Vice President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has said that the Federal Government is pushing state governments to adopt the Child Rights Act and the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPPA).
Professor Osinbajo said the federal government noticed that just 26 states have adopted the Child Rights Act, while 29 states have adopted the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act.
The vice president disclosed this on Tuesday in Abuja as he declared open a two-day national dialogue on girls with the theme “National Dialogue on Girls: Towards a girl-friendly Nigeria.
The program was organised by the African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) in collaboration with Women Arise for Change Initiative and the Africa-wide Movement for Children.
Osinbajo said the choice of theme “towards a girl friendly Nigeria is an inspired one because it underscores the point that because of the multi-faceted dimensions of the challenges that girls face in all aspects of life.
“Over the years, the government has acknowledged that the best interest of a child shall be of paramount consideration in all its actions, and this was demonstrated with the enactment of the child right act in 2003, and more recently, the violence against persons prohibition act.
“Today, we have noticed that states of the federation have been very slow in domesticating these laws. So at the National Economic Council which is the monthly meeting of the governors that I have the privilege of chairing, we have made a point of working with the states to ensure that they adopt these Acts in their states and we have also put in place a monitoring mechanism to push and harass the states as much as we can to get them to adopt these legislations.
“This led to the creation of the Human Capital Development Unit which is a special NEC project headed by a Special Adviser to track the implementation of relevant policies and laws and track domestication of legislations
“We have also committed in words and deeds to education so that we can ensure that no child is denied access to free basic education. We believe that free and compulsory education of girls is game changing in many respects and it has been empirically shown to positively impact the age of marriage and even maternal and infant mortality.
“Since 2016, the Rule of Law Advisory Team in the Presidency, and that is located in my office, has been taking a range of steps towards achieving a strong justice responds in supporting women and girls, we for strategic partnership with relevant stakeholders, local and international all of whose commitment have proven very valuable in supporting our efforts to succeed.
He said the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns have been empirically shown to have increased school dropout and also low income families have increasingly experienced child marriages, adolescent childbearing and gender based violence.
The Vice President however, said the sharp drop in income for many families in Nigeria, in many low income countries and all over the world have resulted in families making choices that almost always disfavour the girl child.
“Of course female children have suffered disproportionately from the displacement and deprivation from insurgency and conflicts in the North East and other parts of the country”, he noted.
Professor Osibanjo revealed that to ensure effective coordination of responses to cases of sexual and gender based violence, the Rule of Law Team in his office supported the establishment of sexual and gender based violence response teams across the country.
In her opening remarks at the event, the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dame Pauline Tallen, described the dialogue as a clarion call on government as well as well-meaning individuals to support the girl child.
She said despite the milestones already reached, the girl child still faces a lot of challenges such as early marriage, rape and other forms of child abuse. There is no day I do not receive such reports not only in Abuja but also all over the country.
President, Women Arise and host of the dialogue, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin, in her keynote address, commended the Vice President for his passion for the girl child.
Okei-Odumakin while recognizing the progress so far made, said persistent challenges still faced the Nigerian girls.
“Nigeria has one of the highest child marriage prevalence rates in Africa and our girls are also at high risk of abduction, displacement and even death due to insecurity and conflict caused by insurgents and armed criminals. Covid-19 pandemic had made things worse”, she added.
She listed case after case of girl abuse that her organisation, Women Arise, had handled all over the country “to show the horrendous violence that the girl child suffers in Nigeria”
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