#StateofEmergencyVAC
Time: 11:00AM
#TheArchitect2022, declares a state of emergency in respect of Violence Against Children (VAC).
The webinar holding on 20th January 2022, as the first part of a 4-Pronged Action Plan on re-engineering the “Children, the Family, and Education system for active citizenship participation towards lasting Nation Building” will address issues surrounding Violence Against Children (VAC) from an “Educational/academic handlers–to–children, Family/Parenting-to-children, children–to–children, social protection + public health and morality perspective”; and from the deliberations and conclusions, a communique as well as policy proposal shall be developed for engagement with and potential implementation by the Federal Government of Nigeria at the National level and domestication at the Sub-National levels. Our children are the Architects of the future of this Country, and as a result, #TheArchitect2022, aimed at promoting SDG 16 will amongst other things:
- provide an overview of the importance of early childhood education for learning and character development;
- investigate the importance of providing young children with a safe, nurturing environment as well as the stimulation needed to prepare them for the transition to the early life;
- address the magnitude of physical, health and psychological damage that can be caused by VAC;
- interrogate the rights of children under relevant laws and proffer practical legal/regulatory response and preventive mechanisms;
- catechize the role of the media in the long term influence of childhood behaviour and character development as a catalyst for nation building;
- probe the exhaustiveness of parental and caregiving support;
- consider the effectiveness of states’ obligations and actions to prevent VAC and protect child victims; and proffer a robust all-inclusive and participatory solution for a way forward for all stakeholders.
#TheArchitect2022 – “#StateofEmergencyVAC: Creating the future …Every child matters” would be focusing on crushing VAC in every form and space where it can be found, especially within schools – particularly boarding schools; and would amongst other things be contributing to laying the groundwork for a successful violence free future for the child in Nigeria because a child’s early years are the foundation for his or her future development, providing a strong base for lifelong learning and character development including cognitive and social development for lasting socio-economic contribution and nation building.
In the final analysis, #TheArchitect2022 would proffer suggestions to help:
- Implement broad prevention strategies whilst ensuring continuous improvement of same;
- Ensure unbiased, prompt, effective and positively sustained criminal justice response; and
- Eliminate Violence Against Children (VAC) at all levels including without limitation during contacts with the justice system.
The goal of #TheArchitect2022 is to protect children wholly and ensure they not only survive but thrive. #TheArchitect2022 – “#StateofEmergencyVAC: Creating the future …Every child matters” would analyse our present situation with Violence Against Children (VAC), consider existing laws (including the Child Rights Act 2003) as well as regulations, policies and standards; draw on foreign/International experiences and perspectives in analysing our local situation and then to craft a framework for a violence free future for children in Nigeria. The event would therefore be a first step into the glimpse of what is possible when our society focuses on the safety and protection of the child by addressing the present challenges and proffering practical solutions to changing them – to ensure a mutually beneficial future for all stakeholders – one that would “foster sustainable growth and development” for our educational system, our families and our country, Nigeria.
Background
A bit of a timeline in respect of Violence Against Children (VAC) in Nigeria within the last 1 year (2021) is shared below for some perspective on the nature of emergency required to secure our children:
Analysis of the Situation
What is evident from the above 1 year timeline (just 1 year) is that from the North to the South, the East to the West, from the family to the street and from the Christian Community to the Islamic Community, Violence Against Children (VAC) is rife and often goes unreported and unpunished. The enormity of the reported cases within a single year are frightening enough but imagine the number of cases that have been swept under the carpet and over the last decade (e.g. from 2010 to 2021). The state of affairs is a manifestation of how parents, school authorities and proprietors, the government at national and sub-national levels and the society at large have fared and failed woefully in providing health, guidance, safety and protection for the child. These also speak to the failure of the Nigerian school system, the collapse of morals and the evil that has overtaken not just the education sector but virtually every segment of society.
Faced with the harum-scarum public education system and demoralised teachers, many families opt to send their children to private schools; which vary in terms of structures, facilities and standards, depending on location and ownership. But what has been seen in these private schools is the failure of an entire national system, both in the public and private sectors. Nigeria’s places of learning have become environments of strife and chaos and this moral turpitude which has turned Nigeria into a land of a failure of ethos, governance and leadership – has crept into the schools. The students in these schools are allegedly on drugs, they form cult gangs, they bully one another; they join armed robbery gangs. Each time, there is an incident in any Nigerian school, there are loud cries, matches and protests; and soon the noise dies down and we all wait until the next crisis occurs or the next child dies.
Worse still, many of the persons/groups, bodies and educational institutions that perpetuate these ugly acts are let go after multiple cover-up schemes carried out in connivance with medical, security and investigating operatives and are still roaming freely and operational in our communities. Thus, the society has failed our children as well as the younger generation and proactive steps must be taken to prevent this recurrent and systemic carnage – violence against our children (VAC).
In spite of the Child Rights Act 2003 which has been domesticated in most states in the country, and other policies and manuals by governments at the national and sub-national levels, creating safe spaces for children to thrive in Nigeria is becoming almost impossible. What must we then do? Parents should care more, be deliberate, pay better attention and need to be vigilant – a school should be chosen for a different set of reasons: standards, values, quality. The Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Education and State authorities must be more vigilant and must also be awake to their responsibilities in the areas of policy and regulation; especially implementation.
The laws relating to violence, cultism, and child rights, can be said to be strong enough. However, they are hardly enforced to the letter, because the moral and political will to do so is absent. Everybody knows everybody in Nigeria and so the right thing never gets done. This is why it is critical to declare a State of Emergency on Violence Against Children now – #StateofEmergencyVAC.
#StateofEmergencyVAC
The former South African President, Nelson Mandela while speaking in Soweto, South Africa, in February 1990 said emphatically, “Children of today are the leaders of tomorrow and education is a very important weapon to prepare children for their future roles as leaders of the community.” He has also said that: “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
Nelson Mandela’s words are a profound guide to all of us and Countries must take measures to ensure the future of their children by ensuring that we not only protect them, we ensure that obtaining education is safe. Sri Lanka for example, as a developing country, has done much to ensure a safe and sustainable present and future for its children; as the “Sri Lankan society is culturally inculcated to treat children as treasures. The guiding philosophy of Sri Lanka has been to place children at the center of policy making. “We consider young people as the “Agents of Development” in our National Policy framework. They are a precious asset to be protected and fostered”, the Chairperson of the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) Natasha Balendra told www.news.lk while she was been interviewed.
A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state during a natural disaster, civil unrest, armed conflict, medical pandemic or epidemic or other biosecurity risk. Justitium is its equivalent in Roman law—a concept in which the Roman Senate could put forward a final decree (senatus consultum ultimum) that was not subject to dispute yet helped save lives in times of strife.
The Government declares a State of Emergency when it believes a disaster has occurred or may be imminent that is severe enough to require State aid to supplement local resources in preventing or alleviating damages, loss, hardship or suffering. This declaration authorises the Government to speed State agency assistance to situations and communities in need. It enables the Government to make resources immediately available to rescue, evacuate, shelter, provide essential commodities (i.e., security, health, heating fuel, food etc.).
The essence of the above elaborate background is to try to paint a picture of the emergency we have on our hands in the total erosion of the rights of the child – (1). Right to Life, (2). Right to have a Name, (3). Right to Education, (4). Right to Dignity, (5). Right to a Peaceful Home; and the need to forge a unified-hydra approach amongst the relevant Government Ministries, Departments, Agencies, families, parents and the private sector to address the situation. Children are the future pillars of our nation – It’s our responsibility to protect them. Period!!!
The speakers at #TheArchitect2022 would be expected to examine the theme, “#StateofEmergencyVAC: Creating the future …Every child matters” from a very practical and varied perspectives; and are also expected to proffer solutions and suggestions to the menace in the short, medium to long term; and it is expected that participants would understand the influence each person or institution in society wields as well as the palpable challenges VAC poses for the future of the child, the family, our educational system and our socio-economic development as a country in the long term.
Speakers & Moderators
Emily Ajisebutu (Speaker)
Funmi Ogbue (Speaker)
Sam Obafemi (Speaker)
Tosin Martins (Speaker)
Ogechi Abu (Speaker)
Shola Soyele (Co-Moderator)
Ofi K. Ejembi (Moderator)
#THEARCHITECT2022: “#StateofEmergencyVAC – Creating the future….Every child matters!”
Fundacion Exito calls for the eradication of Violence Against Children (VAC) in every form, shape or style in the society.
This call which was made on Thursday, 20th January, 2022 during a webinar on the theme which preceded a world press conference on the matter.
#StateofEmergencyVAC #TheArchitect2022 #StopViolenceAgainstChildren #FundacionExito
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