THE UN through its Agency, United Nations Children’s Fund has lit the Abuja City Gate blue in commemoration of the World Children’s Day, with a call for governments at all levels to enforce the rights of children in Nigeria.UNICEF Communications Specialists, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, speaking the event on Tuesday night, said the lighting of Nigeria’s most iconic landmark blue to celebrate World Children’s Day, was a symbol of the need to re-commit to children’s rights and well-being.
He added that the event marked the importance of drawing leaders’ attention to children’s rights in Nigeria and around the world, saying the Abuja’s City Gate joined the Empire State Building in New York, Sydney Opera House in Australia, Petra in Jordan, the Beijing National Aquatics Center and Water Cube in China, and Eden Park in New Zealand – all national landmarks that were lit blue for children.
He said the lighting comes with a global request asking individuals to sign a global online petition asking for ‘children to be put back on the agenda.’
Njoku noted that the event was important because it marked a day that a body of the convention was put together and signed for rights and protection of children.
The event was attended by children who also called on government particularly, at the state level to domesticate and enforce the rights of children by ensuring that every child is in school, safe from harm and could fulfil their potential anywhere in the country.
Chief of Communications, UNICEF, Eliana Drakopoulos, told the children that they were brought together to celebrate the 2018 World Children’s Day, when the UN as a body has called on the world leaders to realize “your rights, implement your rights, because no one can give your rights, you have them.”
She noted that children are born with their rights to education, health, play, among others and that UNICEF remained committed to ensuring that those rights were realised by children all over the world, working with governments, civil society and the children themselves.
She noted that it was about 30 years that the Convention on the Rights of a child was signed even though no country around the world has fully realised the rights of the children.
Drakopoulos said Nigeria and most countries around the world still have a long way to go in terms of commitment to the full realization of the rights of the children, saying this underscored the need to create awareness on the rights of children and also call on leaders to implement the same.
Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Malam Muhammad Bello, who was represented at the event, described the programme as laudable as it was a platform to raise awareness on the importance of the rights of the children.
He disclosed that in the FCT, there is the Children’s Parliament, which is a voice to use to reach out to as many FCT children as possible, saying every FCT child must have a voice, where their rights are being taught and empowered to be able to stand even when their parents were not there.
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