From Sola Ojo, Zaria
As a part of his commitment to the commemoration of this year’s Day of the African Child, the Emir of Zazzau, HRH Ambassador Ahmed Nuhu Bamali has accepted to champion the voices of children in Kaduna state calling for the stoppage of harmful cultural practices against them in the state.
The Ministry of Human Services and Social Development (MHSSD) and Save the Children International (SCI) have led some children from public and private elementary and secondary schools on an advocacy visit to the palace of the traditional father in Zaria where they asked the monarch to intervene in their call for stoppage of harmful cultural practices such as early marriage, tribal marks, witchcraft profiling, child labour among others.
In an interview with Saturday Sun, the traditional father who was formerly Nigerian Ambassador to Thailand and Myanmar said he has decided to leverage his local and international experiences to advocate for the welfare and protection of Kaduna children as they had demanded.
“I am delighted to receive these children here in the palace as we commemorate the day of African Child this year. The children have raised many issues including early marriage, child trafficking, tribal marks and stigmatisation the children, en with special needs go through.
“I have accepted your call to be your champion. It is in this context that I said no child should be stigmatised because of some physical challenges that are not their choices but what nature bestowed on them.
“This is because, with aid of technology and expertise, we have a good number of physically challenged people who have excelled up to PhD level. So, disability should not be a barrier to attaining the highest level in their career in life and we will play our role to make that happen”, he promised.
What this means, according to the Commissioner for Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya Hafsat Mohammed-Baba is that for him to have accepted to be their champion, the children have gotten a good mentor.
“This has also given us a platform to relate with the Zazzau palace and to follow up to ensure that whatever concern we have in terms of welfare and protection of our children once they come to us, we have a father that we can run to.
“Apart from that, we know that our governor is also passionate about children in the state. Just a few weeks ago, we also visited him and he took the children around his office to encourage them to aspire to be great in life. I know that these children are going to serve as role models to other children because they have been given a voice by the royal father”, she said.
On her part, the Advocacy and Communication Coordinator, SCI, Murjanatu Kabir thanked the royal father for accepting to champion the course of Kaduna children by way of garnering support to take away harmful practices that can hinder them from pursuing their potential in life.
“We are here at the Zazzau Emirate palace with Kaduna children to commemorate this year’s Day of African Child which was why we dim it fit to come and see the emir because he is a father and custodian of tradition in this part of the World.
“It is a known fact that all these harmful practices against children are done in the communities and that is why we are engaging with traditional and religious leaders to listen to these children.
“We are happy that after the visiting children presented their asks to the royal father, he agreed to be their champions to call on parents, guardians and communities at large to stop these harmful practices against our children”.
Going by the theme for the Day of the African Child (DAC) 2022 which is “Eliminating Harmful Practices Affecting Children: Progress on Policy & Practice since 2013”, it is good to allow the children to express their feeling as we have seen today, the Chairman, Kaduna Social Protection Accountability Coalition (KADSPAC), Ms Jessica Bartholomew who was among the entourage to Zazzau palace said.