Children are said to be the future of a nation and are
supposed to be loved and protected. Unfortunatly, poverty and lack of a
political will to protect the Nigerian child leave many of them roaming
the streets and labouring under harsh conditions. Ruth Tene Natsa, takes
a look at the Child Rights Act (CRA) and how it can help protect
children.
Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act (CRA) in 2003 to domesticate the convention on the rights of children.
11 years down the line, only 16 of 36 states have domesticated the law to protect the rights of children.
The CRA defines a child as a person who has not attained the age of
18. The Act, while adopting the fundamental human rights as stipulated
in the 1999 Constitution in addition, has 16 rights recommended to
protect the lives of children.
These include rights to a name, survival and protection, dignity,
parental care, protection and maintainance, freedom and universal
primary education, freedom from discrimination, right to health and food
among others.
Unfortunately, poverty, laziness by parents and even the absence of a
political will by states to domesticate the CRA in their various states
made it neccessary for children to engage in all kinds of jobs to
support their parents. It was created to protect the child from all
forms of abuse from the family and the society at large. However, it is
obvious that this has not taken any effect in the country as many
instances of child labour abound.
A young child, Abdul, said, “I have to work because my mother is
poor. I go to school in the morning and when i return, i come to the
quarry site to crush rocks. If i am lucky, i get between N300 and N1,500
a day.”
Another young child, Joe, is a child miner at Kwagiri village, Kaduna
state. He told LEADERSHIP that he has been a rock crusher for two years
and is happy doing it as he can support his mother and have some money
in his pocket.
“I go to a government day secondary school, and after school hours, I
come to the quarry site to crush small rocks in exchange for some
money,” Joe said.
Kwagiri quarry is not the only site that allows children in. Various
mines abound where children are seen in their droves crushing stones,
hawking food, and in some cases kept as paid mistresses or prostitutes
by old miners through the supervision of quarry madams.
Another victim of child mining is Halima who hawks food to workers in
the mine even during school days. She told LEADERSHIP that she had to
work to earn some money to support her father’s farming income and her
mother’s petty business.
“I go to school at least three times a week but i like to come to
the quarry because i get money to meet some of my small needs,” she
revealed.
These cases are not much different from many other incidences of
children labour and it is not only in mining that children are used as
labourers. This also happens even in agriculture.
On a visit to Olam Rice farm in Nassarawa State, LEADERSHIP caught up
with 13 year-old Gambo who through a translator said had never been in
school. Asked how much he is paid for loading trailers in the farm, he
said he earns between N500 and N1,000 daily and between N7,000 weekly.
He will love to go to school, but his parents are both illiterate and
can not afford it, he stated.
Helpful as this may seem, it is a terrible state of affairs where
children take the responsibility of fending for their families or are
expected to support them. they become the breadwinners instead of being
protected against the deplorable society.No wonder there is an increase
in child rape, child trafficking, slavery and cases of child abductions.
To curb this menace of child abuse, it is absolutely neccessary that
states that have not domesticated the CRA be encouraged to do so.
Children should not be sent hawking and crushing rocks when their mates
are in school learning the basics of life through education. The FG
should impose it on the states to ensure that the rights of Nigerian
children are protected.
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