The abduction of Ese Oruru from Bayelsa to Kano State and three Lagos schoolgirls from their hostels generated so much heat in the polity. Meanwhile, Nigerians can heave a sigh of relief that the children are back home. The two cases, which demonstrate the abuse of the rights of children are minute, considering what Nigerian children go through daily in the hands of abductors, molesters, evil men and sometimes in the hands of parents and relations.
This is because many of these cases are not reported and, if reported, for fear of stigmatisation, they don’t see the light of day. For instance, the case of Ese happened since August 2015 but did not come into the public domain until February 2016. The Ese and Lagos schoolgirls’ cases are a reminder to government, caregivers, parents, adults and everyone involved in the care of children that there are lots to do to protect the rights of the Nigerian child.
The review of the Child Rights Act, domestication and implementation by all states should be a priority if government and other stakeholders truly want these vulnerable children adequately protected. At the moment, 24 of the 36 states of the federation, namely, Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Niger, Oyo, Ebonyi, Edo, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Imo, Jigawa, Kwara, Kogi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba, have domesticated the Child Rights Act while Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara States remain reluctant to pass it due to religious, cultural values and outright misconception. Kano State, in particular, finds nothing good in domesticating the Act. Even then, the states which have domesticated tend to pay lip service to the implementation of the Act.
This is obvious in the insignificant difference in the lives of children in the states before and after the passage as against the highly anticipated gains that motivated, to a great extent, the passage of the bill into law. Recent cases of the abuse of children show that it is time government begins to lay emphasis on the need to accelerate the implementation of the law, not just at the national and state levels but also at the local government level while persuading states which have yet to domesticate the law to do so.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child is the most rapidly and widely ratified international human rights treaty in history. The Convention changed the way children are viewed and treated, i.e., as human beings with a distinct set of rights instead of as passive objects of care and charity. The unprecedented acceptance of the Convention clearly shows a wide global commitment to advancing children’s rights but what we see today is not near expected results.
Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of Children states that, a child means every human being below the age of 18 years unless under the law applicable to the child, maturity is attained earlier, while Article 21 states that parties shall respect and ensure the rights of each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination, irrespective of the child’s or his or her parent’s or legal guardian’s race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.
Article 20:1. adds that a child temporarily or permanently deprived of his or her family environment, or in whose own best interests cannot be allowed to remain in that environment, shall be entitled to special protection and assistance provided by the state while Article 20:20 says states parties shall, in accordance with their national laws, ensure alternative care for such a child. In the meantime, Article 20:3 provides that such care could include, inter alia, foster placement, kafalah of Islamic law, adoption or if necessary placement in suitable institutions for the care of children.
When considering solutions, this Subsection says due regard shall be paid to the desirability of continuity in a child’s upbringing and to the child’s ethnic, religious, cultural and linguistic background. Article 39 wants states parties to take all appropriate measures to promote physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of a child victim of any form of neglect, exploitation, or abuse; torture or any other form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; or armed conflicts.
Such recovery and reintegration shall take place in an environment which fosters the health, self-respect and dignity of the child. The Ese episode Many things have been said concerning the alleged Ese abduction. Some people said it was the result of lack of parental control and / or poverty. Even lawmakers from Bayelsa State in the House of Representatives said the full weight of the law must be applied on all those involved in the abduction, while saying they were determined to work with other stakeholders to review and domesticate the Child Rights Act.
The reactions like these are commonplace. But they are hardly followed up with concrete actions. It is time Nigeria government knows that, realizing the rights of the child is the foundation for a prosperous society and a sustainable future. And that breaking the cycles of intergenerational poverty, violence and environmental degradation requires a future of healthy, safe, protected, well-educated and well-cared for children. When children do not have the opportunity to reach their potentials as they grow into adulthood, it is not only these children but also all of society who suffer the consequences.
When we respect, protect and fulfill the rights of all children and invest in their cognitive, emotional, social and physical development, we are investing in the foundation of a sustainable world of progress. Underage marriage According to a UNICEF report, underage marriage hinders human progress by perpetuating deprivation, inequality and disadvantage across generations. Child marriage is associated with early pregnancies, poor sexual and reproductive health, higher maternal and infant mortality rates and lower education levels for girls.
The 17 Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, agreed on, at the last year UN General Assembly, and the broader sustainability agenda, go much further than the Millenium Development Goals, MDGs, which is set to address the root causes of poverty and the universal need for development that works for all people. This agreement by world leaders, including President Muhammadu Buhari, marks an important milestone in putting the world on an inclusive and sustainable course which, if truly followed, will meet citizens’ aspirations for peace, prosperity, and well-being, and preserve our planet.
The relief now is that Mr President has shown Nigerians and the world that he is ready to make sure SDGs are achieved in Nigeria by appointing a former Lagos State Deputy Governor, Hon. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, as his Senior Special Adviser on SDGs. Orelope, many people say, is the right person for the job because she is a woman that will not leave any stone unturned in making sure SDGs work in Nigeria, following her efforts to curb child abuse while in the corridors of power in Lagos State. Lots were achieved during his tenure as Deputy Governor in terms of advocacy like translating the Child Rights Law into a simplified version for every child to read, printing of the Yellow Card in different languages for all to understand and Red Card as red alert for everyone that child abuse is a no-go area in the state, and inaugurating the Child Rights Implementation Committees to implement the law.
So Nigeria is on the right path to protecting children from all sort of abuse. Now that Ese is back home, what is the lesson for parents and the Nigerian child? What does the law say about the action of Yunusa, the girl’s alleged abduction who also allegedly forced her into marriage? According to reports, Ese was 13years old when she was abducted and taken to Kano by her alleged abductor. From the picture she took before she was abducted, compared to her looks at the moment, the difference is clear that the Ese her parents knew before is no longer the same. Family connection Running away with a teenager without parental consent is mischievous for the fact that issues bordering on marriage deserve understanding and consensus of both sides.
The issue is that many parents are not aware of the rights of the child. Many do not think it as anything to be respected, they see it as something that will affect moral and cultural beliefs. The sooner Nigerians accept the Child Rights Act, the better for the protection of children from all forms of abuse. Parents need to stop the excuse of economic hardship to abuse children’s rights. Children are not to be exposed to dangers.
The Oruru family must be commended for their doggedness despite the unpleasant roles played by some individuals and state institutions to deprive them of their right to have access to their child. However, parents must always keep tab on their wards and understand who their friends are. Parents should also know that the evil of this nature is not perpetrated by strangers but close friends known to the child and the family.
Yunusa, according to the father, had been close to the family which showed that Ese was well known to him and he knew how to get her, though one will not subscribe to the statement that they had been lovers. How can a 13-year-old be a lover? It is abuse of the girl’s rights and capitalising on her ignorance. What Ese needs most, now, is rehabilitation, support and encouragement to forge ahead. According to reports, Yunusa got a rousing welcome for being a hero who came home (Kano) with the head of a lion.
Is there anywhere in Islam that promotes marriage without the consent of parents? Maryam Uwais, a Muslim woman from the North, attempted an answer to this question in her statement, entitled, “Senator Yerima and Constitutional Review”.Uwais’ words: “As a Muslim woman from the North, it is certainly not mandatory in Islam that girls must be married off as minors; so to keep insisting that this practice must remain sacrosanct, given the background of the needs in northern Nigeria, is incongruous, even under Sharia.
Where a practice is determined to be merely permissible and not mandatory, it is considered practicable and entirely feasible within Islamic jurisprudence to discourage or prohibit it, where it is found to be so harmful to individuals and to the community. Countries such as Yemen, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Somalia and Bangladesh, with majority or Muslim populations, have set a minimum age for marriage as 18, in the acknowledgement that there are serious social, physical and mental health risks associated with child marriages.
This progressive step became necessary, given that these indisputable facts placed a heavy burden on the accountability and God-fearing leadership in many Muslim countries, to protect the vulnerable in their midst”. Why then is it that culture in the North is superior to the Nigerian law? Uwais answered: “Indeed, the overriding objectives of the Sharia include the promotion of human dignity, justice, compassion, the removal of hardship, the prevention of harm, the realization of the lawful benefits of the people, and the education of the individual by inculcating in him a sense of self discipline and restraint, which aims are by no means exclusive.
All else may be adapted to achieve these ends, which measures may encompass matters of concern not only to law but also to economic development, administration and politics. For those that reflect, the hardship that these little girls experience, where married off and divorced soon after, so wantonly, is certainly unacceptable within the faith. “As a Muslim woman (without pretensions of scholarship) forever striving for knowledge, research into these matters has revealed that in matters of social interaction (mu’amalat), there is a lot of latitude in what is permitted, unless it is expressly prohibited by a clear text. The rules are certainly not so definitive. What is also evident is that the ‘best interests of the child’ is a paramount consideration within Islam, along with the principle of public good (maslaha or istislah).
The operational rules are not defined (probably deliberately, in my humble view) and the determination of such issues is best left to the experience, custom and context of the particular society. The Qur’an provides that the predominant consideration in matters relating to children would depend on the point at which they can be said to not be ‘sufaha’ (mentally immature) anymore, in the context of that particular community.
Facts are that nearly half of all the children under five years of age are malnourished in the North-east zone, with women and children in the nutrition ‘high-burden’ states of Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara suffering the most from malnutrition, wasting and stunting. This singular factor remains the underlying cause for 53% of under-five deaths. If the child is stunted in its first 1,000 days, that condition is irreversible, so the future of these children, and the larger population, is permanently short-changed.
The health and nutritional needs of mothers, new-borns and children are closely linked, with young mothers accounting for a majority of severely malnourished children. Multiple health risks arising from child marriage include the sexual exploitation (including forced sexual relations) that she is subjected to, as well as limited access to reproductive health services, despite the real and present danger of contracting diseases such as HIV/AIDS, STIs (sexually transmitted diseases) and the debilitating ailment of VVF/RVF (VVF-a tear in the flesh between the vagina and the urinary passage, usually due to prolonged labour, resulting in uncontrolled urine or feces in the case of recto-vaginal fistulae-RVF), including the abandonment that comes with such ailments. Nigeria, with 2% of the world’s population, has 10% of VVF patients.
Three-quarters of those with VVF/RVF are young girls who are not yet physically mature but have suffered trauma in their first pregnancy. Statistics show that stillbirths and deaths are 50% more likely in babies born to mothers younger than 18, as against babies born to mothers above that age. Each day, 144 women die in childbirth in Nigeria, with the North-East alone accounting for 5 times the global rate of maternal mortality. The lack of information and access to support ultimately results in psycho-social and emotional consequences, domestic violence, abandoned (street) children, with the attendant deprivations of their rights and freedoms, whose well-being is severely compromised.
The prevalence of the abuse of the right to the exercise of divorce by Muslim men has only compounded the situation, leading to so many negative social deviations such as substance abuse (that has become so rampant), commercial sex work and the complete loss of values in the entire family set up. Community loses out. Many of these adolescents are married off to men much older than they, and because of the associated power differentials, this singular factor impedes communication between them, with the girl having no negotiation skills in crucial decision-making that may affect her life.
Having lost out on these critical life opportunities, these married adolescents can never aspire to living as meaningful and productive members of society. Not being able to participate actively in the community translates to their losing out completely on benefitting from economic activity and earning a decent income. Many of these girls remain excluded from community life, having been separated from peers and family members by marriage. Depression sets in. A life of diminished opportunities. The community loses out completely; the economy cannot improve where half its population is stuck in this rut”.
Poor rating According to Uwais, children of young, uneducated mothers are less likely to attain high levels of education, perpetuating cycles of low literacy and limited livelihood opportunities, saying marriage, therefore, ultimately deprives societies of the intellectual and financial/livelihood contributions of girls, and of their offspring. “It is no wonder then that the North continues to portray such poor ratings in almost all aspects of human endeavour. On September, 2015, countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years.
For the goals to be reached, everyone needs to do their part: governments, the private sector, civil society and people like you,” she stated. Folake Marcus-Bello, FMB, a lawyer and the convener of We The Women Initiatives, also spoke to Sunday Vanguard on child rights. Marcus-Bello described as pathetic and heartrending what is happening to Nigerian our children. “The first problem I identify is that the concept of the family has been eroded, whether religiously, socially, economically, financially, and as wide as you can think”, she said. “
Although some states of Nigeria have passed the Child Rights Act, how many Nigerians, both the parents and children, know the content? Ogun was the first state to pass the Act into law and, in my time as the Honourable Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Welfare, I ensured adequate advocacy and caused the law to be translated into Yoruba and Egun, and the government of the day distributed these extensively working in conjunction with NAPTIP and we were able to be strict”. She blamed parents for not devoting adequate time for their children.
The former Commissioner said: “Every one is chasing one thing or the other that is not lost, from being in religious prayers over night and dragging the children along, to abandoning the children to house maids and nannies while chasing the so-called money and connections. There is a need to re-orientate ourselves and make an enabling law to re-orientate the family so that the traditional family set-up, at least the mothers being around the children and to develop a relationship of trust whereby the children can totally and completely trust their mothers in order to open up at all times.
“There is a lot of rape, incest, and all sorts of sexual perversion happening everywhere. There are three demons which the world worship: Sex, money and technology. Everywhere you turn, there is child abuse unchecked going on all around and about us, from children being used as house slaves (maids), exposed to indecent adults at bars and restaurants, to the so-called religious houses where children are labelled as witches and wizards for daring to be different. Thankfully, some state governments are responding and taking seriously child abuse in all its ramifications”.
On the Ese alleged abduction, the woman actist had this to say: “I was quite disappointed to see that the man in question is a young man and so the following questions are important. Is this the real man or the fall guy? If this is the real man, then this takes me back to the issue of advocacy on the Child Rights Act. Do not get me wrong, ignorance of the law is no excuse, but it would seem as if this is just the normal boy-girl relationship and an elopement. But these things have to be thoroughly investigated. “Ese does not know her right as a child and may have not been raised morally to know when a boy should meet a girl .Ignorance can also be pleaded on the part of Yunusa. But there are many questions begging for answers.
“Children in Nigeria are also exposed to men too early through hawking, unsupervised access to the internet and television and movies and programmes that are rated above their age. The Nigerian child has to be raised to be confident to know her rights so that he/she can know when to say NO.
We must not becloud our thinking that it is only the girl-child that is affected, the male child is also in danger”. Taiwo Akinlami, a consultant to UNICEF on child protection, also offered an insight into the Ese episode vis-a-vis child rights. Akinlami said, “There are many elements in his (Yunusa) acts of commission or omission, which constitute different offences against the state and, by extension, against the child. It is important to note that Yunusa is said to be 18 years old while Ese is said to be 14.
“The facts of the case revealed abduction, trafficking, child sexual abuse and exploitation. It is important to also note that according to the Child Rights Act, 2003, which is the domestication of the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), 1989), a child is anyone below the age of 18. Section 31(1) (2) (3) (a) & (b) of the Child Rights Act, 2003 provides —(1) No person shall have sexual intercourse with a child. (2) A person who contravenes the provision of Subsection (1) of this Section commits an offence of rape and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for life. (3) Where a person is charged with an offence under this section, it is immaterial that—(a) the offender believed the person to be of or above the age of eighteen years; or (b) the sexual intercourse was with the consent of the child.
“It is clear from the provisions of the law that Yunusa is suspected to have committed an offence. If tried and found guilty, he is liable to life imprisonment by the virtue of the provisions of Section 31(2) referred to above. It is important to note that the law is very clear as to the issue of consent. Therefore, the reported statement of Yunusa that Ese was his girlfriend and that there was a mutual agreement to sexual relationship will not hold water as a form of defence. Noting that a child is anyone below 18 years, it is impossible for a child to give consent to sexual relationship either to a fellow child or an adult”.
(Vanguard )
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