For children, Nigeria remains a harrowingly hard place. Conflicts manifesting in different forms have already complicated what is no doubt difficult circumstances to tie children in knots. According to the 2021 Global Childhood Report by Save the Children, a UK-based non-governmental organization focusing on the issues that affect children and their survival, Nigeria remains one of the most difficult places to be a child, ranking below veritable hellholes like Yemen and Syria.
A cascade of chaos
As Nigeria has continued to cascade into chaos, one fact has become more obvious than others, and it is that children are disproportionately caught in the middle of the crises.
When communities have been attacked and entire families slaughtered, children have been victims. When livelihoods have been wiped out and the realization of SDGs 1 and 2 cruelly deferred for already impoverished communities, children have borne the brunt.
Ondo`s church of captives
On Saturday July 2, 2022, in the basement of the Whole Bible Deliverance Church located in Valentino Area of Ondo town, Ondo State, no fewer than 77 people were found locked, practically imprisoned. Some of the victims had allegedly abandoned their homes while others allegedly disowned their parents while claiming that their parents were not teaching them the way of God. The victims had allegedly been kept in the church for over six months while some of them had abandoned schooling to be inside the church.
Upon the rescue of the victims by the police, the pastor of the Church, David Anifowose and his assistant, Peter Josiah, were also arrested by the police.
Of the 77 victims, about 23 were said to be children. The victims were all allegedly hypnotized. Upon their rescue, they were said to have refused to be reunited with their parents, saying they could not leave their pastors in detention.
If does appear that whatever was done to put keep children under such desperate conditions crawling with the vilest forms of abuse was done without the consent of their parents. In every aspect, it does appear that the children were taken advantage of and that a country too easily distracted by the mundane is failing to check those who halt those who prey on its children in their tracks.
The toughest places to be a child
Children born today have a better chance than at any time in history to grow up healthy, educated and protected, with the opportunity to reach their full potential. Even a generation ago, a child was twice as likely to die before reaching age 5,70percent more likely to be involved in child labour and 20 percent more likely to be murdered.
For millions of children worldwide, childhood has ended too soon. The major reasons include ill-health, malnutrition, exclusion from education, child labour, child marriage, early pregnancy, conflict and extreme violence.
For 103 years and counting, international Non-Governmental Organization Save the Children has been at the forefront of efforts to make life better for children all over the world. Every year, it releases a Global Childhood Report. Its Global Childhood Report 2021 shed light on the toughest places to be a child in the world. Of course, Nigeria was caught in the glare of the report like a deer caught in the headlights.
The report which examined the many factors that robbed children of their childhood and revealed where greater investments are needed to save children from poverty, discrimination and neglect, compared the latest data from 186 countries and assessed where the most and fewest children were missing out on childhood.
It certainly rung the alarm bells that the 10-bottom-ranked countries all came from sub-Saharan Africa with children in Madagascar, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mali, South Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Central African Republic and Niger least likely to experience childhood, a time that should be dedicated to emotional, social and physical development, as well as play. However, in these bottom-ranked countries among which Nigeria features prominently, children were shown to have been robbed of significant portions of their childhood.
A country lagging behind.
Nigeria certainly needs to do more for its children. Education, the great equalizer, is in a debilitating crisis state in Nigeria today. With the world`s highest out-of-school children, poor funding and management, poor teaching quality, and incessant strike actions by the staff of tertiary institutions, the Giant of Africa has steadily rendered millions of her citizens intellectually stunted.
The 10.5 million Nigerian children who are currently out of school despite compulsory and free basic education should certainly give the country cause for concern.
Kene Obiezu,
keneobiezu@gmail.com
