What Nigerian Children Desire

Nigeria is blessed with natural and human resources. These resources are supposed to be of great benefits to every citizen, including the children. There are various ways by which children can benefit from these resources – education, healthcare, social amenities and others too numerous to mention. But unfortunately, majority of the children and their parents do not enjoy these blessings because of poor leadership, bad economy and poor management of these resources.

Therefore, the essence of this article is to present the kind of Nigeria that children want to see.     As we all know, education is very vital to the development of any society. Educating a child in a proper way ensures a bright future for any nation. As such, Nigerian children want to see a country that provides better and functional educational facilities including seasoned, trained and qualified teachers, in order to ensure that the children are well educated. Serious attention must be paid to education if Nigeria has to develop. Teachers and facilities must be well taken care of so as to have a better output. Cases where children remain at home because of strike, as in the case of the strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), is not helpful to the children in anyway. Education should also be made free and compulsory from primary to, at least, secondary level, to all children in order to eradicate illiteracy from our society. Access to education should not be begged for by Nigerian children who are seen as future leaders.

Healthy children results to a healthy nation. Therefore, Nigerian children want a country where provision of healthcare facilities and personnel is of great importance to the government. The government must provide healthcare facilities and personnel in every community where they are accessible to every child. The high rate of child mortality experienced in Nigeria, especially in the rural communities, would be a thing of the past if priority is given to the healthcare sector. There should be adequate and consistent administration of immunization vaccines to new born babies and children in order to prevent illnesses among children, especially in the rural communities.

A Nigerian child would love to see a clean, green and healthy environment. Everyone knows that, a dirty environment is never conducive for anyone, especially the children, because it may affect their health in diverse ways like, being victims of illnesses and diseases of various kinds. One of the major things that make our environment dirty is the huge refuse dumps along the roads and streets of our different communities. These refuse dumps, when overfilled, pour out and settle on the roads and may also clog the gutters, thereby leading to floods and erosion, which in turn lead to a very  dirty environment. Mosquitoes live and breed in dirty environments. These mosquitoes then spread a disease called malaria and it is very bad for the health of people, especially children.

In order to maintain a clean and green environment, citizens must keep their surroundings clean and neat. Dumpsites should be provided in every community for proper waste disposal. The government should ensure that dumpsites are located far from residential areas. Waste management agencies should dispose of refuse dumped in the dumpsites, preferably at night. Government should make stiff rules and penalties for anyone who litters the environment. This will certainly help in having and maintaining a clean, green and healthy Nigeria for everyone.

Furthermore, Nigerian children want a safe, secured and crime-free society. Where a nation is denied all these, children cannot enjoy such a society. There are many cases today of children  being kidnapped, trafficked, raped and used for child labour, etc all because of the lack of security in the country. Cases of armed robbery attacks also affect children in one way or the other. Therefore, it is the duty of government to provide security personnel and facilities in all parts of the country. In many homes, schools, religious institutions today, children are attacked, kidnapped and killed. The menace of the Boko Haram, where many children have been kidnapped, is a terrible case in point.

– Hon David Umanah Emmanuel is National Ambassador Cross River State Children’s Parliament