Mr Ibrahim Sesay, Chief of Child Protection, United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), has called on incoming administration to work towards returning about 10.2 million children to school.
Sesay made the call at the Children’s Day celebration in Abuja on Saturday.
While commending government effort in tackling the problem, the UNICEF chief of child protection said more needed to be done.
Sesay, who said UNICEF was happy on the celebration of Children’s Day, added that besides the challenge of education, Nigerian children were faced with other problems.
“About 43 per cent of children had no birth identity 98million in multi dimension poverty, five million with no basic hygiene and sanitation,” he said.
According to him, it is important for government to intensify effort for free quality education, child rights protection amongst others.
Sesay said, “When we protect children’s lives we protect their common future.”
The News Agency of Nigeria(NAN) reports that Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in their goodwill messages called for protection of the Nigerian child from harmful practices.
According to them, the protection of children had become more paramount in view of the level of violence and abuse they were exposed to.
Meanwhile, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency(NDLEA) and the Nigeria Police Force expressed commitment to safeguarding the lives of Nigerian children.
—
