Speaker of the 10th House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas averred that Nigeria has all the relevant laws to tackle the menace of child abuse and child labour, but lack the political will to achieve the feat.
Hon. Abbas stated this in Abuja while responding to questions posed by some public Secondary Schools Students drawn from the six Area Councils of Abuja, in commemoration of Nigeria’s 64th Independence Day Anniversary and his 59th birthday celebration.
The Speaker who started his teaching career after graduating from the Secondary School, also vowed to return to the classroom after quitting active politics.
He said: “somebody asked about whether I want to be a teacher again, of course, I’ve never taken …politics as a profession, I tell you this. That is why I’m always in constant with my base where i came from.
“And i tell you with a sense of sincerity. the day I leave politics, if I still have some strength in me, where i’m going back is the classroom. Because that is where i have the passion, that is where i started my life and that is one thing that gives me a lot of satisfaction. So, yes after politics, I am going back to the classroom.”
While responding to question on stopping child abiuse and child labour in the country, Hon. Abbas said: “I jut want you to know that all the relevant laws that we need to enforce child abuse and child labour are there in our books.
“What we lack is just the political will for the government and for the community to ensure that it is enforced.
“What you can do for us and what we can do for you is to ensure that we report issues of child abuse or child labour wherever we find one.
“And the good thing about the National Assembly is that we don’t just rely on the institutions of government alone, we also have our own public complaint commission, which is an Agency established to ensure that we receive complaints from the grassroot to the National Assembly for us to also process this and also interact with the Executive.
“What i want to challenge you is while the legislature is doing its own beat by ensuring that we come up with good laws, you and the society have tour own roles to play by ensuring that it is implemented and it is enforced.
It is one thing to make laws but the implementation if it is not there is as good as nothing.
“And today, as far as we are concerned in the National Assembly, we have all the laws that we need that are also in consonance with international norms to prosecute issues of child abuse and child labour.
“But reflecting back on how we pride ourselves in child labour, in most parts of the country, not all, particularly the northern part, I think it is the issue of culture which we need to actually continue to orient ourselves, our children and our leaders that the time has come when we need to change some of our cultures.
“Cultures of marrying without financial capacity to take care of family is one of the attributes or reasons why today we have a lot of Out-of-School Children, why we have a lot of Almajiris roaming the streets ans why we have lot of families who are unable to take care of their children, thereby taking them out to other houses, to other families to either take care of them for them or to go and generate income for the family.”
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