Every child despite his individual differences and
uniqueness is to be considered of equal worth. He should therefore be
entitled to equal social, economic, civil and political rights, so that
he may fully realise his inherent potential and share equally in life
(Gill, 1979).
Obviously, these values are rooted in the humanistic
philosophy of any nation's declaration of independence. In accordance
with these value premises therefore “any act of commission or omission
by individuals, institutions or the society as a whole, and any
conditions which deprive children of equal rights and liberties and
interfere with their optimal development, constitutes by definition
abuse or neglectful acts or conditions” (Gill, 1979). Child
abuse is a significant contemporary community problem. Although
children have been maltreated throughout history, our community has been
silent in defence of abused children. Child abuse is not a phenomenon
of the 20th Century nor is it unique to our society and culture alone.
It has occurred throughout the recorded history of man. The future of
any nation depends on its children and their capabilities. For this
reason, they must be given a full chance.
Being young is hard enough but having to live through pain and torment
while growing up is grueling. A UNICEF reports shows that estimates of
eight million Nigerian children are involve in hazardous and exploitative
work. It’s frightening to know that every ten seconds child is abused. In
Nigeria today child abuse kills more than accident in the homes.
Throughout history children were considered the property of
their parents, and therefore used as they deem fit. This slave like
relationship led to increase of children who experienced abuse may adopt
this behaviour as a model for their own parenting.
Children are abused in numerous ways physically, emotionally and sexually.
Abuse affects people in various ways, and in the process of growing up,
many do not realize the problems they encounter are directly attributed to
the abuse. Seventy percent
(70%) of the children abused and neglected numerous kinds of dubious
characters. The fatalities were to children under the age of five years
old. Small children are especially vulnerable to physical injury such as
road accident, ritual killings hunger and all sort of hazards.
Children are been abuse in different way. Ranging from child
labour, begging, sexual harassment, human trafficking, molestation by
parents or foster parents etc.
Most children are molested and abuse by their parents, the
people suppose to show then love and affection. Beating of children is
almost universal in Nigeria homes and is applied frequently, as a mode
of discipline for almost any
type of misdemeanor, however trivial. Some forms of punishment meted out
to children are extremely harsh and are both physically and emotionally
dangerous. An example is the cutting of incisions on the backs of
children’s hands as a punishment for petty stealing within the household,
resulting sometimes in infection and leaving permanent marks of shame.
Sometimes, pepper is applied to the incisions, or to sensitive parts of
the body such as eyes or genital to cause excruciating pains.
Two groups of children tend to be especially vulnerable to the
risk of abuse with the home. The first are foster children who according
to the 1999 Nigeria demographic and health survey (NDHS), are to be found
in nine percent 9% of Nigerian household.
Traditionally. It was a wide spread cultural practice for poor
families to make arrangements for the fostering of one or more of their
children, usually with more prosperous relatives or community leaders,
pastors, teachers or malamai, the aim is to improve opportunities for
education and eventual employment in exchange for the child’s labour.
Increasingly, this traditional system has become subject to abuse, with
children ending up in the custody of unscrupulous guardians unknown to
parents, sometimes as a result of trafficking by commercial middlemen,
children fostered in such circumstances are likely to receive less
effective, care and support than other children in the household and
sometimes to be ruthlessly exploited.
Poverty has driven millions of Nigerians children into types of labors that are exploitative, hazardous and prejudicial to their welfare and development.
Poverty, along with certain cultural
traits, has
also resulted in the spread of child begging.
Some children out of hunger, tend to engage in begging to meet
necessity of life. Child begging has many negative effect like:
- it is time-consuming in that it does not allow a child to learn, secondly,
- they end up engaging in deviant types of behavior such as
1. theft 2. pick-pocketing, 3. thuggery 4. vandalism,
Millions of Nigerian children face special problems of
disadvantages, discrimination, abuse and exploitation, sometimes in
appealing circumstances. These problems not only compound the risks of
survival create for middable obstacles for the development of children,
but are major challenges in their own right, requiring special protection
measures if they are to be addressed effectively.
Not only does child abuse have many societal consequences, but also
individual consequences that produce life long scars. We have a
responsibility as human beings to do all that we can for these children.
Some of us fulfilled this responsibility by promoting awareness, donating
time, money or services by generating laws, passed and by enforcing laws
that protect children from all kinds of abuse. Through referral in the
community, counseling and preventing method, children abuse and
maltreatment will decrease as society becomes more aware of the
consequences. It is important to examine the physical, emotional and
mental effect of child abuse as many children can develop serious issues
as adult when abused.
As a matter of fact, children needs parental care, therefore, parents
should try as much as possible to give their children full attention and
close supervision. Parent should also stop the act of sending their
children to foster parents. The wisdom behind this is that, parent should
only bear children that they can be able to carter for. Birth regulation
should play an important role here. Because high rate of childbirth plus
poverty leads to child abuse and molestation.
Parents should also understand that beating children and all sort of
punishment meted out to children are dangerous to their health. There are
“hundred and ten” ways of discipline; one must not inflict his child with
all sort of punishment as a measure of discipline.
Government on their side should take all appropriate legislative
administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from
all sorts of physical mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect and
maltreatment.
Government has initiated policies that tend to rehabilitate abused child. These programs or policies have less impact because they are based mainly on treatment of the abused children and less on the abuser.
In order to decrease the instances of child abuse, the Nigerian
government needs to institute treatment programs for people education
for parents to help them cope with stresses that may cause to abuse their
children.
