May 27 every year is set aside to celebrate the Nigerian child. It offers an opportunity to look at the welfare of the child, child’s rights and issues affecting children in Nigeria generally.
In Nigeria, it would seem that May 27 is just a fulfillment of all righteousness as there seems to be no plan for the Nigerian child by the government beyond the lip service being paid to children’s welfare.
Highlighting the plight of the Nigerian child under the current administration, former vice president Atiku Abubakar, said the three years of the Tinubu led administration is characterised by the haunting images of schoolchildren being abducted by criminals while a complacent government looks the other way.
In a statement issued by Phrank Shaibu, his senior special assistant on public communication, Atiku said that as the Tinubu administration marks three years in office, its most fitting report card is not the glossy advertisements, expensive media campaigns, or self-congratulatory speeches emanating from Abuja, but the tears of hungry families, and the despair of unemployed youth.
“Three years into this administration, Nigerian children are still being dragged into forests by terrorists and kidnappers,” Atiku said, indicating that the Nigerian child is now an endangered species in their own country.
