Nigerian Laws and the Child

Freedom of Expression

The 1999 Nigerian constitution has indicated clearly the rights of every Nigerian citizen including the child. Therefore in this second section of this unit, we shall briefly discuss some of the constitutional rights of children in the country.

In one of the courses, we discussed the position of the child in the traditional African societies. There, you were told that tradition does not allow the African child to talk here or when elders are talking. In other words, children should only be seen but not heard. Therefore whatever ideas or views children had were not allowed to be publicly made by them. The situation as we discussed in that unit was so bad that children were not even allowed to ask `frivolous' questions from their parents at home. The only time when children were allowed to ask moderately reasonable question were during the moon light stories often told by elders. Such questions when allowed at all were often too limited to make the personal views of the children known.


The Nigerian constitution however recognises the right of the child to freedom of expression. That means the child is free to hold his own opinion, receive information and express his own ideas on any issues without any interference. In the same way, the child's views, thought, and conscience are recognised by the constitution of our country. Even if the parents or guardians have the power to direct their children in the exercise of these rights, that fact still remains that they have the freedom to exercise them. In other worlds, parental control over their children does not mean that the children do not have the constitutional freedom to exercise their rights. So, you can see now that the struggle for children's freedom of expression, thought and conscience which started in the 17th century is now fully recognised by law. This is not saying however that all is well with children generally in Nigeria and in other parts of the world.

 Right to Dignity of Human Person

Apart from the ancient or medieval periods, there are many people in different parts of the world including Nigeria who still treat the child badly. You must have heard or read the news about some Nigerians who often inflict serious bodily injuries on children. Sometimes, this is done by the parents of the children themselves or by their guardians or those who employed them as house helps. Some people make children to work too much or carry very heavy loads and walk long distances. You must have been seeing some children selling pure water, bread, biscuit and other things on the major roads. In most cases, the children are forced to do all these things by their parents or guardians. The Nigerian constitution however grants the right to dignity of human person to the child like all other citizens. In the relevant portions of the constitution, it is started accordingly that:

1. The child shall not be subject to any form of torture or to in human or degrading treatment 
2. The child shall not be required to perform forced or compulsory labour. 

Although the law prescribes punishments for anyone who violates the children's right to the dignity of their human person, many people still do it. The cases of corporal punishment and sometimes using blade or knife to make marks on the child's body are still common. People do all these things probably as a result of ignorance of the law or they are just wicked. In some cases, the culture allows such practices to some extent.

Whatever the reason, it should stop. If some people who violate the right of children are arrested, tried and punished accordingly by the court, it will stop. Teachers who inflict corporal punishment on their pupils in schools should also be aware that the Law does not cover them.

There have been cases of pupils taking their teachers to court through their parents. You must have heard the case of a pupil in Kwara State who successfully sued a teacher and the Kwara State Teaching Service Commission over the violation of the right to dignity of his person. The child had an eye injury as a result of corporal punishment on the pupil by the teacher. The pupil was awarded thousands of Naira as damages by the court. Do you usually punish your pupils in the school? Then you should be careful in the way you do it so that you will not find yourself in court.

The Right to Life and Development

The Nigerian constitution also guarantees the right of the child to life, survival and development. In other words, once a child is born either in the hospital or home, the constitution protects him. The parent or anybody else has no right to kill him for whatever reason. Similarly, nothing should be done to deprive the child all things that could ensure survival or proper development.

For example, parents must not kill any of their children who is physically or mentally challenged in any form. In the past, some parents used to privately kill and burn children that were found to be physically or mentally challenged. This was often done to save the parents the trouble of having to carry such children up and down for care or treatment. The shame and disgrace of having such children have also led to their killing. As you have learnt in one of the earlier units, this killing of children is not peculiar to Nigeria alone. It happened to physically or mentally challenged also in Europe during the ancient and medieval times. However, just as Nigerian Laws go against the killing of children for whatever reason, the laws of those European countries equally guaranteed the child's right to life.

Although we often hear about cases of abandoned children in Nigeria, we have not been hearing of cases of parents killing their physically or mentally challenged children. You probably must have heard or read from the newspaper sometimes ago that the police were looking for the mother of an abandoned baby. This shows that such mothers who want to deprive children of their rights to life and development could be prosecuted if they are caught. You may say that such mothers did not actually kill their children hence they should not be punished. The fact remains that they have deprived such children of their right to survival and proper development if not that such children were found before died. By throwing babies away either in to the toilet, well, bush or uncompleted building, their right to survival and development have been violated. Anything could happen to such children. Those who are lucky to be picked up among such children by good and kind people cannot in any way receive the natural love and affection which a child enjoys from the mother.

CONCLUSION

The world has come a long way to ensure that the rights of the child are recognized and respected. United Nations Organisation and many individual countries have made some declarations and constitutional provisions on the rights of the child. Various policies and programmes have been put in place to ensure the implementation of all such declarations and laws on the rights of children. Significant progress has therefore been made in different parts of the world including Nigeria in ensuring the protection of the rights of children.

SUMMARY

In this lecture, you have learnt some of the rights of children as guaranteed by the United Nations declarations which many member countries including Nigeria have signed or ratified. In the same way, you have learnt some of the fundamental rights of children in Nigerian as guaranteed by the constitutional provision and other laws in the country. However, despite all these constitutional provisions, many people in Nigeria still violate the rights of children. Can you mention any act of violation of children’s rights that you have seen or heard?

In the next unit, you will learn how what we now refer to as early childhood or pre- primary education originated. What you have learnt so far on the child has prepared the ground for the introduction of pre—school education in different parts of the world.