Children running after cars, begging unacceptable – Lawmaker

House of Representatives member, Bamidele Salam, said he is pained seeing children in Abuja running after cars and begging for money daily.

Salam, the founder of the Children of Africa Leadership and Values Development Initiative (CALDEV), called for collaboration between the Government and relevant stakeholders to enforce the provisions of the Child Rights Act across the country.

Salam gave the charge in Abuja during the flag-off of the 5-day National Children Leadership Conference, 2024, organised by CALDEV, and pledged the resolve of his outfit towards the implementation of various programmes and projects aimed at improving the well-being of young Nigerians.

The lawmaker who chairs the House Committee on public account stressed the need for the implementation of the Child Rights Act in the country.

He said despite the domestication of the Child Rights Act by 32 states of the Federation, there are no tangible efforts to ensure children live a meaningful and productive life.

The lawmaker said the situation is worsened by the fact that parents found wanting have never been taken to court to face the consequences of breaching the laws.

He disclosed that CALDEV organized a series of other programmes to mentor children and empower them with opportunities for leadership education, scholarships, and access to basic health care benefits.

“We have partnerships that we have entered into with the National Human Rights Commission on children advocacy, we have partnerships with the National Commission for out-of-school children, National Commission for Almajiri education, the Universal Basic Education Commission partnering with us in making books published under the African Children Leadership Series available to schools all over the Federation,” he said.

“We had almost 50,000 copies that the Universal Basic Education Commission bought to distribute to schools all across the country. These are some of the initiatives.”

The Chairman, House Committee on Youth Development, Martins Etim, who commended Salam, noted that the initiative has been in existence since 2015.