Like every year, the International Day of the African Child is observed by the African Union and its member states as a commemoration of June 16, 1976 Students’ Uprising in Soweto, South Africa where thousands of students woke up and marched to the streets against the apartheid regime to protest their disapproval of the Black Education Act, which segregated students based on their race.
They were speaking out against the discrimination they suffered at school as black children and the poor standard of the curriculum, and called on the authorities to respect their right to an education in their own language. The South African police responded and released dogs and fired real bullets at the children. Police brutalisation and killings went on for two weeks. Hundreds of children were killed and hundreds more injured. The march by the Soweto students was suppressed with blood, 17 years before apartheid finally ended.
To honour their courage and in memory of those killed, in 1991, the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union) established the Day of the African Child as part of its African Charter on The Rights and Welfare of the Child, which P⁰ states that: “children are tomorrow’s nation builders and carry the hopes of the future”. Our children are Africa’s future, a precious resource.
It also raises awareness of the continuing need for the improvement of the education provided to African children.
The theme for the Day of the African Child 2021 is “30 years after the adoption of the Charter: accelerate the implementation of Agenda 2040 for an Africa fit for children”.
This is a time when governments, NGOs, international organisations and stakeholders must gather again to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the full realisation of the rights of children in Africa.
Because today, 30 years later, we are still fighting for the rights of children to have a free, friendly, safe and compulsory quality education. Every day, African children without access to quality education are on the increase because of bad leadership and unequal distribution of resources.
On April 14, 2014, more than 200 girls were abducted from a school in Chibok, northern Nigeria by the Islamist militant group, Boko Haram. That was the first in Nigeria and was decried by many. Unfortunately, since that time, several other students have been kidnapped from their schools in Borno, Niger, Kaduna, Lagos states etc. This terrible situation is the worst nightmare any parent can experience. To send a child to school, and for that child not to return home, is an unimaginable horror. Schools are learning spaces –children receive not only their formal education but also an understanding of themselves, their community and the wider world.
No parent should have to choose between giving their child an education and keeping them safe.
Many children in the northern Nigeria are not in formal education and often this is a question of circumstances including child marriage, poverty, and of course fear or threat of violence. According to Amnesty International, from the beginning of 2012 to this day, thousands of teachers and over 2000 pupils have been killed or wounded in northern Nigeria. Also, more than 50 schools have either been burned or seriously damaged and more than 60 others had been forced to close.
Thousands of children have been forced out of schools and thousands of teachers have been forced to flee from areas in the North. As a parent, I know that sometimes, we have to make difficult decisions for our children but no parent should have to choose between giving their child an education and keeping them safe.
Even before the rise in Boko Haram attacks, girl-child education in northern Nigeria was much lower than in the South. Overall in Nigeria, the number of out-of-school children increases day by day which runs to millions. It is so sad to note Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children in the world.
Comparing regionally, we find an even more dismal picture, 84% of poorest girls aged 7-16 years in the North-West have never been to school, compared to only 18% of children in the South-East. Child marriage is prevalent in the North, and although many families are driven to this by poverty as well as traditional values, by marrying young, girls are being trapped in a cycle of poverty, as they lose out on educational and economic opportunities that would help lift them and their families out of poverty.
Women Empowerment and Legal Aid since June 2009 has contributed to the empowerment of women/girls in Nigeria and the promotion and protection of their rights through advocacy, award of scholarships, free vocational training and provision of legal aid,
education must be a top priority for the Nigerian children. We believe in raising proactive agents of change in Nigeria.
As witnessed in the past one decade, this year’s Children’s Day was devoid of nearly all the usual activities that provided excitement to schoolchildren. Neither the rhythms from school-bands nor the annual ritual of march-past was heard or seen in most cities and towns across the country. What remains of Children’s Day (for children who are aware of it), is that the Day is lesson-free. Except for those of them that attend schools where fees are paid in dollars or Euros; very few Nigerian children would have had any cause to celebrate the 2021 Children’s Day. The out-of-school children in their huge numbers and others who are victims of insurgency, poverty, hunger, disease, squalour, and destitution couldn’t have been part of any celebration. This group of vulnerable kids who spend most part of their times begging on the street, hawking at motor parks. This is the quality of young people that our leaders who call children ‘leaders of tomorrow’ are preparing for Nigeria’s future.
Having become more vulnerable than imagined, lack of access to quality education and primary healthcare are two essential factors that define the plight of today’s Nigerian child.
The refusal by 11 states to domesticate the Child Rights’ Act, 20 years after it was passed by the National Assembly, is condemnable. The persistent failure by most states to access counterpart funds from the Universal Basic Education Commission is one ominous injustice done by culpable state governments against the Nigerian child. Relevant agencies need to be more proactive in combating child trafficking, child abuse, drug and substance addiction among the youths, and rape of minors. Parents who put the search for wealth, power or other interests above the education, care and love due to their children are not only endangering the future of their children, they are also endangering the society.
When the growth of our children is stunted today, the growth of our economies will be stunted tomorrow. But when Africa’s children are nourished and can grow, learn and earn to their full potential, we will be able to unleash the potential of the entire continent.
Mrs Falana is a human rights activist and founder of the Women Empowerment and Legal Aid.
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