Author: Emmanuel Bagudu

June 16 every year, the world marks the International Day of the African Child. The day is commemorated with tributes to some South African black students who where killed in Soweto during a protest for their right to quality education in 1976.

Since 1991 when the day was first marked by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) now African Union (AU), the drive towards better healthy life for an average African child has been in the front burner with very disturbing statistics showing the vulnerability of African children who are exposed to child labour, child marriage, destitution, abuse, rape and marginalisation.

The theme for the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2021 is “30 years after the adoption of the Charter: Accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for children”. The African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (Committee), established under Articles 32 and 33 of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (the Charter) selected this theme for the commemoration of the DAC in 2021. The theme seeks to appraise the effort so far by the African Union and other international organizations in ensuring children’s welfare.

TheNewsGuru.com. TNG can confirm that more work needs to be done as Africa still has the largest number of child labourers. 72.1 million African children are estimated to be in child labour and 31.5 million in hazardous work. In Africa, agriculture accounts for 85 per cent of child labour statistics and for 61.4 million children in absolute terms. A record the International Labour Organization (ILO) provided adjudged as disturbing.

Here in Nigeria, Africa’s largest population, children especially in the northern part of the country have over the years become endangered species; child destitution and begging, child labour and child marriage account for the high number of out of school children in the region. The girl-child is the most affected, forcefully married from as young as age eleven (11) to thirteen (13).

“You will think they are young, but to us they are very mature, we are forced to believe they are mature once we see them doing some things only adult are doing, it is then we send them to marriage”. Idris Musa, a resident of Bargi village in Makarfi local government of Kaduna State told TNG. Inevitable signs of puberty to Musa and his likes are signs a young girl is ripe for marriage.

Other instances of abuse of children’s right can be seen in the child labour practice enshrined by the Almajiri system. The Almajiri system is an Islamic practice in Northern Nigeria where children are sent out of their parents house to Islamic clerics to learn the teachings of the Quran, but in the absence of food and even shelter, the children are forced to become street beggers and become exploited through unskilled labour. These children who are often called ‘Almajirai’ often litter the streets and at the latter stage in their lives when they grow without education become thugs who would make life in the society unbearable. Their female counterparts forced to marry at premature ages end up with diseases such as Vascular Virginia Fistula (VVF) and often thrown out of their marriage due to their incompatibility with their forced spouses.

All these still exist in Nigeria despite the enactment of the Child Right Act 2003, a policy frame work that currently exist to provide healthy lives and protect Nigerian children. This according to some stakeholders is worrisome.

For Osigwe Momoh, an Abuja based lawyer, the Nigerian justice system must look in to the issues of Nigerian children for posterity sake.

“What I love most about the child right act is the fact that the child has been defined as anyone below the age of eighteen, so if you are bellow eighteen, you are a child in this country and every right facility a child should have you ought to have it if you are below eighteen.” He said.

He added that “it’s quite sad that even at this instance we have some painful understanding where people still think that children should marry especially owing to some traditional or religious purposes, so while it’s in one hand we say this is a child you have to take care of, some other people in another hand feel that it’s their right to religion and so a twelve year old girl should marry, I think this is offensive.”

In her submission, Any Rotimi a civil right activist in Abuja said; “It is important that we continue to advocate and engage every stakeholder; it starts from the community level which includes the family, the traditional, religious setting, and others.

“We also have the responsibility of holding the system accountable, to ensure that those children are able to live the life they desire” she added.