Blessing Afolabi
BLESSING AFOLABI examines the prevalence of child abuse in the country and the low enforcement of the Child Rights Act
Busola Oyediran and her partner, Akebiara Emmanuel, had been molesting her kids consistently for a while at their house in Bariga, a suburb of Lagos State.
Incessant beatings with canes, belts, and horsewhip were the daily meal of the two children, whose searing cries of agony many times awake other tenants in the house. The kids bore legible torture marks on their battered bodies.
The abuse persisted until one of the neighbours summoned courage and walked into a police station to alert officers to the constant battery.
The couple was subsequently arrested and arraigned before Chief Magistrate B.O. Osunsami of the Samuel Ilori Court, Ogba, Lagos State.
Oyediran’s children were lucky to have been rescued on time. This was not so for the three-year-old daughter of Chinelo Udogu, a woman based in Awka, Anambra State.
In October 2022, Udogu flogged her daughter to death, put her remains in a bag, and threw them into a bush at Amikwo Awka.
When interrogated, the suspect said her child started convulsing after being beaten and she took her to a hospital, where she died.
“So, I threw her body here,” she told the police.
Recently, an unidentified caregiver was caught on camera in a daycare in Lagos State beating a child.
The child, who was said to be sick, defecated on her body.
The caregiver, who was supposed to clean her up, started hitting her.
The police declared her wanted for the act.
Worrisome child abuse statistics
According to the World Health Organisation, violence against children includes all forms of violence against people under 18 years old.
For infants and younger children, violence mainly involves child maltreatment (physical, sexual and emotional abuse and neglect) in the hands of parents and other authority figures.
Boys and girls are at equal risk of physical and emotional abuse and neglect, and girls are at greater risk of sexual abuse.
As children reach adolescence, peer violence and intimate partner violence, in addition to child maltreatment, become highly prevalent.
The United Nations Children’s Fund describes violence against children as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, which happens in all countries and any setting – home, community, school, and online.
In some parts of the world, violent discipline is socially accepted and common and for many girls and boys, violence comes at the hands of the people they trust – parents, caregivers, teachers, peers, and neighbours.
But the most devastating types of violence, UNICEF said, were often hidden from public view. Perpetrators go to great lengths to conceal their acts, leaving children, especially those who lack the capacity to report or even understand their experience, vulnerable to further exposure.
UNICEF also stated that about 15 million adolescent girls aged 15 to 19, experienced forced sex in their lifetime.
About 10 per cent of the world’s children are not legally protected from corporal punishment and over one in three students aged 13 to 15 years, experience bullying worldwide.
Approximately, one in four children under the age of five (about 176 million) live with a mother, who is a victim of intimate partner violence.
Roughly, three in four children between the ages of two and four (around 300 million) are regularly subjected to violent discipline by their caregivers.
According to UNICEF, in both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Sustainable Development Goals, countries committed to ending violence against children.
The SDGs call for the end of abuse, exploitation, and all forms of violence and torture against children by 2030.
But with low enforcement of the law to deter people from perpetrating the criminal act, there are uncertainties if Nigeria will achieve this goal alongside the global community.
The WHO notes that violence against children can be prevented. Preventing and responding to violence against children require that efforts systematically address risk and protective factors at all four interrelated levels of risk (individual, relationship, community, society).
Child Rights Act
The Child Rights Act (2003) is the law that guarantees the rights of all children in Nigeria. So far, 34 of the 36 states in the country have adopted the Act as a state law.
The remaining two states of the federation, have yet to domesticate the Act in their laws 20 years after it was passed.
A child, as defined by the Child Rights Act, is any person under the age of 18. In the CRA, the punishment for child sexual abuse as indicated in Section 32 is 14 years’ imprisonment. For child labour under section 28, it is a fine of N250,000.
Meanwhile, in the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act passed into law in May 2015, imprisonment of five years or a fine of N100,000 or both is meted out to anyone who willfully inflicts physical injury on another person by means of a weapon, substance, or object.
The National Human Rights Commission, as part of its mandates to promote, protect and enforce the rights of all citizens as well as foreign nationals in Nigeria, undertakes several procedures of promoting and protecting the rights of children under this age because they are vulnerable.
Despite the NHRC’s commitment to child rights and Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, child abuse still thrives. This could be hinged on the law which is not being enforced coupled with jurisdictional limitations.
Child molesters and predators are left unpunished due to the law enforcers, policymakers, and judiciary negligence to act accordingly and this fuels the act.
Over the years, child rights activists opined that these laws against violence and abuse are not deterrent enough and have fuelled an infiltrating style of silence.
Unending child abuse
Usually, sick children are pampered and given preferential treatment to make their recovery faster. But in December 2021, a sick three-year-old girl was flogged to death by her 25-year-old father, Godsgift Uweghwerhen, in Aladja community, in the Udu Local Government Area of Delta State.
The suspect flogged the child with a cane and inflicted bodily injuries on her after she allegedly entered their neighbour’s apartment.
Uweghwerhen fled the scene after noticing that his daughter had given up the ghost.
Another case was that of a pre-nursery pupil of Arise and Shine Nursery and Primary School, Asaba, Delta State, Obina Udeze, who was flogged by a teacher, Emeka Nwogbo.
Though there were several versions of the story, the reasons given for flogging the child were insignificant.
The infant fell ill after the incident and died some days after.
His mother, Gift, who spoke to Sunday Reportr Door at the time of the incident, said her son returned from school with marks of strokes all over his body.
She recalled, “I took him back to the school immediately to enquire why he was beaten that much. The proprietress asked me if I knew the gravity of my son’s offence; a boy of a year and seven months. I told her I would come back the next day to know the person who beat him.
“On my way home, some pupils of the same school told me how my son was tied up and given several strokes of cane because he said he was hungry. Throughout the night, he had a running temperature. On Tuesday, I took him to the school to complain. The woman said I was disturbing the peace of the school.”
She stated that she took her son to a hospital after she left the school, adding, “On Thursday, he went into a coma. The proprietress didn’t come to check on him. That was when I involved a non-governmental organisation and the police went to the school. The woman’s son (Nwogbo) told the police that he flogged my son.
“He said he (Udeze) was playing with the tap but his mother even said my son’s hand couldn’t reach where the tap was. At the GRA Police Station, he changed the narrative; he said my son pushed another child and he beat him. The proprietress herself claimed my son was stubborn and cried a lot.
“They said she collected a box from him and complained that he cried too much. They said the proprietress’ son tied him up and started flogging him. He was my only child; my everything. He became weak and died this morning at the emergency ward of the FMC,” she stated before breaking down in tears.
Apart from maltreatment, the rate of sexual abuse and child trafficking is still on the rise. On Tuesday (February 21, 2023) four women were caught in Rivers State for kidnapping and trafficking a four-year-old boy to Aba, Abia State.
In the same state, another suspect was nabbed for trafficking a 15-year-old girl, Favour, to Lagos for prostitution after she had earlier trafficked two 16-year-old girls.
A 13-year-old promising girl became a sex toy for her guardian, a professor of Geophysics at a federal university in Ebonyi State.
He allegedly consistently pounced on the poor girl, who had no one to turn to for help.
Surprisingly, the professor, who was alleged to be a repeat sexual offender, was released after his first arrest but later rearrested after several agitations. It was later discovered that he had impregnated another teenager and made her drop out of school.
Victims narrate ordeal
At a very young age, Bola Enitan was sent to live with her aunt, who had three other children, because her father could not afford to care for her.
Her polygamous father married four wives and had 14 children, including her.
Her mum, who was the first wife, abandoned the marriage when she could no longer endure the constant conflicts in the family.
A victim of child abuse
Enitan, the first child of her mother, suffered the pain of her parents’ separation.
She was made to hawk every day in the morning before going to school and after she returned in the afternoon, and was subjected to all kinds of ill-treatment, including flogging.
Enitan told our correspondent that the hardship she went through as a child made her run away from home to marry early.
She said, “I struggled to complete my secondary education and my dream was to become a nurse but I couldn’t achieve that because I was abandoned by my parents. I experienced hell living with my aunt, though she’s dead now.
“I was beaten several times and made to hawk every day. If I didn’t make sales, I wouldn’t be given food to eat. I remember a particular incident when I still had goods to sell and I stayed out late till midnight because I knew I would be beaten mercilessly if I returned home. I was lucky to be taken home by a vigilante who saw me; unknown to me there was Oro (night ritual) that day. At that, I was still beaten to a pulp.
“The experience I had growing up made me really hard and limited. I struggled with trust issues for a long time and I was suicidal at a point. But I’m grateful to God that I’m doing well with my family and business now. If not for the kind of molestation I faced as a child, I’m sure things would have turned out better. It made me vow to give birth to the number of kids I can take care of and never let my kids live with anyone.”
A middle-aged man, Stanley Dolph, said he was sexually molested by his neighbour as a child, which turned him to a sex addict.
Recalling the incident, he said, “When I was little, my mum was a teacher and my dad travelled frequently. My siblings attended the school my mum taught in but I went to a different (private) school.
“One day, my mum took me to our neighbour’s house to stay because we were told to stay at home from school for a reason. I was sexually abused that day by the lady.
“Receiving such treatment at that age did something bad to me. I became wild and hungry for sex. It did some damage to me; it’s my first time saying this. It’s God’s grace and self-discipline that helps me control myself when I see anyone in skirt. The level of abuse children face is beyond control.”
Maltreated children suffer rejection, trauma – Psychologists
A professor of Developmental Psychology, Grace Adejuwon, says maltreatment is an aspect of child abuse that is meted out in various forms such as food, social and emotional deprivation.
According to her, abuse has adverse effects on victims both as they grow up and when they become adults.
She said, “For pre-school children, some of them could be experiencing nightmares; they just wake up at night and cannot sleep. Such children find it difficult to follow instructions; there are those who drop out of school and cannot contribute effectively to society as adults because of their experience.
“School-age children get into more trouble than other children; they have a physical ailment like a lot of headaches and stomach ache; some of them will not have friends and are withdrawn. Some may begin to feel guilty and blame themselves for contributing to their being beaten. This makes them begin to have low self-esteem and because they are withdrawn, they don’t participate in school activities and they begin to fail in school.”
The don added that maltreated teenagers usually engage in fighting, skipping school, risky sexual behaviour, alcohol, and drug use and suffered from low self-esteem.
The long-term effect of maltreatment, Adejuwon noted, was that the victims would become abusive and develop bad behaviour such as fighting, stealing, and killing.
She said, “Children who grow up not being loved or have any attachment to anyone are at a high risk of having health problems, which include mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety, heart disease, poor self-esteem and some of them develop suicidal ideation as adults.
“Each child responds differently to abuse and trauma; some are more resilient and some are sensitive but the important thing is that a child experiencing abuse can recover with a good support system or a good relationship with trusted adults. There are psychological therapies that can help them to overcome their traumatic experiences.”
The don said a study carried out among adults who had lost a parent and as a result experienced stressful life as teenagers found out that they had more health problems than those who didn’t experience such.
She urged parents who engaged domestic workers to be sensitive and create efficient communication lines with their children.
The professor explained that children who were abused had the likelihood of engaging in abusive and toxic relationships, saying if care was not taken, abusive relationships would become a cycle for them.
“Even babies get deprived because they are not well fed and taken care of, the list is endless. The society we are in now is producing more deprived children and this is not helping us to build a society that is safe for us all,” she added.
Also, a professor of Child Psychology and Early Childhood Education, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Queendoleen Obinaju, said children undergoing maltreatment in the hand of their parents were not normal.
Obinaju said, “Here in Africa, any mother, even if for an unwanted child, after that child has been born, there is a bond that is established among the mother, father, and the child, provided they live together. The only one that you can talk about is a child that may have some maltreatment maybe from a father who rejected the child during pregnancy; that way, no bond has been established. Once there is a bond that has been established, it is difficult to have maltreatment.”
On stepmothers and guardians maltreating their stepchildren and maids, Obinaju stated that such a situation could be transferred aggression or “a neurotic case.”
She added, “The aggression may not initially have been towards the children; it could be towards the husband and she is noticing that she cannot rise to the husband so she transfers the aggression to the children.
“Also, there may have been some dispute or disagreement between her and her husband while he is moving around, and now the results are these children. All these disagreements and what she remembers will be what is behind the treatment given to the children. It will get worse if the children are not submissive.”
The feelings of abandonment, rejection and trauma, the don stated, were the effects of maltreatment on children.
“Separating a child from the mother already brings some atmosphere of threat; that child is unsure of himself or herself. When a child’s confidence and self-esteem are eroded at an early stage, then the child is open to anything. It is very easy for an external force to convince him and he will bow. This is the root of joining cults, committing early atrocities, rebelling against the house, and lack of love,” the child psychologist added.
Obinaju said children’s continuous complacency with instructions could cause parents or guardians to angrily correct them.
On his part, a professor of Guidance and Counselling at the National Open University of Nigeria, Rotimi Ogidan, said any form of maltreatment was dehumanising.
He explained that it created a feeling of inferiority, which had a far-reaching effect on the wellness of an individual.
The researcher on child discipline and violence in Nigeria said, “Low or poor self-concept means that one would not be in any way interested in making any effort to achieve and whether it is a school or a vocation centre, it makes one not to aspire to achieve. It also makes one not want to interact with others and when one does that, it is as good as dying by suicide. That is why we see many of them running away from the family and joining bad gangs.”
To curb these, Ogidan said maltreatment was not a way to guide children, adding that kids who were being maltreated should open up to counsellors in their school and religious organisation.
An official of a non-profit organisation, Child Care Trust, Adeola Samuel, said abuse could be caused by lack of financial resources, good education, skills, unpreparedness to have a child, single parenting, disability, depression, mental illness, unforgiveness of a spouse or parent of the child.
“In the case of a special needs child, if the parent or caregiver doesn’t understand the child’s needs or development, it could lead to maltreatment.
“Parents and caregivers who were abused or neglected as children tend to pass it on because you can’t give what you don’t have. This is part of the reasons we take our caregivers through training that can better equip them to offer excellent services. But the number one prerequisite is love and passion,” she added.
On measures that can be put in place to stop the menace, Samuel proposed that parents, caregivers, adults, guardians, and children be sensitised to how to handle situations properly and the provisions of the Child Rights Act.
She said, “Don’t cover any evil deed done to a child, i.e., report any form of abuse.”
Report violence against children, says UNICEF
UNICEF’s former representative in Nigeria, Peter Hawkins, said violence against children could lead to psycho-social damage.
He also noted that female genital mutilation had witnessed a slight decrease but getting to zero cases was the collective objective of UNICEF.
Hawkins said, “Then, we have the general protection of children where we have children on the streets, especially girls, children under the conditions of child labour and marriage. There is a real concern about how to protect children to not be abused, to finish their education and be able to aspire for themselves.”
He further expressed concern about the violence against children who were victims of armed conflict, citing examples of attacks on schools and the kidnap of schoolchildren.
On what could be done to prevent further violence against children, Hawkins stated that everyone owed a duty to report any form of violence to the authorities.
On November 5, 2022, after the signing of the Child Protection Law in Adamawa State, UNICEF representative in Nigeria, Ms Cristian Munduate, reiterated the importance of domesticating the Child Rights Act.
In a statement on UNICEF’s website, she said, “The law aims to safeguard the rights of children by preventing and addressing the killing and maiming of children, child labour, abductions of children, sexual violence against children, and the recruitment and use of children by armed groups, among other grave violations of their rights.
“UNICEF hopes that the new law in Adamawa will be effectively implemented and that vulnerable children are supported to survive, thrive and become successful members of society.”
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