The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development has put  in place mechanisms to conduct a National Survey on Violence Against Children.

The survey is to be carried out with the support of the UNICEF, Centre for Disease Control  and the National Population Commission, the Minister, Hajiya Zainab Maina, said.

Maina made statement at a Roundtable on Emerging Issues of Girl Child Protection in West Africa, organised by  Ford Foundation in Abuja on Wednesday.

She said that the outcome of the survey would provide Nigeria accurate and research-based data that would ensure informed and evidence-based programming for effective child protection.

Maina recalled that the Federal Government had also inaugurated a National Joint Task Force for the prevention of child sexual abuse and other forms of violence against children.

She said the establishment of the task force was informed by the emerging social problems affecting the social and security protection of the girl-child in Nigeria.

Maina said that the survey was expected to provide data on the prevalence of violence in terms of gender, geography and nature of cases.

She said other interventions to protect the girl-child included advocacy on the negative consequences of early marriage and ensuring access to adequate and qualitative health services as enshrined in the Child Rights Act.

The minister used the occasion to call for the release of the abducted schoolgirls in Chibok, Borno, and described the act as disheartening and totally condemnable.

“We continue to pray that the girls will be saved and returned safely to their respective families,” Maina said.

The Secretary General, West African Civil Society Forum, Mr Abdoulaye Diallo, stressed the need for child rights to be given top priority at both regional and national levels.

“Child rights should be handled as a developmental priority rather than only as human rights or religious issues.

“It is regrettable that child rights issues are not a priority under the ECOWAS legislation,” Diallo said.

The representative of Ford Foundation, West Africa, Mr Innocent Chukwuma, said the girl-child being an `endangered species’ was more of a reality now than ever before.

He said efforts must be geared toward putting in place effective policies that promoted their rights, adding: “All hands are needed to free those abducted schoolgirls.” (NAN)