Children’s Day: Jigawa children parliament urges implementation of Child Protection Law

The Jigawa state Children’s Parliament has appealed to the state government to put the necessary machinery in place for the implementation of the child protection law in the state.

The speaker of the Parliament, Zulaiha Muhammad, made the appeal when she led other parliamentarians on a courtesy visit to Governor Muhammad Badaru in Dutse on Friday.

They were accompanied on the visit by a delegation from the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development and the Jigawa State Social Protection Platform (JISOP).

Muhammad, represented by the leader of the parliament, Al-Mustapha Musa, said the children parliament was an organisation established to guide children to be informed about leadership from their early age.

“We want to request your administration to put necessary machinery in place that will enable the law to be implemented so as to salvage the teeming children in Jigawa state.

“Members of this parliament and the entire children of Jigawa state will remain grateful to your administration, being one of the states in the forefront to put the children act into law,” he said.

In his contribution, the clerk of the parliament, Jabir Haruna, called on the governor to come up with policies and programmes that will check out-of-school children in the state.

“We want you to do something to address the issue of out-of-school children. Every child of school age is supposed to be in school, because we are tomorrow’s leaders,” he said.

Responding, the governor, represented by the Head of the Civil Service, Alhaji Hussaini Aliyu, expressed the commitment of his administration to championing the cause of children.

“It is a welcome development that the Children’s Parliament exists as a platform for children to express themselves and participate in decision making.

“And I want to assure you that the child law will soon be implemented,” the governor said.

On the issue of out-of-school children, Badaru said his administration was still doing its best to ensure that all children of school age in the state attend school.

“Since its inception in 2015, this administration has come up with various policies and programmes toward addressing the out-of-school-children issue.”