A call has been made to various levels of government in Nigeria to domesticate various Child Rights laws, especially the right to education as part of the solution to the lingering security challenges and banditry in Nigeria.
The call was made today by a lawyer and the Chairman of Journalist Estate Residents Association, Barrister Jide Oke while delivering a paper Violation of the Child Rights and Security Implication at a Security Summit Organised by The Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), Warewa Division.
Barrister Jide Oke stated that though the Child Rights Act of 2003 that guarantees the rights of children exists in Nigeria in line with the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, the various State governments all over Nigeria have not done enough to protect the rights of children especially the right to education.
“As at today in Nigeria, only 27 states including Ogun State have so far domesticated the Act as a state law while the remaining 9 states are yet to adopt the act”, Barrister Oke disclosed.
He declared that even in the states that have domesticated the Act, not much has been done to make the right justiceable as the number of children out of school in these various states is still alarming.
“In our immediate environment here, if you go to Under Bridge at Punch Newspaper during school hours, you see a lot of children of school age running after vehicles begging for alms at a time they should be in school. These children are left in the cold when it rains and under harsh weather both during the rainy season and the dry season. The security implication of this is quite frightening as they may grow up with hatred against the society and with nothing to fall back to, they may have no other option than to resort to crime”
Barrister Oke submitted that for the security of any nation to be guaranteed, the right of children to education must be guaranteed and safeguarded and therefore call on the government and various NGOs to as a matter of urgency identify some of these children who are without shelter and out of school and find a means of rehabilitating them.
Responding to the paper delivered by Barrister Jide Oke, the Ogun State Chairman of PCRC, Chief Samson Kunle Popoola, regretted that the entire society had failed Nigerian children and that accounted for the state of the country.
He stated that this is not the time to start apportioning blame to anybody but a time for government, parents, churches and mosques to rise up to the reality of the challenges confronting us as a nation and take collective action into solving the problems.
“As a nation, we have copied western countries in the area of Child Rights but have refused to make enough provisions that will guarantee those rights and once children are not properly brought up and they grow up and we have no employment for them, they become vulnerable and are capable of anything,” Chief Popoola stated.
He, therefore, called on Nigerians to join hands with the government to tackle the security challenges in Nigeria.
Speaking earlier in her welcome address, the Chairperson of PCRC, Warewa Police Division, Dr Nkem Akowe called on well-meaning Nigerians to take ownership of the security of the nation.
She reminded Nigerians that the reality of the security challenges in Nigeria today requires the vigilance of everybody.
“We are all aware of the security challenges facing Nigeria today. It is no longer a Northern thing or a Niger-Delta or a South-West thing. The security challenge is virtually Pan Nigeria. This is therefore the time for all stakeholders to put heads together to tackle this menace that is not only threatening the corporate existence of Nigeria, but our individual lives”, Dr Nkem submitted.
She stated that security should be seen as the task of everybody as it is quite obvious that government and security personnel alone cannot guarantee our safety.
“Those of us who are not empowered to carry guns can support institutions and security agencies legally established to carry guns by giving them the moral support they need like we have come to do today to commission some security projects we have embarked upon that will go a long way in assisting this Police division to function better.
The Theme of the Security Summit is Community Policing in a Diverse and Multi-Ethnic Environment.
Some projects such as the Police Security Tower built by PCRC to facilitate the effective monitoring and patrol of the notorious long bridge along Lagos Ibadan express road were commissioned by the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State Command who was represented by ACP Adeniyi Adedeji, the Area Commander, Owode Egba Area Command.
