A Frontline lawyer who also is the Founder and Chairperson, Women Empowerment and Legal Aid (WELA), Mrs Funmi Falana, SAN, has called on the Federal, States and FCT authorities as a matter of urgency, address the crises that are confronting the majority of children in the country rather than issuing statement yearly to celebrate Nigerian children.
Besides, Mrs Falana, SAN, who always champion the cause of the less privileged in the society called on President Bola Tinubu to summon an emergency meeting of the heads of all governments in Nigeria to adopt enviable measures to end the myriad of problems facing the Nigerian children before the next year children’s day celebration.
In a statement made available to our correspondent, Mrs Falana listed the myriads of problems confronting Nigerian children to include but not limited to stunted children, unvaccinated children, out of school children, infant mortality and maternal deaths.
According to her, Nigeria has the second-highest number of stunted children in the world, with 37 per cent of children under five, suffering from chronic malnutrition.
On issue of unvaccinated children, the senior lawyer noted that “reports have confirmed that Nigeria has the highest number of unvaccinated children in the world.” She noted that according to UNICEF, over two million of the country’s estimated 8.7 million children under one year, have not received a single dose of any of the critical vaccines meant to prevent deadly childhood diseases.
She said; “the diseases which have severe consequences on unvaccinated children include diphtheria, hepatitis B, measles, whooping cough, polio, tetanus, tuberculosis, and yellow fever.”
Among the problems that is affecting the children in Nigeria, according to her is the scourge of out of school children.
She noted, “Nigeria also have the largest number of out-of-school children in the world. An estimated 10.5 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are not enrolled in school, while an additional 8.1 million at the junior secondary level are out of school. Since basic education (primary to junior secondary school) is legally free and compulsory for every Nigerian child, the Federal Government should collaborate with the 36 State Governments and the Federal Capital Territory to ensure the immediate enrolment of all out-of-school children.”
Further in her statement, the senior lawyer listed infants mortality and maternal deaths as scourge affecting the Nigerian children.
She said, “the infant mortality rate in Nigeria is currently around 60 deaths per 1,000 live births. This means that for every 1,000 babies born in Nigeria, about 60 will die before the his first birthday. This rate has been steadily declining over the past few decades, but remains high compared to many other countries.”
On maternal deaths, she lamented that
on a regular basis, hundreds of school children are kidnapped from school by terrorist groups. “Parents and guardians have been compelled to pay ransoms to secure the release of abducted children. In the last few years, millions of children have withdrawn from schools to avoid being kidnapped by terrorists and other dangerous gangs.”
She therefore appealed to the authorities and political leaders to do something urgent to address these myriads of problems.
