As Nigeria celebrates Children’s Day today with the theme: “Protect the rights of the child in the face of violence and insecurity: End child marriage.
Here are some take home thoughts everyone should note regarding our children and their fundamental rights: That;
- They are given to us to “Nurture” not “Rupture”
A good source of knowledge book reminds us that children are a good heritage and happy is he whose quivers are filled with them. Children are indeed a gift from God. So if you didn’t experience miss carriage all through your life time, or didn’t have him or her die a still birth, or better still didn’t die while giving birth to one; you took in, delivered and successfully brought home alive, then you have more reasons to be thankful to the giver of life and nurture all children given to you or put in your care directly or indirectly with gratitude and a heart of service.
- They are given to us to “Empower” not “Disempower”
As we celebrate Children’s Day today, we should reaffirm our commitments to see to the well-being of our children, equip and empower them rather than see them as sex slaves, transform them into agents of positive change rather than means of family livelihood, and off course empower them to be weapons for a better tomorrow rather than “a being” stripped off of all sense of belonging.
- They are given to us to give a sense of “Integration” not “Disintegration”
I love to reminisce on two major movies produced by our Nollywood talented actresses ; “Dry” by Stephanie Linus and “Wives on Strike” by Omoni Oboli, reminding the society that children as a heritage deserve empowering and not disempowering by allowing some low-brain-norm called, child-bride to disintegrate our children from the rest of their peers and stripe them of their fundamental rights which are; protection against violence, proper education, good health, a peaceful environment to grow and mix with other age groups amongst other basic life amenities which should rather be a priority in the heart of every well-meaning parent.
- They are given to us to give “Hope” not make “Hopeless”
Finally, let’s give these kids a hope, that “Nigeria” their father’s land is a place to be in, grow in and build in; not a land to run from!
God bless the Nigerian child, God bless Nigeria and God bless us all!!!
Happy Children’s Day!
Photocredits
deepbrownkinks
