Paediatricians seek domestication of Child Right Act in 11 northern states

The Paediatrician Association of Nigeria has appealed to the 11 states yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act 2003 enacted by the federal government to reduce child abuse in the country.

President of the association, Dr Edward Alikor, said this in a press briefing marking the 52nd/53rd Annual General Meeting/ Scientific Conference of the association, tagged PANCONF UYO 2022 on Tuesday.

Alikor said the inability of the 11 states mostly in the northern part of the country to domesticate the child rights act was a serious issue to the paediatrician association.

According to him, the 11 states yet to domesticate the Act include Kebbi, Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Jigawa, Zamfara, Bauchi, Yobe, Gombe, Borno and Adamawa.

He said domestication of the Act would increase child protection and reduce the chances of child abuse in the country.

Our correspondent reports that the theme of the conference is – “Child Abuse: An Escalating Menace in Nigeria.”

He said the fundamental principle of the association is to look after children and their welfare wherever they are found in the country.

He said six out of every ten Nigerian children suffer one form of abuse or the other, which calls for serious concern among stakeholders.

“Nigeria is notorious child abuse, it is estimated that six out of ten children in this country have suffered one form of abuse or the other. For boys, 10 per cent and for girls 25 per cent, four out of every ten. So, you can see it’s a major issue.

“Many of the 11 states are in the Northern path of the country, help us advocates for domestication of the law and its execution. It is the relevance of what we have gathered to discuss in Uyo, ” Alikor said.