It was in 1954 that the United Nation’s (UN) General Assembly recommended that all countries should set aside a Universal Children’s Day (UCD) to be observed as a day to celebrate children and draw attention to their problems. Despite this, it is disappointing to state that since then the challenges facing our children especially in Africa and other third world countries is frightening.

The UN General Assembly recognized that children all over the world have rights that must be, adopted by all states. It subsequently adopted in 1959, the Declaration of the Rights of the child, which addressed the rights of children and youths under 18 years of age. In 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the convention on the Rights of the child which covers in its 54 articles, all the rights of children, from health-care to education, to the freedom from exploitation and the right to hold opinion.

There is a popular saying “Morning shows the day, just as the child shows the man”. This indicates why a day is set aside every year to evaluate progress made in efforts to promote, protect and project the rights of children. All over the world, May 27 resonated with sounds of Children’s Day celebrations.

Celebrating children’s Day takes special forms in each member country of the United Nations. For example in the Gambia, children take over the reigns of government for this one day in the year, to expose them to the practice of governance. In other countries, children are sometimes given the opportunity to take over the television stations, and consequently direct, produce and anchor programmes that show the major issues that affect them.

In Nigeria, school children usually troop to various stadia, public places in town and cities all over the country to engage in march past and listen to speeches from our leaders. Some establishments participate sometimes by organizing parties, excursions as well as study visits for students.

Despite the fact that most member states of the UN are signatories to the convention, the basic rights stated in this convention are still being violated with impunity even in countries that have adopted the convention. Children all over the place are still being openly abused and neglected both at the family, community and governmental levels. That is why children’s issues go far and beyond the celebration of Children’s Day.

Beyond the celebration, there is the need to look at how children have fared before and after the passage of the Child Rights Bill that was passed into law by the National Assembly in May 2003. Nigeria, being a signatory to several international conventions on children, is obliged to take legislative, social and educative measures to further protect children from the following: physical or mental violence, neglect or maltreatment while in the care of parents or guardians, employment that is likely to be hazardous to their health or to interfere with their education and development, sexual exploitation and abuse, among others.

It is a fact that children are being discriminated against in some states of Nigeria. For example, discriminatory school fees are being charged, while in some other states. Children from other parts of the country are not admitted. Some children to get contract employment in some states of the federation because they are not from that area. With the Post-JAMB tests by the universities, Federal Universities that are funded from the Federation Account have become state and community universities as far as admissions are concerned without taking into consideration the federal character syndrome that was entrenched in our constitution. Also, in some parts of Nigeria, the girl-child is still being discriminated against especially when those to be sent to school are being considered.

It is disappointing that some basic rights such as the right to education, healthcare, protection from child labour, trafficking, sexual and other forms of exploitation and drug abuse, right to rest and leisure, play and recreation, right to a decent standard of living, right to protection from abuse and neglect, protection from illicit transfer and illegal adoption, right to survival and development and the right to non-discrimination are hardly respected or enforced.

In her speech at the presentation of “the state of the world children report 2002”’, the then First Lady, Mrs. Stella Obasanjo (of blessed memory) said, “many more children are still engaged in exploitative child labour, putting them at risk of human trafficking, with ten Nigerian children daily passing through the Nigeria border into slavery in other lands, and figures in respect of HIV/AIDS among Nigerian children are extremely alarming and it is getting worse by the day”.

She continued: “If you look at current statistics in the state of world children report, the situation of the Nigerian child in education, health and protection are particularly bad, when compared to some other poor countries in sub-Saharan Africa”.

Has suddenly turned children into breadwinners for many families. They can be seen on our streets hawking all sorts of wares, with the forlorn hope of augmenting the poor earning of their financially weak parents. Street hawking has turned a lot of them into hopeless youths with a bleak future. The families among them are exposed at tender ages to sexual harassment and molestation.

Many first times visitors to Nigeria are usually appalled at the number of children engaged in street hawking and begging on our roads, and the advent of sachet water popularly called “pure water” has increased the number greatly.

In the 1997 joint UNICEF and Federal Office of Statistics report, on the progress of Nigerian children, it was stated that children in especially difficult situations make up the bulk of the domestic labour force. This is in view of the increasing poverty that has forced many families to take their children out of school and utilize their labour to add to the family income.

In 2001, about 150 Nigerian child slaves perished on the high seas on the way to Gabon, where they would have been sold out as labourers. The outcry over this incident has not led to any known sustainable measure to prevent a recurrence. Some of our girls engage in prostitution in Italy and other places, thereby denigrating the image of Nigeria internationally.

A recent study of the International Labour Organization (ILO) showed that Nigeria lost about 4,000 children to traffickers. Except on May 27, when the Nigeria child is assembled for the yearly ritual called ‘Children’s Day’ many of the children live their lives daily on tenterhooks.

Despite the efforts of the various governments, the Universal Free Primary Education (UPE), scheme of 1976, which metamorphosed into the Universal Basic Education (UBE) scheme, many school age children are still out of school. Indeed, recent statistics indicate that about 45 percent of school age-children are out of school in Nigeria. As a result, the basic right to education is denied this percentage of the country’s children from among those who could have risen as the great men and women of tomorrow’s Nigeria.

The right to survive and thrive is a big dream for many of these hapless children. It is estimated that about 25 percent of them die before they are five years of age, due mostly to avoidable causes. Indeed, statistics have it that the level of immunization coverage for the child killer diseases that was once as high as 80 percent has dropped to as low as less than 20 per cent.

In order to check abuses of the rights of children, state governments that are yet to adopt the Child Rights Act should get their legislatures to pass them into law in their state. The federal and state governments should commence immediate enforcement of all the provisions of the law, including prosecuting and convicting those that flout the law.

For our children to develop properly and compete favourably with children of other countries we must demand good governance above all.

•Mr. Soeze, Chief Public Affairs), Petroleum Training Institute Warri.