By Ene Osang
Abuja
As Nigerian children celebrate their day tomorrow, citizens have been charged to remember and always pray for the release and safe return of the remaining abducted Chibok school girls who are still under Boko Haram captivity.
Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Senator Aisha Jumai Alhassan, made the call while briefing the press ahead the Children’s Day tomorrow.
She said the theme of this year’s celebration, “Child Protection and the Sustainable Development Goals: Issues and Opportunities,” was specifically chosen to “create awareness on stakeholders on the need to protect and promote the rights of the Nigerian child towards the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
“As we celebrate Children’s Day, I urge us all to remember the Chibok girls that are still in captivity, they need your prayers. We cannot discuss the issue of child protection in Nigeria without mentioning the case of the abducted Chibok girls.
“I wish to use this opportunity to also urge the security agencies to do all that is humanly possible to bring back the remaining girls to us and their families,” she said.
The minister said the SDGs “cannot be achieved without addressing issues and concerns on the welfare and wellbeing of children.”
“Poverty eradication, hunger, inequality and the provision of quality education and healthcare services will be measured by how much children are protected and cared for within a more secured and violent free environment.”
She also lamented the rate of Violence Against Children (VAC), saying “this crime has continued to increase even with the measures been taken to stem it.”
She, therefore, called on parents, guardians and all involved in taking care of children to ensure that “they are protected,” even as she said the violence had remained “because it is being committed by close relatives and friends on vulnerable children.”
