A video went viral after the presidential and National Assembly elections held on 25/2/2023 of a young girl of about six years old in school with posters of the Labour Party (LP) Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi , in Lagos.
The female teacher was interrogating her. The enterprising young girl was said to be selling the posters at N50.00 each. Apparently it was after she was discovered that the teacher decided to video the questioning of the innocent girl. The girl was sitting down and some of the posters were spread and the teacher was raising her voice lamenting that the girl was “going against the wishes of Lagosians.”
She was asked where she got the posters from and she said she bought them from somebody at N5.00 each, if I can recall.
This was totally uncalled for. A teacher is supposed to teach and treat pupils equally, not to disgrace and expose them to ridicule just because of politics. The irony of it is that the young girl might not have known what she did would be taken as wrong. May be selling of items in school if it is not allowed, but not because of the candidate.
Therefore having interrogated the young girl as done to criminals you see making confessions or being paraded by the police, the teacher sent out her video to damage the girl by portraying her as ‘bad’ for “going against the wishes of Lagosians.”
When I watched the video I felt for the little girl and I was angry that the teacher abused her position and exposed her to the public.
What if the girl’s parents take her to court, what would she do? Perhaps it is only then the gravity of what she had done would down on her. And making such an example will serve as a lesson to others.
While discussing this issue, some talked about the Child’s Rights Act to protect children.
However in some cases sending videos of children without their parents’ permission may prove to be positive, but only if they are about good things, such as portraying uncommon intelligence or wit and are meant to project good image and garner public support.
Success easily comes to mind. The little school girl in Warri, Delta State who was sent home from school after being flogged for not paying school fees in 2019. A neighbour took the video and Success said, “They will flog tire.”
Some people rushed to donate money to sponsor her education. Still some parents may not take kindly to such things if their consent is not sought.
The coming of social media has made everyone a journalist who feels that he can take pictures or videos of places and people and send them out.
Let’s say you are walking and see some children playing, you take their pictures or video and send it out and say, “Look at these children, they are not going to school.” Or you say, “These children are dirty, their parents don’t take care of them.”
What gives you the right to do that? Just because they are children and there is no adult around you take advantage of them and put them at risk.
Through this children are exposed to kidnappers, child molesters and ritual killers and even to the envious where a successful adventure is concerned.
Even those that steal children may have a way of finding those children, steal them and sell them.
Children are a trust to us and we should lookout for them, especially for those that are entrusted with children while their parents are not there such as teachers. That is why when an avoidable tragedy or something disgraceful happen in a school people take it hard because parents leave their children in the care of the school wholeheartedly.
Their rights should be protected and being a teacher does not give you the right to take a video of your pupil, ridiculing her and send it out without qualms.
This should be made an issue so that the authorities will find a way to punish those people in order to protect the children.
