As Nigeria joins the rest of the world to mark the International Day of the Girl, Penninah Ugonyork, Legal Councillor and Case Manager of the Axis of Hope Initiative has described Nigeria as a place where the Child Rights Act, which includes the rights of the girl child, is vehemently violated.
Addressing the press on Friday to mark the International Day of the Girl, Penninah Ugonyork, Legal Councillor and Case Manager, said the Nigerian society fails to recognize that sexual abuse, amongst others, is not the only violation of the rights of the girl child under the Child’s Right Act. Under Section 11 of the Childs Right Act, 2003.
The legal council noted that the provisions of the act is clear on the right to the wellbeing of the girl child.
“Daily and abysmally, we live a Nigerian society where Section 11 of the Childs Right Act is contravened and the society applaud the offenders and hold them in esteem for putting the girl child in check, for reminding her she is ‘mere’ and undeserving, for instilling the second class instincts in her and teaching her to belong to the ‘invisible’ and be grateful to be awarded invisible.
“Our battle is not necessarily against the male vices that orchestrate these patriarchal ideals, the worry is the Women that promote and sit at the steering of these wheels.
“The Nigerian society often okays the woman to derive completion in subjecting the girl child to undignifying psychological and emotional abuse.
“The woman is patted on the back for subscribing to the male dominated societal expectation and she glories in her perceived approval and lobbies to maintain her earned approval.
“We cannot therefore close our eyes to these societal menace. Our solution lies in reorienting the Nigerian Woman and this begins with the girl child.
“A broken girl metamorphoses into a broken woman and the cycle continues,” she warned.
According to her, the future of the Nigerian Woman is the Nigerian girl child, “it is the broken girl child who has been told she is daft and stupid and worthless because she came to the world as a woman,” she said.
She maintained that it is the duty of the women, to show the young woman the way and their place to ensure the prosecution of offenders to the section and obtain justice for the Nigerian girl child.
“It is the duty of the Nigerian Woman to secure her future; the Nigerian girl child. We must remember that the girl child is plagued with a plethora of challenges and lives in fear of violence almost from conception.
“We owe her a duty to ensure she grows into an uninitimidated, unbroken and whole woman, an ideal Nigerian woman.
“Girls cannot realize this vision alone. They need allies who listen to and respond to their needs. With the right support, resources and opportunities, the potential of the world’s more than 1.1 billion girls is limitless.
“And when girls lead, the impact is immediate and wide reaching: families, communities and economies are all stronger, our future brighter.
“It is time to listen to girls, to invest in proven solutions that will accelerate progress towards a future in which every girl can fulfil her potential.”
