The Senate on Thursday 16th June 2016 called on Federal and State Governments to implement relevant provisions of the Universal Basic Education Act, 2004 and domesticate the Child Rights Act, 2004 in States yet to do so. The call came after Sen. Biodun Olujimi (PDP:Ekiti) moved a motion titled ‘2016 International Day of the African Child : Conflict and Crisis in Africa, Protecting all Children’s Rights’ where she observed that June 16th had been earmarked as an International Day of the African Child in honour of the thousands of black children who took to the streets in Soweto, South Africa, thirty years ago to protest the inferior quality of their education and demanded for their right to be taught in their own language.
Drawing from this experience, Sen. Olujimi expressed worry that thirty million of the World’s fifty-seven million children out of school are in Sub-Saharan Africa with ten million children alone in Nigeria. Sen. Olujimi also recalled that one of the visions of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) from 2000-2015 was to ensure that all children in the world are in school. She also underscored that more children have been rendered vulnerable as a result of the insurgency and the depreciating security situation of the country. Furthermore she elucidated that over 70% of the people in Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps were women and children and expressed concern that child soldiers were drafted to fight in civil wars in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. She also called on the Federal’s Government to implement and domesticate the Universal Basic Education Act, 2004 and the Child Rights Act 2003 to ensure the rights, welfare and education of Nigerian children are protected.
Commenting on the motion, Sen. Ahmed Lawan (APC:Yobe) urged Federal and State governments to implement the aforementioned provisions to ensure that children stay in school and are well catered for. He also proffered that a legislative day be set aside to consider issues that affect the Nigerian child. Sen. Stella Oduah (PDP:Anambra) also drew a correlation between good citizens and having access to education.
The Senate has also called on the Federal Government to intensify its efforts in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and canvassed for budgetary allocations for programs pertaining to children’s nutrition and education.
