Touching the
untouchable
This is probably one of the most difficult issues to
raise in Nigeria but one that requires objective and intellectual engagement
more than anything else.
The systems that we have adopted that are inimical to
progress and development and a good deal of them need to be abrogated, probably
proscribed, in some cases strictly regulated and brought under the purview of
the civil authorities so as to eliminate the bias and the sentiment that
tolerates abuse.
The Time magazine published an article last weekend
about Nigeria
[1] and what jumped out at me was the Tweet posted that was used to bring
footfall to the story.
I wept
“Sometimes they fight dogs for
food.”
I guessed things were bad in Nigeria with the poverty,
health and security situations but not this bad that children will be jostling
with dogs for food with the risk of getting bitten and all the attendant issues
that might follow like contracting rabies and much else.
There are serious humanitarian and child welfare
issues that need to be addressed with urgency, if only those who matter can
allow themselves to be moved with compassion above all else.
In the wrong
place
The first paragraph alone presents a setting that is
almost primitive and it is mediaeval; beyond the religious accoutrements on the
walls is the sad story of a very ill boy of 15 with his younger brother nursing
him, if there was anything he could do in the situation apart from providing
comfort by his presence.
A child in the 21st Century ill with malaria
and typhoid fever should be in hospital being tended by modern medicine with
the hope for recovery. The story is he had not eaten since the night before and
the only hope for food was from leftovers in a neighbouring house.
The unwritten part of this travesty is if the sick
were going hungry, there is no telling what will be the case of the nominally
healthy and if the many were going hungry you can imagine after scrapping with
dogs with the scratching and bites it will take the unusual milk of human
kindness for that food to be given to the weak.
Where is our
heart for the children?
The plight of children in Nigeria is a serious one and
we need to put away many of the preconceived notions build on long held views
to deal with what is both shameful and disgraceful – no creed or doctrine can
be seen to condone or tolerate this, talk less of revel in this unconscionable
evil masquerading as schooling for some higher purpose.
There should be no reason for children with living
parents to live the existence of those deprived of love, of care, of
consideration and the basic elements of food, health, good education and access
to opportunity that many others take for granted.
It is incumbent on the elite and the intellectuals of
communities where these activities thrive to excoriate the system in totality,
condemning the perpetrators and offering progressive steps to child welfare should take priority along with adequate resources to redress the situation.
An unsure
future
The more one reads into the article, it is evident
that this is an emergency. Children hundreds of miles from their homes in
squalid surroundings and unregulated institutions that portend to offer the
kids a future though none of which is evident from the training or the
activities they are forced to indulge in to keep body and soul together.
Begging in the streets, no matter how palatable the
promoters try to make it is a low esteem complex that reaffirms a state of
destitution, a lack of opportunity and a pliable mob that could be conscripted
into nefarious activities of unscrupulous lords.
Besides, these people, children and by all standards
citizens of Nigeria for the failings of their families, their communities and their
governments are easy prey for all sorts of abuse from the basic withdrawal of
support through physical abuse and the absence of essential care to sexual abuse
and possibly murder which can happen with impunity; they all need to have their rights
championed and asserted by all well-meaning people throughout Nigeria and
beyond.
We need to
talk
For a country so great and resourceful, it is a shame
and disgrace that our children live in these conditions from day to day
and there is no telling how many more in the name of evidently bad traditions
have lost their minds and lives to untold destitution and the indifference that
has made this evil an untouchable minefield.
It is time to talk about these matters, some practices
need to be outlawed, others proscribed, some institutions need to be regulated
by unbiased secular authorities, there is no doubt that some sacred cows will
need to be butchered without mercy and the conditions in these environments
must be raised to meet standards of boarding schools that provide proper meals,
a strict curriculum, vocational training and proper inspection regimes.
Children should not be on the streets begging and
proprietors should be held responsible for ensuring that when their wards are
externally graded, they are within the aptitude and abilities of their peers in
other public institutions.
We have deferred too long to systems that offer no
functional development in our communities, regardless of our persuasions,
service still matters and there is dignity in labour but that requires we train
up children to be productive members of their communities at first and
hopefully to the nation at large.
Source
