilities at the service of the State, contributing to the moral well being of the society, strengthening social and national solidarity, preserving the independence and integrity of the country, respecting the ideals of freedom, equality, humaneness, and justice for all persons, relating with others in the spirit of tolerance, dialogue and consultation, and contributing to the best of their abilities solidarity with and unity with Africa, and the world at large.
Consequently, the Act mandates parents, guardians, institutions and authorities in whose care children are placed, to provide the necessary guidance, education and training to enable the children live up to these responsibilities.
Also, the Act makes provisions for the establishment of 'Family Courts', which would operate at the High Court and Magistrate Court levels with the jurisdiction to hear all cases in that the existence of a legal right, power, duty, liability, privilege, interest, obligation or claim in respect of a child is in issue, and any criminal proceeding, relating thereto.
It has provided for child Justice Administration, to replace the Juvenile Justice
Administration, which has been in existence for several decades in Nigeria. The provisions prohibit the subjection of any child to the criminal justice process, and guarantees that due process be given to any child subjected to the child justice system, at
all the stages of investigation, adjudication and disposition of any case against such a child. It has prohibited the use of capital punishment, use of imprisonment and use of
corporal punishment for children under 18 years, and further provides for the use of scientific tests in deciding paternity cases.
The Act provides for the establishment of the Child Rights Implementation Committees at the National, State and Local Government levels. These are to ensure that there is governmental commitment at all levels to fulfilling the implementation of its provisions, through research, investigation and jurisprudence.
Unfortunately, this important Act, which ought to be domesticated in all states of the federation including Abuja, is yet to be adopted in some states. In fact only 23 states have passed the Act into law and, these are: Ogun, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Nassarawa, among others.
This prompted President Yar'Adua's call, during this year's children's day, on states yet to pass the Child Rights Act Bill to pass and implement it in the interest of the nation's children. The Act, he said was an important and comprehensive national legislation, which seeks to protect and promote the rights of the nation's children whom he described as the future of the country.
The president said his administration was committed to the implementation of policies and programmes that would enhance the rights of the child. "This would not only enable the children to thrive in safety and security, but to also optimally realise the potentials of their creative and productive capacities," he said.
On EFA programme in the country, the UNICEF report said substantial progress has been made towards the realisation of its cardinal goals since its enunciation in 1990, though there are challenges. It said the federal government has put in place a number of educational policies, such as, Universal Primary Education (UPE), EFA and Universal Basic Education (UBE), to check the problem of drop-outs and the dwindling enrolment in primary and secondary schools, as well as educational deterioration generally in the country. UPE scheme was instituted by the military government in 1976 to develop the educational capacity of illiterate Nigerians. The scheme was not as effective as expected though more people were able to go to school, read and write their names and better informed, as a result of the scheme. UBE was established in 1999 and made the first nine years of schooling free and compulsory for all children of school age. The programme is backed up by law, which also stipulates free, compulsory and universal primary education when it is practical.
Also, a free-lunch policy was introduced by most states in the northern part of the country to attract mass school enrolment. Under the policy, pupils are given free lunch in school, in addition to the provision of free school uniform, free text books, writing and reading materials. There is also a National Commission for Mass Literacy (NCML) in the country with the mandate of putting in place programmes and strategies to raise Nigeria's literacy rate.
However, the report said EFA policies and/or reforms have not been as effective as anticipated, as the sector is faced with major challenges of poorly paid teachers, dearth of trained teachers, poor and inadequate infrastructure, which made teachers less motivated. This it said contributed to poor or irregular school attendance among children in the country.
These challenges notwithstanding, it said there is a steady rise in primary school enrolment in the country. In terms of gender, there is more male enrolment in primary school than their female counterpart and that teacher-pupil ratio in the country is also improving.
A new Teachers Salary Structure (TSS) was approved by the federal government to encourage teachers and raise their commitment to the goals of EFA. In addition, a National Teachers Institute (NTI) is in place for the training and re-training of teachers to provide quality education in line with the goals of EFA.
According to the report, despite the progress so far recorded on the EFA programme in the country, vulnerable children such as those on the streets, including the 'almajirai', nomadic Fulani children, orphans and the girl-child particularly in rural areas of northern Nigeria, are yet to fully benefit from the UBE and EFA efforts.
Retired Deputy Director of the Ministry of Defense, Mrs. Marie Pauline Uzor said since the day has been recognised throughout the world for the interest of the child, there is need to educate the children and enlighten the parents more on how best to treat them.
She regretted that "the African child is exposed to both the negative and positives. What makes him different from other children is that Africa used to be a dark continent but now it's moving to a continent struggling to become like the developed country. The African child is battling with survival, he might be exposed to good things but they are not readily available because of under-development and the fact that he must survive. The African child is making effort to meet up with what happens in other developed countries, but things are not yet okay. There's poverty, lack of basic amenities and so the child is most times abused and used to help in the home for survival, so it is unfortunate, this same child could have done extremely well, if it were other developed countries."
Uzor said although the government was making effort in ensuring that child trafficking and people using them as house helps, became a thing of the past, but more still needed to be done in the areas of funding, ensuring adequate facilities to educate the children, as well as organising more enlightenment programmes.
A teacher, Mrs. Catherine Iwuh said the government has done well in orientating the populace about the evils inherent in child trafficking and using them as slaves, but have not fared well in the areas of implementation. "The laws are not enforced because you still see children hawking, used for house helps and trafficked."
A Clergyman, Rev. Father John Okoro said since some states government like Ebonyi are taking the bull by the horn to ensure that such violation of human rights, does not occur, others should try and emulate them. "Ebonyi State for example state, have declared that every child has to go to school and nobody can go there to pick a child as house help, but in some states you still see children being bread winners of the family while the parents sit at home. Other states should try and emulate Ebonyi state in taking the bull by the horn to eradicate such vices. Parents also owes the children a great responsibility in bringing them up properly," he said
A business woman, Mrs. Agnes Edo-Osagie said there is need for government to liberalise education, give allowances for health and education so as to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor. "The parents are handicapped and the government is not forthcoming, even the parents are the ones sending their children to hawk. It is as a result of poverty. Some children might not like to see their parents suffering and so they would want to urgent the family income by hawking, or even begging. The government can also encourage adoption so that those who can would give the children a better life.
There is need to re-strategise to accommodate these groups of vulnerable children. Then the country may be moving towards making the country a place fit for children
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