By Chioma Obinna

To mark this year’s Children’s Day with the theme: “Unite to reverse the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on children”, the Mothers And Marginalised Advocacy Centre, MAMA Centre, on Thursday decried the plight of thousands of Nigerian children who are denied access to basic means of survival.

The Centre also commended parents, guidance, teachers, caregivers, and every other individual or group who works tirelessly to promote healthy, safe, and secured space for children to survive and realise their potential.

In a press statement to mark the day in Lagos, and signed by its Executive Director, Chioma Kanu, MAMA Centre who stated that children are denied access to education, food, health, social support, water, sanitisation, and hygiene added that the COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated the situation.

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“We are concerned over the rising number of children lacking access to water around the world, and particularly Nigeria with a more disturbing figure estimated at 26.5 million (29 per cent) children who experience high or extremely high water vulnerability

“This in effect results in the death of about 100,000 Nigerian children annually of water-related diseases, as recently reported by UNICEF.

Continuing, they said:  “We observed that a high number of Nigerian children are unnecessarily conditioned to contribute to household income and discouraged by family or relatives or caregivers from attending schools and other socialisation facilities. This includes reported deteriorating psycho-social care and family relationships that exacerbate reported cases of girl child marriage and Violence Against Children.

“More importantly, we are seriously worried by the increasing exposure of children to the impact of armed conflicts including kidnapping, banditry and insurgency in Nigeria. This includes psycho-emotional torture, ill-treatment, and physical battering inflicted on them at various homes, schools, and secluded facilities, for unjustified socio-economic and cultural conditions that disrupt their healthy and secured living as well as appropriate socialisation.

“While the Universal Declaration of Human Right and Child Right Act stressed the importance of adequate nutrition status as a component of Child Right in Nigeria, malnutrition impedes physical growth and cognitive development of children with no fewer than a 2.5million children suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition in Nigeria, according to UNICEF. This includes an alarmingly high number (49 per cent) of children suffering the consequences of poor diets and a failing food system like stunting, wasting and being overweight that hamper their rapid growth and cognitive development.

“We are not unaware that a high number of malnourished Nigerian children, especially between six and two years of age are at risk of poor brain development, weak learning, low immunity, increased infections and, in many cases, death.”

Mama centre added that the unattended impact of childhood malnutrition and Severe Acute Malnutrition results in monumental economic and productivity losses at adulthood, irreparable potential loss, increased susceptibility to communicable diseases and other infections.

They further reiterated their commitment to promote and restore the dignity of Nigerian children, while calling for massive advocacy for the adoption and full implementation of the Child Right Act in all states to secure children from physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse, neglect or ill-treatment, including sexual abuse, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

The Centre further called for targeted implementation of the Child Right Act that upholds Articles 12 and 14 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to form their own views and to express their views freely through the media on matters affecting them.

“We call on the government at all levels to invest adequate resources in interventions aimed at preventing and treatment of malnutrition among young children; support nursing mothers to adequately feed and care for their children; improve nutrition education and legislation to discourage consumption of unhealthy foods; family and children empowerment to provide and demand nutritious food.

“We encourage the governments to minimize challenges, including the security of schools, militating against full enrolment of children in all categories; targeted interventions by various states and local governments to promote children education, since education is on the concurrent list; strengthened oversight by the governments on traditional private schools like Almajiris, which teaches millions of children in the country.

“We call for significant policy effort to ensure adequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene systems by children at all levels.

They also demanded adequate efforts by governments, relevant authorities, and communities to protect children from recurring armed conflicts, kidnapping, banditry, and insurgency.

Vanguard News Nigeria