Child’s Right Act: ‘No Infringement on the rights of parents and culture of the people’ – Hon. Gajiram

Child’s Right Act: ‘No Infringement on the rights of parents and culture of the people’ – Hon. Gajiram

The Chairman Ad-hoc Committee of the Borno state House of Assembly on the domestication of the Child’s Right Bill passed into law by the National Assembly, Hon. Mohammed Ali Gajiram has said that, the members of the Borno state house of assembly have looked into the bill and contrary to some insinuation has nowhere that the bill infringes on the rights of parents and the culture of the people.

Speaking on Friday to NEWSng after a 5 day workshop organized for the members of the Borno state house of assembly on the domestication of the child right acts at REIZ Continental Hotels in Abuja, Hon. Mohammed Ali Gajiram said the child rights act is not about giving the children the rights to sue their parents in the court of law but it is a critical guide to safeguard children from being abused.

According to him, “Borno state in the last 12 years of insurgency have seen a turn of events for families where hardship has taken toll and children are being exposed to all forms of ills as a result of lack of guidance in the event where these children lost a parent or both parents.

“Children are vulnerable even when both parents are alive. They need guidance and protection at all times. And in a situation where they lost parents, that is a worst case scenario because it is at this time that they are led either positively or negatively. Therefore, the Child Rights Act came at the right time in the history of Borno state because of the children’s vulnerability.

“This right takes care of all preventable that children may have to suffer, which includes child labour. When a child loses a parent he has to go to any length to see that he takes care of himself. This has often resulted in them meeting with people who rather than help them seek to take advantage of these children.

“Instead of a child to have education the society or rather criminal part of the society sees it as an opportunity to abuse them especially for the girl child who may suffer from sexual abuses because there is no parental control. The Child Right Acts therefore, takes care of this negativity.” Hon. Gajiram said

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Speaking on how the Borno state house of assembly is going to cascade this, he said the Assembly has two things to achieve before domesticating the Child Right Act.

“When we return home, we are going to invite critical stakeholders who are our community leaders to sensitize them on this bill so that they can as well go back to the community to sensitize them. Then we are also going to have a public hearing in this respect before anything can be done.”

Hon. Mohammed Gajiram however said the word ‘right’ had often been misunderstood among people living in the community in Borno state. It creates a lot of insinuation when people talk about child’s right and people think that they can no longer have the right to control their children.  

“Having seen these coming the international community and the International NGO comes together to partner with us to see how best we can sensitize the community on the content of the bill so that we can together help in bringing the Borno child and help them overcome some of the challenges situations have presented following the conflict and accompanying trauma and hardship particularly for children.”

Child’s Right Act: ‘No Infringement on the rights of parents and culture of the people’ – Hon. Gajiram