Children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully and lovingly nurtured as they represent the future of our great nation. The Children’s Day Celebration teaches us several important values. It is a call for us adults to protect our little ones from all harm.
It is an invitation for us to give love and affection to our children, and provide much needed attention to the various plights facing this upcoming generation. Part of showing love is why we have dedicated this special day to them, to listen to them, to care for them, to mentor them, to celebrate them.
Many children have to endure child labor by hawking various products under the most dangerous conditions on most of our major roads today for little to no pay. This should be illegal.
Children of primary and secondary school age should be within the four walls a school within the hours 8am and 2pm when most schools let out their kids, not working to contribute to the welfare of the family at such tender ages. This is our role as the parents and a reversal of this God given duty to provide for and protect our offspring is simply unacceptable.
According to statistics, as many as 10.5 million children are out of school as we speak, the figures i just quoted were gathered in 2013.
UNICEF also notes that about forty per cent of Nigerian children aged 6-11 do not attend any primary school with the Northern region recording the lowest school attendance rate in the country, particularly for girls. We as a country must endeavour to do better.
Again, our children are the future of this nation and the hope for tomorrow. We need to do better providing for them and protecting them. Adults can re-learn a thing or two from children like humility, innocence, love, ability to trust and purity of the heart.
By Dr. Oluyemi Olawaiye, Pharm D.
YELOTO ACF
