26 Aug 2008 |
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In many cities of the world, especially the developing countries, children have been subject of abuse, neglect, exploitation and even in extreme cases murdered by "clean up squads" hired by local businesses. These children, expected leaders of tomorrow, experienced various obnoxious and unbearable frustrations which in most cases made them to end up in the street thereby being labeled as street children. These children, either by design or default, become victims of circumstances created by the environment; sometimes emanating from parents with lackadaisical attitudes to the well being of their siblings. By extension, some of these children are on the streets because of poor parental upbringing, mistreatment, neglect and lack of basic necessities of life. As a result, they found ready homes in unoccupied dwellings, uncompleted buildings, under the bridges and wastelands more than their family homes. It also includes children who might not necessarily be homeless or without families, but who live in situations where there is no protection, supervision, or direction from responsible adults as well as children in such a wide variety of circumstances and characteristics that policy-makers and service providers find difficult to describe and target. Besides the nationʼs economic situation, these children may have chosen to make the street as their resort for other reasons. Unfortunately, some of them may have no choice - they are abandoned, orphaned, or thrown out of their homes. Some may choose to live in the streets in defiance, another state that has to do with the psychological make up of the child. Disappointedly though, some children also work in the streets because their earnings are needed by their families, in fact this particular case is becoming very rampart as it were. The challenges posed by these children both to the government and the environment at large cannot be overemphasized. The resultant effects created abinitio may appear very immeasurable but on the long run it creates a devastating imbalance on the polity. Experience has shown that these minors, later in life become ready tools employed by unscrupulous elements in the society to carry out their nefarious activities. Unfortunately, a greater percentage of these people become so irredeemable to the point that they grow up in like manner without any proper orientation either from their parents/ guardian or the society. The consequence of that lack of care make most of them to end up under the bridges, live in dark alley and take over a number of public places where they operate illicit businesses and thus constituting environmental nuisances and environmental dangers. It must be recalled that quite a number of authors in their books have made references to the plight of the street children, which are mostly found in the northern part of Nigeria and called Alimajiris. There is no doubt that government is saddled with a number of issues bothering on the well being of her citizenry and also has the responsibilities of addressing the menace of the street children in our society. But the challenge as it were is that no particular measurable step has been taken so far to address the issue. Homes and families no doubt are part of the larger society. However, the underlying factors responsible for poverty or breakdown of homes and families could be traceable to social, economic, political and environmental. The Street Children phenomenon in Nigeria is gradually assuming alarming proportions, particularly in urban areas. The immediate cause of this challenge appears to be deeply entrenched in poverty which defines lives of the vast majority of the Nigerian people. Invariably, broken homes and families who find it difficult to provide the basic needs equally end up at some point on the streets and the phenomenon very much alarming resulting to: child labour, child trafficking, child prostitution and a host of others. By extension, wonʼt it be rather interesting to realise that with the recent saga on the baby factory on the increase where girls who have unwanted pregnancy are nurtured, cared and looked after till the time of delivery and are paid off for the babies delivered are some of the extraneous situation that the challenge of the street children birth. You can bet where the babies delivered and paid for by some business people will end up. Sometimes when you consider the sordidness of these stories, they sound very absurd and very incredulous. But the truth is that they are very real. And they are not far fetched but dwell within us. A very recent case was that of the baby factory in Enugu with the news making round for sometime now. It would surprise you to realise that the inability to address one gives room for some other uncongenial situation to further surface. Sympathetically, street children throughout the world are subjected to physical abuse sometimes even by the law enforcement agencies, and murdered outright by other gangs, as societies treat them as a blight to be eradicated rather than young souls to be nurtured and protected. Flimsy excuses are occasionally cited for frequent and arbitrary detention by police like homelessness, loitering, vagrancy, or petty theft. More worrisome is the incessant attacks on innocent street-girls who are sometimes sexually abused. Street children also make up a large proportion of the children who enter criminal justice systems and are committed finally to correctional institutions (prisons) that are euphemistically called schools, often without due process. It is necessary that governments at all level, including non-governmental organizations, should collectively be involved in rescuing, rehabilitating and resettling these street children. Their menace requires national and international public attention because they are part of us and deserve all attention and concern to address their needs. The government has a lot to do to address the problems which are largely social, economical, health-wise which are in the ambit of the state. In fact the menace can be reduced through strategies towards reduction of poverty, mass-literacy, preventive health programmes, and other social services. I believe strongly in the power of advocacy which can be further strengthened in collaboration with religious and cultural institutions in the society to play participatory roles towards the success of the campaigns against street-children. It could as well sound paradoxical that despite the billions of dollars earmarked for several advocacy projects, examining the situation of the human rights abuses of street children in juvenile justice systems and as it is applicable to other six African countries including Nigeria, the phenomenon has always been on the increase.
Adediran Monsurah Atinuke adediran.atinuke@yahoo.com Federal Ministry of Information Abuja.
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