Press statement by Mr. Opeyemi Olajide Olowookere in commemoration of 2018 Children’s Day

We celebrate, yet we mourn. We mourn the children who had died of hunger in years behind. We mourn the demise of children who died in riots, public uprisings, community disputes and terrorism in/around Nigeria. We are also pained, yet happy that we have made a hero out of our children. We are thankful that we still have one like Leah Sharibu who could sustain integrity and stand by her words to remain a Christian in the midst of fierce looking gunmen and notorious bombers. We celebrate, yet we mourn.

I want to use this opportunity to wish every lover of children a happy Children’s Day in Nigeria. We salute the courage of as many children and young adults who are on the street battling with the scourge of hunger, maltreatment, inequality, among others. It is my earnest desire that you are taken off the street in no distant time. We are working and we have not stopped; we are sure you all will find a rescue through our vision and commitment to it.

As we celebrate this Day, it is expedient that we all look beyond the smiles we assume ooze out of every pore of our children’s faces. We should look deeper and set our minds at them. We should see the pains and the agonies of children who have been victims of a social menace, injustice and violence at some points in life. It is essential for us to account for our common share of the blames for the pains we have consciously or ignorantly caused kids and young adults. We should reminisce on what we ought to have done to better the lots of our children that we have overlooked. We should, as a matter of urgency, rise to action as individuals who wish for a peaceful Nigeria and a better future for the country.

This Day calls our consciousness to the challenges of children who have been variously received as helpless, if not hopeless, as a result of the comeuppance of privileged members of the society. Children in Nigeria have been victims of the whims of elderly folks who have inadvertently made them helpless in the face of the wider terrain of governance and social construction. Many children have had no other choice than to drop out of school for reasons which are not unconnected to poverty. Many others have had to resort to begging after school hours to keep themselves going in school. A good number of children in almost all cities in Nigeria have become contract beggars who are in the service of a lord who neither cares for them nor want their growth. All these problems are caused by the ineptitudes of all of us and the attitude we show to the plights of children in Nigeria.

I am pulled by these circumstances to admonish every Nigerian this reaches to place the rights of kids and young adults at the core of their daily activities. We should rise up to the call of a society measured not by the I-don’t-care attitude shown to children but by the level of equality and rights children enjoy at every level and in all areas of life. We cannot afford to fold our arms and have our children become eternal victims of problems they have not created or a war they know nothing about. If there is a time to wake up, fellow Nigerians, this is the time!

The government of any nation is saddled with the responsibility of securing the lives and properties of its citizenry. The moment there is a shortfall in the government’s commitment to this task, it is certain that lives would be under threat and there would be general unrest. Any of these effects are usually felt by all but more deeply by children. This is the situation many children in Nigeria have found themselves today. They are victims of rape, violence, kidnap, illicit abduction and hunger. All of these, one must emphasize, found their roots in the government’s inability to secure both the economy and policies of the government in favour of the entire populace which, of course, does not leave the children out.

Not neglecting the violence caused by faceless sects, terrorist groups and aggrieved quarters in Nigeria, many children have been abducted, forcefully kidnapped, raped and, most viciously, killed for reasons that are far beyond their making. With these children not having the loud voice to reach the leadership at the center, many of them have become victims of a silence they do not know when or how to break. That leaves us as at Global Support for Kids Initiative to help project their voices and their plights; to amplify their desires and ensure that they have the attention of appropriate quarters. We cannot for any reason allow silence to prevail when the children that are central to our dream are suffering. We cannot fold our arms and feign ‘all-is-well’ when in reality all is rotten. We cannot continue where those of the years behind stopped. Hence, we need a new attention, a new spirit and good policies that will better the lots of our children and take many of them off the streets. We need the government to secure the lives of her citizens, especially children against the grievous menace of cultism, terrorism and mass killings from aggrieved quarters. Children aren’t political tools with which political scores have to be settled; they must be given a positive perspective of their nation.

It brings a lot of sorrows that the Chibok girl’s abduction is still left hovering in the deluge of unfathomable scenarios and disjointed media reports. Worsening the sorrows is the kidnap of Dapchi girls which, long after the rescue of majority of the victims, still has Leah Sharibu in the hands of the Boko Haram men. The incessant killings of both the young and old at Benue state also speak volume on the level of impunity that has eaten up the structure of the Nigerian system. The killings have left a scar on our national consciousness till date that we struggle hard to erase the memories off the collective psyche of children in Nigeria. It is painful that these serial failures have made many children victims of psychological traumas propelled by fear, uncertainty and lack of faith in anybody.

It is against this background that we charge the Nigerian government to improve the social welfare of children and ensure a secured life for both privileged and less-privileged children. Government should put more efforts into its drive to ensure that captives are free and terrorists are brought to book. We need all security agencies connected with the government and non-government agencies to have all hands on deck to save Nigerians from the scourge of Boko Haram and their herdsmen counterpart. We cannot afford to have our dreams shattered and vision blurred for the reason of a grievance held by a group that would not seek redress at appropriate quarters. Children in Benue are suffering, elderly ones are mourning different losses and every Nigerian is feeling this hurt that follows news report every day. We have to save Benue, we need the release of Leah. We want our government to be more responsive to the yearnings of children. We want our children to become the best they desire. We want a change in the system. These have to be achieved and its achievement should start now.

Once again, I felicitate with every child in Nigeria and hope for more successful days for all of them. Keep safe, and keep faith. Your dreams shall come true!

Thank you.

Mr. Opeyemi O. Olowookere

President,

Global Support for Kids Initiative.

www.gskinitiative.org