By
Betty Abah
In our
bedeviled times it seems like it is a crime to be born a Nigerian. Some may say
a child has no choice as to where he/she eventually emerges, but our times have
no patience for the logic of choices; our times swallow our children even
before they think geography. Poor Nigerian child.
As
nations sit back this day (November 20) to think of strides or otherwise made
in the actualization of the Convention on the Rights of the Child set forth by
the United Nations (International Children’s Rights Day), it is common
knowledge that the child fated to be born these times in Nigeria ranks one of
the most endangered species on earth.
Or,
what do you make of this heartbreaking scenario: all that those kids had in
mind were futures decked in gold, and some were probably already bagging
laurels on their way to reclaiming those futures. A big bang and that was all.
What did we see? Fifty eight body bags containing dreams sliced to
unrecognizable bits in a shattered school in Potiskum.
And,
as it was in Potiskum, so it was in Buni Yadi: 69 innocent school children
consumed in one fell-swoop—bombed, slaughtered, burnt, parents’ high dreams up
in the smoke of an insane insurgency.
Then
think of the Chibok girls. What exactly was their crime? In the era where their
peers settled squeamishly in the discomfort of forced child marriages, of
forced violations, fragile bodies primed by a shameless norm for unripe tasks,
unspeakable maternal suffering, these girls dared to dream.
They dared to step
up their lives, to be enlightened, to be elevated and to shine as harbingers of
light to their families – future and present, to be pride to Nigeria. Those
adventurous dreams ended in the thick of the night, borne to the bushes on the
craggy backs of Boko Haram’s lorries, carefully guarded by the Kalashnikov.
Seven
months later, no word about their welfare. And except for international
pressures, their matters would have long been buried in the face of 2015
electoral exigencies. Delicate dreams buried deep in the thick of Sambisa
forest, bygone girlhoods, children sold off as slaves, so the mad men bragged.
Those who escaped owed their freedom to self-help, nothing more.
And yet these
are people’s daughters, people’s investment, communities’ hopes. But then, who
cares? Those who have cried themselves hoarse asking for the innocent girls to
be brought back have been labeled enemies of progress, opposition party
members.
Naturally,
the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs should care, as sensitive women would, if
only they haven’t now become superb event managers for powerful women married
to powerful men in the days of the cobra. They are experts in organizing
rallies to ‘BringBackJonathan’, incredibly, at a time the world remains united
in their plea to ‘BringBackOurGirls’.
Some may say they are supposed to be
mothers, but then so what? These are children of faceless peasants, Nigerians
of no consequence, children who choose to their peril to be born Nigerians!
And
lest we forget, there was something called the Safer School Initiative in which
school children were to repose their trust as to the protectiveness of the
learning four-walls amidst terrorist threats. Propounded by former British
Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, its launch came like ice cold water to a desert
traveler.
But today, if you have a clue as to how the program is being
implemented and how many lives are truly safe from the bombers of childhood
dreams, let’s know. If you do not know and you ask me, who I go ask?
Now,
think of the bloodshed of the innocent on the chilly hills of the Plateau.
Think of the bloodshed of the hapless in Kano. Mubi. Nyanya. Agatu. Alakiyo and
the children driven into orphanhood at tender stages of an uncertain life
having watched their parents killed in cold blood. Or those displaced without
hope.
And,
better believe this, the endangerment of our children are not only restricted
to the Boko Haram-harassed North. Within well-fenced, well-adorned homes in
elitist Lagos, Ibadan, Enugu and Port Harcourt brimming with over-dotted and
sometimes overweight children, other underage children with ‘’irrelevant
parents’ live in domestic slavery. Unschooled. Underfed. Unkempt. Over worked.
But again, who cares?
Haven’t
you heard that Nigeria now tops the world in the number of out-of-school
children? According to UNESCO, it stood at 10 million as at last year. This
year, with more violence, more fears, more forced migration, it is certainly
more. And, please, do not ask me if the government has yet asked after the
welfare of Nigerian children, families now refugees in Cameroon, Niger and
Chad, but I do know we are now a top ‘refugee nation’.
And
here we are, consistently ranking high on the global negative index when it
touches on children. One of the highest in under-five deaths, according to Save
Our Children. Very soon, perhaps, cases of battery, child rape, kidnaps and
other crimes splashing our local media pages daily may no longer be news after
all.
Or,
can we ever speak exhaustively about Nigerian newborns being virtually hawked
on the streets of Aba, Owerri, Enugu, Port Harcourt and exchanged for naira and
kobo to buyers from Lagos, Abuja, London, Paris? We are talking about children
of vulnerable teenagers, fellow children, babies who will grow up, never
knowing their biological parents neither history.
Some, we even hear, end up in
ritualists’ altars. Unbelievable but true. The sold babies, like the ‘baby
house helps’ are victims of same fate: anti-trafficking laws in bold letters
lacking bold and comprehensive enforcement. And so the evil cycles continue.
Who
is really there for these unlucky children? Remember it took the plea of
Pakistani teenager Malala to get our darling president to see distraught
parents of the Chibok girls? Remember the jamborees that usually follow the
news of the slaughter of citizens? Buni Yadi. Chibok. Nyanya. Potiskum.
Remember? Who really gives a damn?
And
if the president does not give a damn, is it any surprise that majority of the
citizenry, especially the well-off, act completely aloof? Isn’t it why,
whenever children are bombed out of existence, innocent lives hacked down for
no single fault of their, the rest of Nigeria instantly go on tweeting
deliriously about Arsenal’s trophy or cooing on Facebook about Angelina Jolie’s
killer dress sense?
It
is this indifference by the majority of the populace and this impunious lack of
action especially by policy makers on so many child-related fronts that makes
this particularly tragic.
But
the aloofness may not even be restricted to government and the tired citizens.
In the recent past, we have had UNICEF offices in Palestine, South Sudan and
many other places ravaged by conflict building international coalitions to
attract help for hapless children of those countries.
If you ask me if Nigeria
has a UNICEF branch and what they do, na who I go ask? Go to its website and
social media pages and see them gathering cobwebs and you will know, like
government, like people, even our UNICEF and most international child’s rights
groups in Nigeria don’t give a damn. Afterall, these children embarked on the
suicidal trips to be born Nigerians. It’s their fault, innit? But God is
watching us all on a 5-D camera, His quill in His hands. History too is not
sleeping.
Alas,
lest we forget in a detached hurry, it may be pertinent to ask the right
questions about what awaits us: What manner of children are we breeding? If we
do not show them love, show them that our well-oiled government has the
resources and capacity to protect them, fight for them and fend for them when
necessary using all sorts of tastelessly insensitive alibis, what manner of
adults, leaders do we assume they would grow up to be? Will we adults be safe,
supposing we reach that future, together with the children of today?
It
is the more reason, compatriots, we must halt the parties, halt the ineptitude,
the corruption and aloofness and ensure that the lives, rights and future of
the Nigerian child is protected, starting now.
Mrs.
Abah is founder of CEE-HOPE Nigeria, a child’s right and welfare NGO.
No comments:
Post a Comment