We Need Broadminded Leaders

The state of things in Nigeria is traumatising for Nigerian children. The things children experience nowadays are alarming. The interests of children need to be prioritised. Issues affecting them should be given adequate attention. We need to collectively tackle and eradicate the challenges staring children in the face and improve their standard

The difficulties encountered by children in Nigeria have made them become shadows of themselves. With the current happenings, the future of thousands of school children in Northern Nigeria remains bleak as hundreds of schools in some states have been closed indefinitely due to rising insecurity. Many children have abandoned education due to the psychological trauma of witnessing violent attacks or living in captivity. We also have children of the poor whose parents cannot afford to feed, let alone educate them.

The gap in the quality of education and care given to children have continued to widen as a result of poor quality of governance. The rate of Nigeria’s out-of-school children has leaped from 13 million in recent years to 18.5 million of which most are females.

The problems that the Nigerian children faces are numerous and these myriad of challenges hinder the quality of their growth and development. Major issues like insecurity, child-abuse, hunger, starvation, poor health facilities, lack of proper and quality education, child trafficking, child labour and poverty are becoming threats to their lives.

The children of Nigeria are making a passionate appeal to government at all levels to create an enabling environment that would aid their growth, enhance their well-being and prepare them for the task of nation-building that is ahead of them.

Children across the country have continued to express worry over the brazen corruption, gross absence of role models, unabated killings of innocent Nigerians, soaring unemployment rate and very poor application of scarce resources which have made the country a laughing stock in the comity of nations.

The Nigeria we want is a country that is concerned about the welfare of the citizens. We need visionary leaders to improve the standard of our living. We need a country that is concerned about our protection, survival, development and participation in nation building; a country that is responsible for the provision of basic amenities for the benefit and comfort of the masses. We desire a country where the children are offered compulsory basic education and mandatory scholarships to enable them further their education and excel after leaving school.

We want a Nigeria that would critically look into the skyrocketing cost of living despite the nation’s enormous economic potentials. We pray to have a country with intelligent and broad-minded leaders who will see the whole nation as one united entity; a country whose leaders are not self-centred but place humanity in their hearts as part of their responsibility. We want a country that has a stable and quality education in tertiary institutions void of strikes.

We want a country that has an avenue for children to interface freely with leaders and express themselves on issues that bother them; a country where the Child Rights Act is fully implemented to protect the rights of children from internal and external attacks. We want a responsible nation that offers free and quality healthcare services to children and other citizens. We long for a country that is interested in encouraging participation by impacting the citizens with democratic tenets.

We want honest leaders to inspire the younger generation. We need a country that the people have love for one another despite the differences in beliefs, norms and values.

– Hon Nicholas is the speaker, Cross River State Children’s Parliament.