President Goodluck Jonathan recently disclosed that 7.3 million out of the 17.5 million children in Nigeria were orphans. The President also lamented the increasing number of children orphaned by HIV/AIDS. He tasked all tiers of government to provide adequate health care services for Nigerian orphans, and also urged parents to adopt adequate nutrition and good breast-feeding practices for their babies.
Over seven million orphans in a country of 140 million people is a large number. The President must be commended for acknowledging the existence of this great challenge in Nigeria. But as far back as 2004 the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) reported that there were 43 million orphans in Sub-Sahara Africa and that 7 million of those orphans were Nigerians. Reports from other sources, which agree with this, however, lament the pitiable plight of the Nigerian orphans.
The worrisome situation is shown by the increasing number of children orphanages, number of children roaming about in the streets, children exposed to child labour, and child trafficking in the last few years in Nigeria.
The clear message in President Jonathan’s message is that in formulating policies at the various levels of governance, the pitiable situation of orphans must be great concern. In these hard socio-economic times when most parents find it extremely difficult to meet their obligations to their children, orphans must indeed be living in difficult conditions. But inspite of being the most vulnerable in the society whose pitiable and helpless conditions are easily exploited by some mindless people, orphaned children, like other children, are the hope of tomorrow. Some of the world’s great people were indeed orphans.
Therefore we have an obligation to ensure that the future of orphans is secured by tackling those factors inhibiting their proper upbringing and social welfare. Government, individuals, non-governmental and voluntary organizations should fund the children orphanages in the country. Adoption laws and policies should be made less stringent to encourage public-spirited individuals to adopt orphans.
Besides, since many Nigerian children had been orphaned by AIDS, government must strengthen its fight against the scourge. Additionally, there must be deliberate efforts to cater for children orphaned by AIDS.
The scourge apart, maternal mortality in Nigeria is still scandalously very high. The major cause of high maternal mortality in Nigeria is the deplorable primary health care relating to child-birth. Therefore by simply improving the health care system in Nigeria, government would indirectly be preserving the lives of many mothers as well as reducing the number of orphans in Nigeria.
Certainly, the protection of the world’s most vulnerable like the Nigerian orphans would require more than words on paper: it requires political will to put words into practice. It is distressing that many policies articulated on paper by successive Nigerian governments are never implemented. For example, at the National Conference on orphans and vulnerable children held in 2004 government agreed to develop a national action plan focusing on policy development, economic capacity of caregivers, education and capacity building for the Nigerian orphans. But unfortunately till date, that national action plan is yet to be implemented.
We therefore urge President Goodluck Jonathan to walk the talk to tackle the problems afflicting the Nigerian orphans and vulnerable children. At a time when the world is experiencing greater humanitarian welfare services, Nigeria must be seen to be providing succour for her numerous orphans.
The popular perception of our common humanity essentially calls for caring of the helpless and uprooted in the society. Our first responsibility to our children-whether they are sick, disabled, or orphaned children-is to ensure that they have a bright future by removing all the obstacles against their development and welfare.
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