State Governments in the North East, say although they are yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act, they have taken measures to ensure implementation of laudable policies bordering on children education.
A survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Borno, Yobe, Gombe, Bauchi and Adamawa, indicates that the states are encountering resistance from parents and religious leaders in their effort to domesticate the Act.
Some of the states have however expressed optimism that they were making headway as a result of intensified awareness campaign, which would help in overcoming the challenge.
The Director Legal Services, Yobe House of Assembly, Mr M.B Yusuf, said the process of domesticating the Act in the state had reached final stage.
“In the past two years, there had been serious effort by the State House of Assembly, the Judiciary and the Ministry of Justice, towards domesticating the law,” he said.
He said at the initial stage, there were fears by parents, religious and traditional rulers who thought that children would be granted right to sue or challenge the authority of their parents under the Act.
“A Justice Reform Committee was set up, which is now working to ensure that the domesticated version is in conformity with the tenets of our religion and tradition,’’ he said.
In Borno, some stakeholders, who spoke to NAN observed, that with the state’s grappling with security challenges which had seriously affected the education sector, the issue of implementing the education aspect of the Act did not arise.
They said the Act itself could not be domesticated as the state was facing much more daunting challenges to address.
Mr Bulama Abiso, Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) in the state, said the idea of domesticating the Child Rights Act came at a time when the state was facing numerous challenges of insecurity.
Abiso lamented that education of children in the state was disrupted in April 2014 when public schools were closed due to insurgents’ attacks.
He said the schools were not reopened for two years, until 2016, by which time, most of the education infrastructures in the state, had been destroyed.
Also commenting, Mr Nasser Kaddoura, Education Manager, United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) Field Office in Maiduguri, lamented that the North East has the highest children drop-out rate in the country, saying that statistics has shown that Adamawa has 3.2 – 4.4 percent, Borno 4.9 percent, while Yobe has 1.6 percent.(NEDS 2015).
Kaddoura said the fund had since commenced enrollment drive campaign, in partnership with the Universal Basic Education Board, to sensitise communities, religious and traditional leaders on the Act.
Also speaking, Malam Nasir Dan-abbah, a teacher at the Gwange primary school, Maiduguri, said most parents in the state had given up on educating their children because of the trauma they went through as a result of the insurgency.
However, Alhaji Shettima Kullima, the Executive Chairman, Borno State Universal Basic Education Board, said government had designed policies and programmes to revolutionise the education sector in the state.
Kullima said the sector was badly affected by the activities of insurgents in the past eight years in the state.
“Most of the schools were razed down; some were closed down and deserted; teachers were also forced to run away, while many were killed in classrooms. This brought the education sector in the state to almost comatose.
“The number of out of school children started running into thousands and there was little we could do at that time.
“At that time also, our schools became shelters for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) who fled their homes for safety,” he said.
He explained that the state government, in partnership with UNICEF, was implementing various programmes to enhance protection of students in schools.
In his contribution, Mr. Joseph Markus, Director, Child Development, Gombe State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development said if the Child Rights Act is domesticated, it would go a long way in protecting the right of children to education.
He said his ministry, in collaboration with relevant organisations and religious groups, was working tirelessly to ensure that the Act saw the light of the day.
Also commenting, Mrs Sodom Daniel, Chairman, House Committee on Women Affairs, in the Adamawa House of Assembly, said attempts to domesticate the Act were thwarted by religious and cultural organisations in the state.
According to her, efforts by the previous assembly to get the Act domesticated, had hit brick wall.
She however said that all hope was not lost as the house was collaborating with some NGOs and Civil Society groups to address grey areas in the Act.
Also speaking, Mr Mathias Yake, the Adamawa Coordinator of an international Non-Governmental Organization,(NGO)-Early Warning System of the Search for Common Ground, said non domestication of the Act posed serious threat to the future of out-of-school children and the entire society at large.
He therefore called on the people of the state and other stakeholders to join hands to ensure its domestication.
In Bauchi, the state’s Commissioner of Women Affairs and Child Development, Mrs Rukaiya Kewa, said her ministry would soon embark on public sensitisation on the Act.
According to her, series of meeting are being held with relevant stakeholders to clear grey areas.
”We are embarking on public sensitisation across the state to garner public contribution so as to remove areas that are not favourable to the culture and religion of the people of the state,” she said.
Contributing, the Executive Chairman, Bauchi State Universal Basic Education Board, Prof. Yahaya Yero, said measures were being taken to improve the quality of education and reduce gender disparity in the system.
Yero assured that the board was committed to the implementation of the Basic Education policy of the government for the educational development of the children.
https://www.africaprimenews.com/2018/06/07/health/nigeria-kaduna-creates-additional-budget-line-for-child-spacing-programme/
