What Future For Nigerian Children?

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on this year’s commemoration of World Children’s Day, revealed that 47 per cent of Nigerian children live below the national poverty line.

It warned that two out of every three children also face multidimensional poverty that deprives them of healthcare, quality education, clean water, nutrition and protection.

According to the world body, millions of Nigerian children lack the essentials that every child deserves even though experts say that the early years of a child’s life—starting from conception—determine their outcomes in life and potential to thrive.

It disclosed these at the launch of the Nigerian Child 2025 Report in Abuja, held to commemorate the 2025 World Children’s Day, with the themed, “The Future of Nigeria’s Children: Voices, Vision, and Action,”

The legal definition varies by jurisdiction, but international standards like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child define a child as anyone under the age of 18, unless a country’s law specifies an earlier age.

As a newspaper, UNICEF’s report paints a dismal picture of our potential leaders and future of the nation. Though children are the world’s most valuable resource and its best hope for the future, many Nigerian children are beleaguered due to the conditions they’re subjected to.

In the opinion of UNICEF, insecurity, economic hardship and conflict continue to erode childhoods and deepen inequality, particularly for those in rural and conflict-affected communities.

Just a few days ago, a total of 303 school children and 12 teachers were abducted by gunmen during an attack on St. Mary’s School, a Catholic institution in Niger state.

The attack cane just days after armed men stormed a secondary school in Kebbi State in northwestern Nigeria, abducting 25 schoolgirls. One later escaped, and 24 are still missing.

We know that insecurity is a major contributor to the high burden of out- of school children in Nigeria, which UNICEF estimates at 10.2million mostly in the North-East and North-West.

Sadly, over 2,,000 schoolchildren have been kidnapped since 2014 with over 1,000 schools in the North-East destroyed,.

In its October 2025 report, the World Bank said despite recent reforms, poverty remains widespread—over 46 per cent of Nigerians live below the poverty line, with food inflation disproportionately affecting poor households who spend up to 70 per cent of their income on food.

UNICEF said that the report shows that behind every percentage lies a child whose potential is being stolen by poverty or neglect.

We know that poverty negatively affects children’s health, education, and overall well-being, leading to potential long-term consequences like developmental delays, poor academic achievement, mental health issues, and increased likelihood of unemployment in adulthood.

It impacts children by limiting access to basic necessities, creating chronic stress, and exposing them to risks associated with inadequate housing, healthcare, and nutrition.

The same UNICEF report indicated that 25 per cent of children aged five to 17 are engaged in child labour, more than half experience some form of violence while two in five girls are married before their 18th birthday.

Earlier, in her message to mark the 2025 World Day for the Prevention of and Healing from Child Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse, commemorated on November 18, the First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, said Nigeria must move from words and good intentions to concrete actions driven by accurate data and research to preventing child sexual exploitation and abuse across the country.

UNICEF Nigeria Representative, Ms Wafaa Saeed said the findings underline the urgent need for stronger national action to protect children’s rights and well-being.

She also noted that 2.2 million children remain unvaccinated, with 40 per cent of them, under five stunted due to chronic malnutrition.

In our view, these grim statistics show that the system has failed woefully to protect its young.

The need to strengthen the safe-school initiatives, sanctions against perpetrators of child trafficking and abduction, and better legal protections have never been more urgent than now.

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Sen. Atiku Bagudu said while the government was expanding social protection and security infrastructure, initiatives like the Safe School Programme remain underfunded.

He said investments in children represent the most important foundation for national development.

We urge the tiers of government to wake up to their responsibilities and do well for the children given their future role as nation builders and development enhancers.

Interestingly, the Child Rights Act which most of the state governors have domesticated covers the broader scope of children’s rights, which, if duly implemented, will translate to better outcomes for the children.

In the view of the First Lady, creating a protective environment for Nigerian children demands collaboration among government agencies, civil society organisations, traditional and religious leaders, parents, and young people.

World Children’s Day is celebrated globally on November 20 to promote and protect children’s rights, marking the anniversary of the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989.

The day serves as a global reminder of the need to protect, nurture, and empower every child to reach their full potential.