UNICEF: Children Still Being Denied Basic Rights in Nigeria

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has bemoaned the continued neglect of the rights of children in most states of the country despite domestication of the Child Rights Act.

It said that 30 out of the 36 states in the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have so far domesticated the Child Rights Act since its passage into law.

The UN body argued that for Nigeria to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the plight of women and children’s rights must be taken very seriously.

According to experts at a workshop on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at a two-day workshop organised by the UNICEF in conjunction with the Child  Rights Information Bureau of the Ministry of Information and Culture in Enugu yesterday, the neglect of women and children has contributed a lot to the poor performance of Nigeria in the world ranking for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

They said that while children are being denied their rights to education and adequate healthcare, women are incapacitated economically.

Delivering a paper titled ‘Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) As Child Rights’, a Lecturer at the University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Dr. Chidi Ezinwa said that most of the SDGs were about child rights, adding that the goals cannot be attained when children are denied rights to survival, education, good health , freedom and others.

He said Nigeria domesticated the Child Rights since 1993 but have still not gotten it right in the area of protecting children’s rights and full attention to their educational and health needs.

He expressed dissatisfaction over the situation where some children are still suffering child labour and access to basic education, stating that the country must get it right in terms of child rights for it to attain the MDGs.

“What we can do or what we have started, the press people, the journalists as duty bearers waking up to their responsibility to hold the government and other duty bearers accountable because in all these the government has a role to play. In terms of policies, there are certain things people cannot do as individuals. Let’s look at the issue of policies, in terms of policies, we have good policies in Nigeria but our problem is implementation and follow up,” Ezinwa said.

The university said that every child needs quality education and when not given, it is a violation of the rights of that child.

Ezinwa said that the non implementation of the SDGs affects the well-being of the child.

He also said that Nigeria has been having a backward movement on the SDGs implementation indices.

Similarly, UNICEF Communication Specialist, Dr. Geofery Njoku, said that thirty states in Nigeria have domesticated the Child Right Act.

He said that only six states were yet to domesticate the Act and that advocacy and consultations were ongoing to convince the states on the need to domesticate the Act.

He said that every Article 17 of the SDGs addressed the Child’s Right Act.

Dr. Njoku also cautioned parents to guide and protect their children from predators and the internet space and house helps.

He called for proper budgeting in achieving the rights of children in the SGDs.

He also noted that laws needed to be made and implemented in the favour of Nigerian children.

On her part, UNICEF nutrition officer, Nkeiru Enwelu, highlighted poverty as the major factor causing malnutrition and the well-being of a child, stressing that Nigeria remains off track to achieve the SDGs target.

According to her, “when an expectant mother does not feed well, it affects the unborn baby. So, poor nutrition in 1,000 days from conception of a child to two years of age results in permanent damages.”

The nutrition officer said 40 per cent of the child deaths are as a result of poor nutrition, while advocating for good nutrition for the survival of a child.