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The Need for Social Services for Nigerian Children Nigeria is one of the biggest countries in the world. It faces a lot of problems connected with its multi religious and multi tribal nature. Its total population is about 120 million people and consists of over 350 ethnic groups 1. Numerous problems connected with the child welfare occuring in Nigeria are typical for all African countries but in Nigeria they are manifested more obviously. These problems include the major disaster of the world in general and Africa in particular, the problem of HIV/AIDS, high rate of crimes, human and children trafficking, inter tribal conflicts. All these problems can not omit children, and what is more, they affect children in a greater measure that any other group of population.
Poverty and low standards of living causes the emergence of a great number of beggars in Nigerian cities. Children labour, a disgraceful phenomenon which has been condemned worldwide is spread in Nigeria. Children beggars are commonplace at the city streets in Nigeria. Children are hawking selling the packed water at the streets. The children begging is initiated by the islamic teachers. The islamic teachers are getting involved into direct exploitation of their pupils.
The conditions under which children are forced to go to streets are cruel. The children are under a constant threat. If any of these unfortunate children fails to bring money to the malls (Koranic teachers), such a child is meted with severe punishment. Sometimes a mark is made with ink on both palms of the childs hands in order to ensure that the child does not eat any food while begging in the street without the knowledge of the mall. The children looking dirty, haggard and malnourished beg from house to house in order to sustain the malls family. 2 It is naturally that apart from legal protection such children need social services to released the psychological tension exposed on them by their religious teachers. The Nigerian legislation does not care of the child abuse 3.
It is common in Nigeria that the juvenile offenders are incarcerated with the grown up criminals. Such actions do not improve general situation with the psychological health of the children and will definitely require further socialisation of the children. Early marriages are common in Nigeria due to several reasons. First of all Nigeria is partially a Muslim country and secondly, and which is worse the parents sell their daughters for marriage to improve their welfare.
Such habits more resemble the slavery rather than the marriage. Such girls need certain social support. Illegal children trafficking is a real disaster for Nigeria. Criminals convince the parents that they are going to provide the better life, education etc for their children. Sometimes parents agree to give their children to the traffickers. It is obviously that children do not get any promised benefits from the trafficking.
Very often they are used as servants; in most of the cases but they are trafficked to the European countries for prostitution 4. The phenomenon throws the mankind back to the gloomy and disgraceful times of slavery. The importance of education aimed to prevent the children from being trafficked illegally is very high. Neither children nor their parents realise that trafficking can not bring any benefits to Nigerian children.
The noble goals of granting a good education to the Nigerian children may be gained by the legal actions only. The main reason of all social troubles connected with the children is the poverty. At the same time as soon as the problem of the children trafficking is identified the combatting this phenomenon is the concern of the entire community including that of the destination countries of the children trafficking. Children are the least legally protected category of the Nigerian population.
All cataclysms of the Nigerian society affect children greatly. Poverty made more children live and / or work in the street and has increased their vulnerability to trafficking. Lack of sufficient financial resources for the education, social programmes and children rights protection made children mentality vulnerable to the negative events taking place in Nigerian society. The children discrimination is well spread in Nigeria. There are certain laws aimed to prevent the children discrimination in Nigeria, but they are not enforced properly. Children are discriminated according to the ethnic, tribal, gender and other principles.
The girls are exposed to the gender discrimination in Nigeria. The role of education plays an important role in the society development. The sociopolitical and economic development of a nation is, in many ways, determined by the quality and level of educational attainment of the population. Political leaders should take politics out of education, as the continued neglect of this sector would lead to social paralysis. The youth should be given the appropriate quality academic training and an environment that would enable them to reach their full potential 6. Nigeria provides a number of the state programs aimed to improve the national educational system, but the corruptive politicians made all these programs ineffective.
The human values perception is twisted in Nigeria. Thus the corruptive local states men get the salaries which are higher than those by the University professors. It is obvious that the proper social programs can not be implemented without proper educational programs and the educational system in general. The necessity of revision of the social policy is obvious.
Nigeria has been ineffective in providing quality social sector services to the people. The results are high child and maternal morbidity and mortality, low levels of adult literacy and poor academic performance, and high fertility that translates into rapid and unsustainable population growth. Availability and use of affordable child survival and maternal health measures is appallingly low. At least 15 percent of Nigerian children will die before their fifth birthday, while a Nigerian woman dies every three minutes from causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. Adult literacy actually declined during the decade of the 1990 s, and fewer than 60 percent of children are in school 7. One of the most remarkable paradoxes of Nigeria is the discord between its economic potential and the social position of the children in the country.
Nigeria is one of the major oil exporters in the world and in Africa. The outbreaks of cholera, cerebrospinal meningitis, measles, yellow fever and Lassa fever with significant human losses due to weak emergency preparedness and response mechanisms are common in Nigeria. The social indicators of Nigeria according to the World Bank are very low. One in 5 children born in Nigeria dies before the age of 5, a much higher incidence than in many other low-income countries. Facilities for the social services are ill-maintained; personnel are often insufficiently or inappropriately trained and are demoralized; and there are critical shortages of materials and equipment. Enrollment ratios in education and utilization rates of public health facilities have declined in the 1980 s, as perception of poor quality affected demand.
About 80 percent of public sector health facilities do not offer family planning services. Social services tend to be more available in the south than in the north: over 80 percent of hospital beds (public and private) are located in the south 8. The government and politicians recognize the necessity of the changes in the sphere of the social services in general and for children in particular but most of their programs and statements have the declarative character and are not supported by the serious research and firm intentions. Bibliography Nigeria's Report on the Implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and Commonwealth Plan of Action by Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, April 2004, available at web received 1. 05. 2005 G. A. ADEJUWON & S.
K. BALOGUN (PhD) Child Labor Practice in Nigerian Families: Implications on Childrens Psychological Health and Social Services to Families, Department of Psychology University of Ibadan. available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 U. S. Department of State, Nigeria Human Rights Practices, 1994, available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 An Awareness Raising Seminar Trafficking of African Children to the UK: Denouncing the Better Life Syndrome web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 E. E.
O Alemika, Innocent Chukwuma, Donika Lafratta, Daniel Messerli, Jarmila Souckova Rights of the Child in Nigeria, Report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by Nigeria, available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 Victor Dike, The state of education in Nigeria and the health of the nation, available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 SO 13: Increased Use of Social Sector Services, USAID, available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 World Bank Group, Nigeria: Towards the Improved Delivery of Social Services, available at web retrieved 1. 05. 2005 Citation Federal Ministry of Women G. A. ADEJUWON & S. K. BALOGUN (PhD) U. S.
Department of State An Awareness Raising Seminar Trafficking of African Children to the UK: Denouncing the Better Life Syndrome E. E. O Alemika, Innocent Chukwuma, Donika Lafratta, Daniel Messerli, Jarmila Victor Dike USAID The World Bank Group
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Research essay sample on The Need For Social Services Nigerian Children
