It is by providence that we are not recording casualties among our children, because of the ways in which government and parents have been handling the affairs of children, especially those in the suburbs, at this time of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
While it was a welcome development when the government ordered the closure of all schools in order to tame the spread of the virus, the directive is more or less of no value, particularly among the children of the poor and low income earners living in the suburbs.Saturday INDEPENDENT’s findings revealed how the children are left to wander, exposed and rendered vulnerable to the pandemic.
While their counterparts in the highbrow areas are kept indoors, attending classes online, most of these children are either seen hawking goods for their parents or playing football.
It is an understatement to say that the government has failed to enforce the indigent children’s compliance to the stay at home order. For their parents, it is disheartening to note that some of them still don’t believe that COVID-19 is real.
A food vendor, popularly known as Iya Junior, in Ajuwon area of Ogun State berated the government for shutting down schools. She has still not come to terms with the fact that there is coronavirus in Nigeria.
“There is no way children won’t walk around. The government sent them away from school and did not allow their parents to do their businesses. Last time we heard the government would give them food, all the children went to their school in uniforms with the hope of getting government food. What did they get? Nothing! It was all an exercise in futility. God is keeping us safe, let them (government) hold on to their virus. We shall not be infected,’’ she prayed.
In Aboru area of Oke-Odo, Lagos, the story is not different. On many occasions, children without facemasks were sighted gathering at an open field near Hill Top Estate to play or watch football matches.
Mr. Babatunde Oluajo of Integrity Organisation, while commenting on the risk the children are exposed to, said the governments at all levels have failed the children it swore to protect.
My take is that the Nigerian Government, by failing to guarantee access to basic and quality education, housing and health care have failed the Nigerian child. Absence of things like child support that is supposed to guarantee access to basic education, health and housing is largely responsible for the spate of street children we are seeing in Nigeria. Despite signing into law international policies that mandate it to provide these basic necessities, the Nigerian state has consistently failed in its duties to the Nigerian child,” Oluajo maintained.
