Daily Independent Online.
*
Wednesday, June 16, 2004.
Child abuse endangers society’s future
Since children of today are expected to
be future leaders, the society needs to put in more efforts towards giving them
good upbringing.
In Nigeria, today, child abuse and molestation are
fast becoming common. This is in the form of maltreatment, in other words,
putting a child under undue subjection. Under such conditions, the child gets a
prejudiced view of the society. Consequently, he might find it difficult to
function acceptably.
Molestation can be in various forms, including
physical attacks, sexual assaults, psychological abuse, etc. In these days of
sexual perversion, both male and female children are at risk of sexual abuse,
though the fact remains that the latter are more at risk. Socially, children are abused when they
turn breadwinners at tender age. Such include kids of school age who are denied
education but are made to hawk on the streets to augment family finances. Worse
still, some are made to beg for alms. Another form of abuse is child
abandonment. This is no less an evil.
I appeal to the Federal Government to give every
Nigerian child his due as enshrined in the Constitution. Only then can we
effectively curb the evil called child abuse.
M.
H. Omawumi,
Mass
Comm. Dept.,
IMT,
Enugu,
Enugu
State.
