Barrister Fabian Awhen
The day of the African Child has its antecedent in the 1989 declaration on November 20″ on the Rights and Welfare of the African Child adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Governments of the organization of African Unity (OAU) in Monrovia, Liberia.
Later in 1991, the OAU Summit in Abuja adopted by a resolution setting aside June 16 every year to commemorate the day of the African Child.
Significantly, it is aimed at highlighting the abysmal conditions facing the African Child and suggesting ways of improving upon these conditions.
Indeed, while the celebration of the day should constantly remind us adults of our responsibility to the rights and welfare of the African Child, the conditions of most African children continue to remain critical due to the unique factors of their socio-economic, cultural, traditional and developmental circumstances.
This is moreso, when we consider the fact that children are the worst hit during natural disasters, armed conflict and famine, this is why we need to provide them with exceptional safeguard and care.
This is given more impetus by the consideration that the child occupies a unique and privileged position in all societies as the future leader of such societies.
Therefore, for his physical and mental development, the child should grow up in a family environment and in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding to prepare him or her for the arduous task ahead.
But from time, the African Child has been made to suffer great deprivations and denials. For instance, a great number of children are born, grown, made to work and even die in poverty.
Most African children are daily exposed to different forms of abuses through divorce, migration of parents in search of jobs, retrenchment or loss of job. poverty, disease, illiteracy, child labour, infantile sex and death.
Therefore, as we join the global community today to mark the day of the African Child, we should be concerned with the business of ensuring the Rights of the Nigerian Child and the implementation of the United Nations charter on the Rights of the Child as ratified by several African Heads of State, including Nigeria.
According to the Charter, a child is defined as “Any human being below the age of Eighteen who has an inherent right to life which should be protected by Law”.
The Charter also provided among other things, that every African Child shall have the right to education, and such education should be directed at developing the child’s personality, talents, and physical abilities.
It also protects the child from indignity arising from the administration of juvenile justice, parental care and protection, protection against harmful social and cultural practices as well as the protection from armed conflicts.
Here in Nigeria, it cannot be gainsaid that the hard economic realities of the time which the average Nigeria today finds himself had made children an endangered species in physiological and sociological senses.
Nevertheless, these negative circumstances should not deter the genuine pursuit of the provisions of the African Charter for the right and welfare of the child. The child is an embodiment of the future and continuity of the human race.
Thus, what we make of the child today will definitely manifest in tomorrow’s adult community.
The child has only one opportunity for growth, and because the process of that growth is so subtle, the child should not be left at the mercy of shifting circumstances and competing priorities.
Therefore, as a part of the concerning world, we should follow the new world order by holding fast to the principle of “First call for children” meaning that protection for the growing bodies and minds of the young ought to have a first call on societies resources.
Without wide acceptance of the principle of first call, modern warfare will continue to be a war against children, since children often bear the brunt of all hardships in every society.
Therefore, as we observe the day of the African Child today, we should be more determined to give our children all the opportunities to grow as responsible adults comparable to children from the developed countries.
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