Children don’t buy arms. It is the elders, the matured ones especially, the politicians with insatiable and obsessive ambition, who buy arms and give the children to destroy the society.
By implication, the innocent children destroying themselves. It is the wealthy or the plutocrats that buy arms to ensure that we are not at peace, thereby perpetuating their selfcenteredness.
This was the view of an observer on a Radio Nigeria news programme recently. I agree no less.
The defenseless and unprotected Nigerian children have been traumatised, humiliated and some, in some instances, sentenced to premature death through the aggrandisement and manipulation of the elite, especially those in political garment who manipulate the forces of coercion to their whims and caprices.
Be it electronic or print media, stories are awash and awful pictures agog of the Nigerian children’s agony, slavery or anything short of decency or human face. Rather than abate, this trend is in the upward swing, thereby giving concern to at least sane minds or men of conscience.
In wars, conflicts, manipulation of all sorts, intrigues and all that, the Nigerian children remain the victims for a cause they never originated or comprehend. In some cases some die in silence and despair.
According to a UNICEF report of 2015, an estimated 743,000 children have been uprooted by the conflict in the northeast and the number of the unaccompanied and separated children could be as high as 10,000.
THE VULNERABILITY OF THE NIGERIAN CHILDREN, ESPECIALLY THOSE FROM POOR HOMES, STEMMED FROM POOR LEADERSHIP, BAD GOVERNANCE, CORRUPTION, ILLITERACY, CLASS STRATIFICATION AND INTOLERANCE, LEADING TO SYSTEM FAILURE
The UNICEF condemned the use of children as suicide bombers. The report stated, “In 2014, 26 suicide attacks were recorded compared to 27 attacks as at May 2015. In at least threequarters of these incidents, children and women were reportedly used to carry out the attacks.
Girls and women have been used to detonate bombs or explosives belts at crowded locations, such as market places and bus stations.” According to Jean Gough, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, “Children are not instigating these suicide attacks; they are used intentionally by adults in the most horrific way. They are first and foremost victims, not perpetrators.
Many children have been separated from their families when they fled the violence and have no one to look after them.” Jean explained that without the protection of their families, these children are at greater risk of exploitation by adults and this can lead to involvement in criminal or armed group activities. And from Maiduguri emerged stories of humiliation of children and child abuse.
Reacting to a recent reported story of a Director in the Borno state civil service, who has been abusing his children with threats and physical torture and similar cases in Maiduguri, the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Kashim Shettima on Information, Communication and Technology, Abba Mohammed Bashir Shuwa remarked, “Recent events in Maiduguri has brought to the fore some disturbing trends that is afflicting several neighbourhoods, who helplessly watch their wards being lured into anal sex by men who take advantage of their vulnerability to force them into such acts.
“Incidentally, those who commit such dreadful delinquent acts on minors and others always get away with their crimes unpunished because of the influence they wield in the society.
“This unpleasant tendency should not be allowed to remain unchecked if we want to live in a decent and tolerable society where ethical norms are being obeyed by all. “As such we must ensure that all those with such dirty habits are not only seen to have been punished for their crime but should not be placed in position of responsibility so as not to make their criminal activities look attractive and tolerable by innocent members of the public.”
The latest worrisome news on man’s inhumanity to these vulnerable children came from Jos, where Rosaline Baraje, sitting at the magistrate court in the state capital, sentenced four Islamic teachers to various terms of imprisonment for participating in conveying 185 almajiri children from Bauchi and Jigawa states with the intention of sharing them to Plateau, Kaduna and Nasarawa states.
Delivering her judgment, magistrate Rosaline described child trafficking as a serious offence and directed the police to release the children to the Jama atul Nasril Islam in Plateau State, who will thereafter release them to respective state governments.
It is ironic that the Islamic teachers, who are supposed to be the custodians of the almajris, turn coat to become the traffickers of the children. The vulnerability of the Nigerian children, especially those from poor homes, stemmed from poor leadership, bad governance, corruption, illiteracy, class stratification and intolerance, leading to system failure.
For example, speaking recently at the meeting of the northern governors with traditional rulers in Kaduna, the chairman of the Northern Governors Forum, Alhaji Kashim Shettima observed that northern Nigeria today is blighted by a deadly (albeit retreating) insurgency, rural armed banditry, cattle rustling, ethnic and religious conflict, the underlying cause of which are poverty, illiteracy, social exclusivity and severally limited economic opportunities.
Thus to get out of the woods for meaningful socio economic and political impact, the need to get back to the drawing board for amends is imperative.
