The United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) yesterday lamented upsurge in child abuse and violence against children in Nigeria.
Prof. Paii Obanya who disclosed this at a workshop yesterday blamed the development on poor child-sensitive budgeting of government at all levels in the country saying many children had dropped out of school and being enslaved across the country.
Obanya who was speaking at an “Advocacy meeting organised by UNICEF on scaling up on mass communication training institutions, mainstreaming child rights report curriculum in Nigeria,” faulted the government policies on child rights act, describing them as mere cosmetics.
Obanya said: “It doesn’t pay to just say you have a policy on something without specifically putting resources aside for it. It relates to taking into account what the declaration says about right to life, protection, health nutrition and self-actualization.
“Nigeria has a problem of, first of all, not ratifying enough and when it ratifies, it doesn’t really sensitize the populace to know what it is all about. And on the part of government, we have not fully implemented the international agreement we entered into on the child’s right.”
The university don said over 10 million children are out of school in Nigeria.
He, however lamented the lackadaisical attitude of government at all levels to child education, and the increase of incidences of child trafficking and child labour in the country.
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