NAN-H-11
Child labour
By Oluwabukola Akanni
Ibadan, June 13, 2017 (NAN) A child’s rights and protection advocate, Mr Taiwo Akinlami, has called on the Federal Government to see to the welfare of parents as a way of ending child labour and trafficking.
Akinlami, a Lagos-based lawyer and Founder, Taiwo Akinlami Academy, made the call in Ibadan on Tuesday while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) against the backdrop of the 2017 UN Word Day Against Child Labour.
- Cue in audio (Akinlami)
“Our country does not have governance problem; our country does not have religious problem; it does not have marriage problem.
“Our country is not at the war front except for the pockets of crises we find in the North, Boko Haram which has been addressed to a very large extent.
“We have only one problem mismanaged childhood manifesting in dysfunctional adulthood.
“You were a child before who you are today is a function of how you were raised.
“We need to tackle the issue of poverty headlong. Once the existence of a people is abused, you don’t expect them not to abuse their children because you give what you have; you cannot give what you do not have.
“One of the ways by which you can solve child labour is by empowering parents through what they call social protection.
“So the problem is social protection for parents that are not well to do, for parents that do not know where the next meal is coming from because one of the responsibilities of the state is to empower parents to be able to take care of their children.
“UNESCO says Nigeria holds the world record in the highest number of children out of school; it speaks to lack of planning, lack of actual notice of children.
“It does not work either as a primary care giver or secondary care giver to bring children to this world to this world without a plan of how to take care of them.’’
- Cue out audio
NAN reports that the theme for the year is titled `The Impact of Conflicts and Disasters on Child Labour’. (NAN)
BA/YEE
Edited by Emmanuel Yashim
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