 The Nigerian Association of Women Journalists Award has called for an end to all forms of harmful practices that affect the progress and development of Nigerian children. The scholars contain a statement by the association's national secretary, Helene Udofa Inebadan, even as Nigerian joints the global community to mark the 2020 International Day of the African Child. Udofa stated that the award was particularly worried about harmful practices against Nigerian children happening in different parts of the country. Joining us tonight on the news is Mohamed Adimola Head Research and Project, a modest love initiative here in Lagos. Glad to have you on the news tonight. Moving to the discussion tonight, the theme for this year is eliminating harmful practices affecting children. How do you think we can protect African children? That's a very broad statement, but from the angle of a modest love initiative, I am going to stress the key issue that has precipitated a lot of harmful practices against the African child, which is the practice of hurrying. Yes. And in simple layman terms, hurrying children across their critical learning periods in life across their developmental milestones actually does more harm than good as perceived by society. So the horrid child syndrome, which actually conceptualizes the practice of hurrying is essentially saying that we promote stress-related behaviors across childhood based on our expectations of our children and also based on our own selfish interests. So a child is meant to spend a particular number of time at each stage of development is rushed. The common one you see is in the school system, where you jump classes or you skip classes or a child is promoted for just the basis of academic performance alone and whereas the total development of the child is actually essential for a functional adult in the future. Okay. Now there's so much insecurity in Nigeria, especially in the North, and this has affected education, especially for children. I'm forgetting that these children have become target for kidnappers especially. How do you think these Northern children especially can be able to compete with their counterparts in other parts of the world? Okay. Well, before we moved into the formal system of education, we had the informal system, which was very effective towards preparing a child for the future because the essence of education is to prepare an individual towards being a functional adult, towards the expectations in his or her career path. The children in the North, we have several other measures to education. There's homeschooling, okay, there could be also make-up shift centers for education within communities. I think with the crisis in the North, it's also a wake-up call to say that parents should not just dump their children in schools. They have the primary responsibility to cater for, to protect and to care for their children. What we see today is parents just orally pushing their children to the school system to grow, whereas they have their primary responsibility. I think from the government, from the part of the government, we could advocate that policies be made, especially in those crisis areas, that in this age of technology, virtual education can be implemented, you know. So I don't know the rates of technology adoption, but I know every most unharved child or youth in the North has access to a phone device. I think looking in that direction would be another great way to actually combat the challenges of physical education in schools in the Northern Nigeria. Alright, so I want to ask, do you think the African society has in a way contributed to the challenges that the African child is facing currently, and how do we stop them? Well, absolutely. The question is, is Africa fit for the African child, okay, and if you look at it within that context, leadership has failed in ensuring that the generational issues we have is not promoted. We've had several vices in the society in recent times beyond the security and crisis across all levels, from the family level, school level, and even at the societal level. The problem is, from the cultural angle, Africa is not looking within to appreciate what she has. We are just infusing and just adopting cultures that are not fit for the African child. The collectivistic nature of the African system, the group-mind principle, the way of we, the Ubuntu strategy, is what has actually kept the African system together till now, is what has actually formed the social support system, the protective factors that the African child benefits from the family level to the societal level, is disintegrating at a very fast rate, probably due to agents of globalization. You know, today, these days, we don't get to see the connection between the African child and his or her parents. We don't see the connection between the African child and his neighbors. We don't see the connection within the African child and his or her society. Take Nigeria as a case study. There's an identity crisis among Nigerian children. To even be proud of yourself, to be proud of calling yourself Nigerian citizen is a problem. And that's why, if you are given the option to leave this country or to stay, the fastest route is to leave, because you haven't found a meaning or something to connect you to the purpose of being a Nigerian, okay? So leadership has failed. However, it's not just at the top. Our parenting system, our family system has also failed the African child. And that is where the problem starts from, the family system. All right, so finally, before we round up this segment, how can we raise awareness on the situations that are facing the African children? Yes, the Mothers Love Initiative has been over the past six years trying to advocate towards ample practices, especially in the area of already the child, okay? Because this forms the basis of what the child becomes. Now, there has to be a balance in the advocacy levels and in the policies and practices. Advocacy level in the sense that it's not just about protecting the girl child. The boy child is also endangered. So we have to sensitize the African system. On the importance of giving the boy child adequate attention also. Also, it's also for us to also celebrate our fathers. Fathers would. Fathers is something that has also been endangered in the parenting system in Africa. Fathers have not really been felt in the home and it's also affecting the African child. So we at Mothers Love are trying to create intervention programs at several levels to ensure that there's a balance in the kind of solutions we prefer to the African child. Because if you say you focus on one aspect and you don't focus on the other aspect, you find out that, for example, if you neglect the boy child and you focus on the girl child, the girl child is still going to have to marry the boy child. That's why you see today women would marry men and later on those men batter them. Why would an irresponsible adult male probably maim or batter his or wife? It means something is lacking. And that's why we say, all in a child, without focusing on the social components, the emotional components of that child, is going to later on lead to more harm than good. And parents come from the position of, I'm giving you the best education, I'm working so hard, but they are not giving quality attention to their children. So the lack of the quality childhood experience for a child is what leads to developmental trauma and other vices that we see when they get married. In fact, most parents who see today are not fit to be parents. That's how sad it is. And if we come back to the policies or the theme of the day of the African child is to say policy implications. And the direction of policy implications is to start looking at how to also remediate and prevent this practice from going forward. For example, we at Mother's Love Initiative advocate that parenting practices should be taught at tertiary levels for would-be parents who have actually lacked the rituals of childhood because they've been rushed. The basics of learning how to become responsible men, how to become responsible women has been eroded. So also is the objectification of the girl child. Girl child are now seen as commodities. They are seen as, they themselves see themselves as commodities due to to miseducation, okay? So we are trying to use advocacy and also research to ensure that policies are actually reviewed and enacted. And also in the school system, the common practices of OREN is amidst the private school system. So we are advocating that government should look into control measures to ensuring that children enter school at age-appropriate levels. And they are also given appropriate curriculums and also that there is no stress information overload. Children are given academic workload. They go home, they are still giving take-home assignments. They still attend extra, you know, extramural lessons. What is the time there for them to actually even cool off, you know? So there's a lot around this, but... Thank you so much for your contribution from this night, Mr. Demola. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.