In one single edition of a national newspaper last week, three different news reports highlighted the precarious state of the Nigerian child. The reports indicated that at this critical period when the entire world operates on the maxim that the children are the future of any country, Nigeria appears to have mortgaged both the present and the future of her own children with the shaky and unsound foundation being laid for them.

With the different disheartening statistics emerging on the Nigerian child every now and then, I do not think it will be uncharitable for anyone to say that the average Nigerian child has a circumscribed start to life. Yet, the federal government in Abuja, the state and local government authorities are not even losing any sleep over this problem.

Let’s first consider the major items enumerated in the newspaper under reference. On the front page of the paper, The Punch of Monday, May 12, 2008, there are promos of two-child related stories. The first says: “ One Million Nigerian Children Die Yearly – Report”. The full story, featured on page 10, said Nigeria had again failed in a global health care rating as it was on Sunday, May 11, ranked among the countries with the worst basic health care, worldwide.

The story quoted a report recently released on the internet by the United States - based global humanitarian organization, Save the Children, which said Nigerian children accounted for 10 per cent of the 16 million children who die globally, every year.
The report, tagged Basic Health Care Report Card ranked Nigeria next to India, on the scale of countries with the highest number of children who were not getting adequate basic healthcare. 16 million children in the country, about 66 per cent of the country’s child population, were reported to lack access to good health facilities.

In another report by the organization tagged World Mother Report, Nigeria was ranked 70 out of 71 worst less developed places to be a mother. The report said 6 million out of 10 million children who die worldwide every year could be saved if countries such as Bolivia, India, Nigeria and Egypt improved access to health facilities.

Poverty appears to be at the root of the high child mortality rates. The report confirmed that the children of the poor are three times more likely to die in childhood than the children of the rich. The poorest children in Nigeria and Mali, for example, were said to be 2.5 times more likely to go without health care.

In yet another worrisome article, which was also promoted on the front page, and featured on page 6, hundreds of toddlers and children on the same May 11 were reported to have taken to the streets of Port Harcourt to protest incessant kidnapping of young children in Rivers State.
The children were said to have marched though some major streets in the city, carrying placards with messages like – “Don’t kidnap us again”, Stop Child abuse, trafficking, rape and slavery” and “ We are innocent.”

The children openly begged passersby and other motorists to stop kidnapping them. The protesting children later delivered a message to the state governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi. A spokesperson for the little children, little Precious Obasi, told the government that the children decided to tell the world that they had had enough of the trauma from those who kidnap, enslave, rape and abuse them and they wanted peace and protection from the state governor. They also asked for jobs for children who had dropped out of school and for the governor to pay the school fees of those who cannot pay their fees.
Another of the children, Hanniel Nwachukwu, reiterated the demand of Niger Delta children for peace as he asked, “What did a three-month old baby do to be kidnapped? Why would kidnappers not leave innocent children alone?”

The governor, who was represented by the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Magnus Abe, apologized to the children for the inhuman treatment they had been subjected to. He admitted to the children that they were being subjected to kidnapping because of the failure of leadership and promised that the government would do everything humanly possible to bring the situation to and end, because the present generation of adults did not have to carry placards to protest to the government to protect them when they were children.

Yet another report in the same newspaper had the title: “Polio Paralyses 17 Children - WHO official”. The story quoted the World Health Organization Coordinator in Nigeria, Mr. Alpha Njie, as putting the number of children paralyzed by polio at 17, in Zamfara State alone, in the first quarter of 2008.
Njie, who spoke in Gusau, Zamfara State, at the official launching of the first and second phases of Immunization Plus Days, said all the affected children were not fully immunized against the disease.
Seventy five per cent of those affected by polio were below three years of age and 65 per cent of them received less than the required three doses of oral polio vaccine. Children who are paralysed by polio are usually those who are not immunized or those who did not receive the required doses.

The three reports identified above paint a sorry picture of the poor circumstance of Nigerian children. So many of these children are born with lower life expectancy than those born in developed countries of the world. They have lower access to health facilities. They are more likely to be crippled or die from vaccine– preventable diseases like measles and polio and they are more likely to lose their mothers due to the unbearably high maternal mortality in the land.

In the Niger Delta, more than 20 children have been reported to have been kidnapped between 2007 and now. All over the country, children have been victims of rape, murder, torture, child slavery, child abuse and the like.

Only about a fortnight ago, there was a report in the papers of a woman who sold her twin children for N120, 000 as a result of poverty and inability to take care of them
Nigerian children of school age have one of the worst out-of-school statistics, worldwide. Even when they are in school, the quality of education they receive cannot be compared with that of their counterparts in the more developed countries of the world.

The facilities available to them for their education are often obsolete and sub–standard. During simple examinations like the international West African Examinations Council (WAEC) examinations, they are often subjected to undue stress, as examinations are frequently cancelled and rescheduled, because of leakages.
Gaining admission to universities for Nigerian secondary school leavers is an uphill task, as the nation’s universities admit just about ten per cent of those who sit for the Joint Admissions and Matriculations Board (JAMB) examinations, every year.

And when our children pass out of universities, after several years of strikes and closures, there are no ready jobs waiting for them. Getting a paid employment becomes a Herculean project, yet most of the universities do not impart entrepreneurial skills in their students.
This depressing state of affairs of the Nigerian child should not be allowed to continue.
The government, at all levels, should rise to the challenge of making the country a better place for children.

At a time when some countries, like Iraq, are storing up billions of dollars in programmes like the Iraqi Fund for Future Generations, and the developed countries of the West are investing heavily in the welfare, health and education of their children, including the disabled, our government should not be seen to be stocking problems, stress and unemployment for ours.
With May 27, the International Children’s Day, just around the corner, here is hoping that our leaders will not only mark the day with empty speeches.
They need to have a re-think and plan a better deal for the Nigerian child, not only because of today, but because, as stated earlier, they are the future of the entire country