United States of America (US)-based Nigerian-born Physician, Dr. Boris Emeka Oji, has decried what he considers the sorry state of children in the country, noting that “being a child in Nigerian today, aside from it being a nightmare, is almost like being an endangered species.”
Dr. Oji, a Board-certified Physician and the Chief of Medicine at Banner DelWebb Medical Center in Phoenix Arizona, USA, in a statement on Children’s Day, celebrated annually on May 27, noted that whereas children are supposed to be cared for and protected, the reality for most Nigerian children is otherwise.
He said that presently, many of them can’t freely play outside because it’s not safe; that many can’t go to school without being kidnapped, that many can’t sleep safely at home with both eyes closed because of bandits, and that many are not sure of three square meals because their parents can’t go to farms anymore nor to the market because it’s unsafe.
Insisting that “you know the future of a country and the untold character of a people by how they treat their children and the most vulnerable amongst them,” Dr. Oji, a philanthropist of note, stressed that “a Nigerian child that was born in 2010 has seen the worst of the country.”
According to founding international President of ZESPRONET, an association of Alumni of the Abia State University (ABSU), Uturu, Abia State, “the truth is that every day was a future…. today was yesterday’s future.” He noted further that “youths are supposed to be hopeful, feel invincible, untouchable, believe that their future is so bright, that they can accomplish anything they set their minds on,” based on factors such as their homes, the mentors and role models they have, and their environment.
He said that though youthfulness, “comes with exuberances and inquisitiveness, both bordering on innocence and ignorance, but driven by the can do spirit!,” this youthfulness, which most adults experienced now sounds like utopian nonsense as most Nigerian youths have been denied the joy of truly being youths.
One consequence of this denial, he said, is the apathy that is seen in every election cycle as the youths seem not to believe that their votes will count and that governance has anything in stock for them. “Do you blame them? What good parents squander their children’s inheritance right in front of them and mortgage their future and still want respect from the children?
“We have forward-sold millions of barrels of oil and borrowed against them; we have borrowed so much money (N168Trillion) with average maturity of 30 years, meaning that these children we have denied their innocence will be 30 and 40 years and start paying back the loans we took today to play politics with, the attendant effect on their economy and on the exchange rate of that time only God knows” he said.
He noted that “we made some promises: Health for all by 2020; House for all by 2020; Food for all by 2020. We thought 2020 will never come. It came and passed and all the sectors are worse off today than 20 years ago. So today when we say Happy Children’s Day what does that mean to Nigerian children? Are they really happy to be children today? Or are they happy with the renewed hope that their childhood and youthfulness will start after we get re-elected into different offices in 2027?
“Your guess is as good as mine” he insisted, warning that people must not think that “because these ravenous criminals have not gotten to your community that your children are safe. No. As long as hundreds of children are sleeping in the forest today, kidnapped against their will, no child in Nigeria is safe! Are you still saying Happy Children’s Day?” he asked rhetorically.
