What can the Nigerian Government do as more Children take to the Streets?
The rate children in Nigeria are taking to the streets has become quite alarming and something needs to be done to help children overcome this sad development by the Abuja government. Economic hardship and bad governance are fast combining to exacerbate the condition of children in the country. The Nigerian-child is fast becoming deprivable socially thus having their future hanging in the air. This is the air that accounts for nothing and gives nothing in return to children in the country. It is the air that the Nigerian-child breathes.
Nothing from the government seems to favour the children in the country. It is doubtful whether there are official feasible policies that are geared towards the well-being of the Nigerian-child. It is also a country that majority of the Non-Governmental Organizations are in pursuing political clean slates in the country thus relegating the well-being of the children to the background. Until many of these groups and associations decide to stand to stand up children, the future of these children is very unwelcoming.
The educational situation of children in Nigeria today requires children to enroll in expensive private schools whether, nursery, primary, secondary or the university. Public schools in the country are gradually going down on extinction without support from the government. Interestingly, churches too are on the fastest lanes to establishing private schools with unaffordable fees and parents are groaning. From nursery to university, it is difficult for parents to train their children in schools in the country. The situation is more terrible for the children that have to be given out as maids to richer families who maltreat them and see them as articles that require paying back money to their parents and no one takes note of these things.
The word “street boy or girl” is fast gaining recognition amongst the youths of the country. It is now a matter of pride and competition for youths in the country to proudly claim that they are doing well in the streets. But the truth is that they that often end up in the jails or return to terrorize the society that has refused to give them the best in life where the government plays no role in their lives. It is that an unhelpful society for the children who have the potentials of ruling the country someday. Indeed, a lot of youths that have brought glory to the country were from the streets of Lagos accepted in the society because they had made names. The situation describe here is not different from the other sectors of the country. The Nollywood and music industries of the country are two of the examples.
The basic necessities of life should be put in place to encourage child development in the country. Sadly, again, hospitals are in bad shape in a country where not many special hospitals exists for children. The British colonial government recognized that children should be specially treated differently in their own kind of hospitals something which has become very strange to the Nigerian government whether within local, state or federal level. The Nigerian child should be well catered for with all the basic things of life.
Ironically, the unfair treatment of the Nigerian child has continued outside the shores of the country as many of them have been reportedly shot dead in Britain and other countries without any official intervention from the Nigerian government. The Nigerian government had failed severally to diplomatically intervene on behalf of their child-citizens and make them feel loved. No one instance exists in which the Nigerian government has protested over the decision of a court in respect of a child whether in Nigeria or anywhere else.
UNICEF and other Child related NGOs should do more to encourage the growth of children in the country and make them feel loved. Areas that should be looked upon are fake drugs for children which pour into the country on daily basis. It is harmful to reason that children that can hardly express themselves are made to live on fake drugs courtesy of heartless importers. There is also the education sector, where the Nigerian child can no longer compete with their counterparts in other parts of the world. Parents are known to be lacking fate in what is on ground as public schools. If the government of the nation is made to inject more funds and reform the sector, it will as the bedrock of child development, advance the course of children in the country.
Play-grounds and leisure centers should be built for the teeming population of children in the country. It is difficult to imagine that major cities in the country are lacking of play-grounds yet the government of the nation preach the social development of children and want to produce many sportsmen and women which are impossible. In Festac town, Lagos for instance, has had all the play-grounds reserved for children disposed-off by the government. The government continued to sell-off vacant lands without considering the interest of children. Plans for youth development are no where near the agenda of the government in a country that heavily believes in the future of the youths. The Federal Housing Authority’s only play-ground in the large estate often called “FHA Field” is in bad state. The authorities responsible for the play-ground usually show preferences for social and religious activities over sporting activities.
Only the timely intervention of the government will determine the fate of children in the country. Lives of children must not be wasted by the leaders of the country.
Emeka Esogbue is a Nigerian.
emekaesogbue@yahoo.com
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