Rivers celebrates African child day
By Otikor Samuel
The Permanent Secretary of the state Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation, Mrs. Louisa Ezinwo has called on parents and guardians to ensure that they protect the rights of the child.
She made the call on June 16, 2009 at State School Umoukwa Omuma in Omuma local government on the occasion of the International Day of the African Child.
Speaking on the theme: “Africa Fit for Children: A Call for Accelerated Actions Towards their Survival,” the Permanent Secretary represented by the Director in the department of child welfare in the ministry, Mrs. Grace Doku-Gin said children have rights of survival, development, participation and protection by members of the society.
Mrs. Ezinwo however regretted the fact that over the years children have been victims of discrimination, exploitation, abuse, trafficking as well as denied good health and access to quality education and, therefore, called on the society at large to make the world fit for children to survive.
In her address, the Speaker of Rivers State Children Parliament, Hon. Helen Ataisi Clifford decried the degree of injustices being meted out on children.
Hon. Clifford described as the height of human injustice, the rate at which newly born children are found at refuse sites. In her words: “Unfortunately for these little ones, fiction is often transformed into fact. The child himself becomes the character in the terrifying reality setting in which he/she is tortured, raped, maimed and sometimes killed”.
She lamented that 33 years after South African police opened fire on about 10,000 school children in which over 500 died in Soweto, brutality on children had continued unabated in the continent
The speaker said it was unfortunate that children are faced with threatening future because of the ills the society has subjected them to and also called on parents to rise up to their responsibility of protecting the child.
She equally asked the state House of Assembly to domesticate the child right act.
In his speech the Deputy Speaker of Omuma Legislative Assembly, Hon. Kelechi Johnson commended the state government and Ministry of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation for their choice of Omuma local government as the venue for this year's celebration of the International Day of the African child.
Highlight of the occasion was drama presentation by the Rivers State Children Parliamentarians directed by Obinna Ebogidi.
