WAN advocates allocation of 20% of budget for child protection
By Abdallah el-Kurebe
President of the Coalition of West African Unions Working for the children, Mr. Sidikou Moussa, has advocated that 20% of the annual budgets of countries in West Africa be allocated for the protection of the African child.
Speaking on Wednesday in Sokoto at the opening ceremony of a 2-day workshop with a theme: “The Protection of Children on the Move” and organized by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP, Moussa observed that such budgetary allocations would ensure the comfort of children who are vulnerable globally.
He emphasized the need for synergy between all the stakeholders in the protection of the children across the West African sub region. “The rights of the children especially in health and education were not adequately protected even as children were being economically exploited across the sub region,” Moussa stressed.
He urged stakeholders to form a network in order to work out an action plan by which children’s rights could adequately be guaranteed.
Speaking also, Mr Olivier Geissler of the International Social Services, Switzerland-based NGO, stated that his organisation was committed to ensuring adequate protection of the rights of the orphans and vulnerable children.
UNICEF’s Child Protection Officer, Mrs. Ladi Alabi from the ‘C Field Office, Kaduna said, “the children are the future of Nigeria and it is a good investment to ensure that the children access their rights just like it is happening in other parts of the developed world.”
According to Alabi, “Societies are judged by the way they treat their own children as the future leaders of any nation,” she said.
Earlier in his opening Sokoto Zonal Head of NAPTIP, Alhaji Shehu Umar observed that the menace requires a holistic approach by all relevant stakeholders. “The workshop is aimed at building the capacity of the stakeholders to ensure that vulnerable groups in the society especially women and children are protected.”
