The wife of the Primate of All Nigeria, Anglican Communion, Mrs Angela Eberechukwu Ndukuba, has described May 27th as a day of celebrating the children.
“It is also a day of creating awareness on the promotion of the child’s right, child abuse, child labour, and also the right of the child to education.” She added.
Mrs Ndukuba was speaking in an interview with Advent Cable network news correspondent, Nwanne Ogechukwu, in Abuja to mark the Children Day with the theme ‘COVID-19 and emerging threats for our children and youth’.
She said though this year’s celebration was amid the lockdown period, she urged the children to know that they “are the leaders of tomorrow, hence the need for them to be responsible and be useful to their family.”
She condemned the Almajiri system where children ‘are being left to themselves, to provide for their daily needs.’
She commended the decision of the northern governors to unite the children to their parents, stressing that “one of the problems facing the north east is the use of this Almajiri by wicked politicians and evil people to perpetuate their evil plans.”
She advised parents most especially women from the north to give birth to the number of children, they would be sure of taken care of.
Mrs Ndukuba, lamented the moral decadence in the society today, which she attributed to the absence of parents in the lives of their children.
She urged parents to train their children in the ways of the lord, adding that children raised in the ways of the lord would always make the parents proud, while those left to themselves would bring shame to the parents, referring to Psalms 127: 3.
The wife of the primate further condemned the raping of minors by some older men adolescent youths calling on parents most especially mothers, to protect their female children jealously, and to stop entrusting their female child to the care of men no matter who they are to them.
She encouraged those who were victims of rape and were grown up to speak out and seek help.
Mrs Ndukuba condemned discrimination of the female child by some people, especially some fathers who preferred the male child to the female child, stressing that all children should be treated equally as no child “is more precious than the other, every child is a gift from God, so parents should accept such gift without fear or favour to any gender.”