By Joy Ezeilo, SAN
Happy Children’s Day!
As we commemorate yet another day of the year 2024 dedicated to children, I can’t help but reflect on the situation of Nigerian children. Unsafe schools and school abductions constantly threaten their fundamental rights to survival and development. This issue came to the forefront in 2014 with the kidnapping of the Chibok girls. Since then, our schools, streets, cities, and communities have become crime scenes, with children paying the ultimate price and being denied the right to grow up in a secure and loving environment. Child hawking, child labour, child trafficking, child marriage, and child abuse and neglect continue to occur without being effectively addressed.
On Children’s Day, I want to take a moment to think about girls who are victims or survivors of early and forced marriage. The recent reports of marriage sponsorship in Niger state lack details about whether those affected are under 18 years old. Undoubtedly, child marriage undermines the well-being and growth of girls, leading to a cycle of poverty, inequality, gender disparity, and violence, mainly targeting girls and women. When I talk to young people, I always say to them, “Education First, Marriage and Sex Much Later”.
It is unfortunate that despite Nigeria’s status as a State Party to the globally ratified Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, and despite domesticating the CRC in the Child’s Rights Act and laws of almost all the states of the federation, Nigeria continues to breach its obligation to protect, enforce, and fulfill children’s rights. Of utmost importance are the rights to education, protection from all forms of exploitation, adoption of a minimum age for marriage, and consent to marriage when of an appropriate age, in line with international best practices.
Considering this and other recent happenings opposed to children’s advancement in Nigeria, all actors and non-actors must take accountability seriously by specifically leading actions to ensure the effective implementation of the extant laws on children’s rights
All children in society, especially the most vulnerable children – street children, children with disabilities, children from poor economic backgrounds, rural children, and those living on the margins of urban cities – deserve a childhood free from hunger, pain, hate, or any harm. They deserve a childhood where their innocent curiosity is nurtured and not exploited and where they are not constantly at risk of becoming victims of insecurity, violence, harmful practices, and worsening economic hardship.
All hands must be on deck to safeguard the next generation and ensure their best interests are prioritized in all circumstances.
Happy Children’s Day!
Prof Joy Ngozi Ezeilo SAN, OON
