To celebrate the 2021 World Children’s Day (WCD), the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has come out to beg governments at all levels to adopt and enforce the rights of the child in all the 36 states of the federation.

The Executive Secretary of the Commission, Tony Ojukwu recently revealed this in Abuja while marking this year’s WCD.

According to him, kids deserve special attention and protection in order for them to seamlessly pass through the several stages of survival and development.

He added that it is now important for states who are yet to adopt the Child’s Rights Law to do so to avoid further violations of the rights of these vulnerable children.

His words, “It has become imperative for states who are yet to adopt the Child’s Rights Law to do so to avoid further violations of the rights of these vulnerable children.”

“The issue of out-of-school children, child labour, poor antenatal and postnatal care, child wandering, child abandonment, child denial of necessaries, Almajiri children syndrome, kidnapping, malnutrition, etc. still rear their ugly heads and therefore pose a serious challenge to the proper development of the child especially in states where the Child’s rights law is not in place.”

“The impact of COVID-19 pandemic brought to the fore the level of vulnerability of children in most parts of the world including Nigeria where a lot of children could not continue with their education as a result of poverty and deprivation because their parents or guardians could not afford an online system of education.”

“As a Commission, we have championed various campaigns and interventions in support of the Child’s Rights across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory and the NHRC has successfully handled flurry of complaints on child’s rights violations as we have put several measures in place to entrench a culture of accountability for cases of Rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence and for all forms of human rights violations in Nigeria.”