By Yinka Adeosun
Children Day, first proclaimed by the World Conference for the
Wellbeing of Children in 1925 and then established universally in 1954, is
celebrated each year to promote international togetherness, awareness among
children worldwide, and improving children’s welfare. International Children’s
Day has also been set aside by the United Nations to celebrate and honour
children across the world every May 27. (Today is one of such remarkable days).
It is recognised and celebrated on various days in many countries around the
world. The day was created as part of efforts of the UN to protect children
from dangerous situations in the society and as well to give every child the
opportunity to acquire formal education. Significantly, it was set aside to
highlight the dignity of children and their need for love, care and respect,
and to also instill in them a sense of patriotism and national pride.
(Regrettably),
the Nigerian child is an endangered species. She or he usually bears the impact
of poverty, family problems, peer pressure, failed educational system, social
and religious conflicts as well as violence and terrorism. At an early age,
some children are given in marriage, thereby exposing them to sexually
transmitted diseases and infections, many have been conscripted into foot
soldiers, are victims of sexual slavery and all sorts of emotional torture.
Child
abuse, child trafficking, child battery and exploitation are common realities
in our society. It is sad that despite the information age, some cultures and
practices in our country still make children vulnerable, disadvantaged and
prone to abuse. Under-aged marriage is the norm in the North and child labour
is not peculiar to the South alone.
Many
of our children grow with bitterness for their country. Having watched the
insincerity of the government to the plight of the child in comparison to the
news of child bravery in other climes, many would prefer to stay away and
fulfill their potentials in a clime that encourages them to do so. The tale of
the Chibok girls, the kidnap of students of Barbington Macaulay Junior Seminary
in Lagos
