By Sanusi Abdullahi Oyelekan.

As Nigeria joins in the celebration of the 2024 Children’s Day, the government should prioritise the rights of children in the country. The day is a reminder that the country should continue to create a safe environment for children to evolve into resourceful, creative, and patriotic adults.

The theme is, “For every child, every right.”

The rhetoric that children are the future has become a distasteful staple as child labour, child trafficking, insecurity and displacement, poor nutrition and lack of developmental tools and basic amenities are the reality in the country.

Nigeria has a young population: 42 per cent of the 223 million is under 15 years old, while 70 per cent is under 30, per the National Bureau of Statistics. Yet, they remain the most oppressed.

In a country battling economic hardship, the brunt trickles down to children. At 40.53 per cent, food inflation, and widespread insecurity sabotage good nutrition at the table of families.

The 2023 Global Report on Food Crisis placed Nigeria among the 10 countries where families do not eat the required nutrients for energy and sustenance. Dataphyte revealed that 31.5 per cent of Nigerian children have stunted growth due to malnutrition.

Parents and guardians are forced to exclude their wards from school due to the inability to pay tuition fees and other demands. Nigeria is grappling with 20.1 million out-of-school children, the second highest rate in the world after India.

The political class is failing the Nigerian child. Twenty-seven of 36 states have not accessed the N54.9 billion Universal Basic Education Commission fund despite the out-of-school children debacle.

The fund was established to help states promote education at the primary school tier. Nigeria cannot achieve the mandate of free and compulsory education at public primary and secondary levels without robust investment in the sector.

Indeed, poor investment in education and the overall lack of advancement of the child’s rights are aggravated by insecurity. It is no longer news that insurgents and terrorists recruit teenagers and deploy them as cannon fodders for their criminal activities.

According to the European Institute University, nearly 10,000 children were co-opted into Boko Haram’s army between 2009 and 2019. UNICEF says 83 children were used as ‘human bombs’ in the North-East in 2017.

Nigerian children are plagued with double jeopardy; they are the victims of incessant kidnappings and are also displaced from their communities. Over 1.4 million children were displaced by violence in the country, per the UN.

Within one year of his presidency, President Bola Tinubu has failed to stem the tide of kidnappings and violence.

As of March, over 7,000 people have been kidnapped, per SBM Intelligence. In January, gunmen abducted and killed 13-year-old Folashade Ariyo, a resident at the Sagwari Estate Layout in Dutse-Alhaji, Bwari Area Council, Abuja.

Terrorists abducted 200 women and children near an IDP camp in Kajuru, Gamborou-Ngala LGA in Borno State in February. In March, over 150 pupils were abducted at the LEA Primary and Secondary School in Kuriga, Chikun LGA in Kaduna State.

While children are preyed upon, many states have failed to execute and enforce the Child Rights Act. Although 34 out of 36 states have domesticated the act, child labour, child marriage, child rape and children with begging bowls dot the landscape. About 24 million children between the ages of five and 17 are involved in child labour, per NBS.

Therefore, parents should plan their families to avoid undue financial stress and properly train their children in school.

Tinubu needs to revitalise the school feeding programme. It was suspended given the alleged financial misappropriation scandal within the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development. A transparent and effective rejig of the programme will encourage enrolment numbers and return to school for dropouts.

State governments must bear their statutory responsibilities to the children in their states.

END.