While some ladies are praying for the fruit of the womb, some are discarding through toilets and maltreating their children, not minding the pathetic cry for survival from the innocent child, due to reasons best known to them, Timothy Opaluwa writes
In the early hours of the day in Fabiyi Street, Okota- isolo, Lagos, Mrs Margret Chukwuma, a trader woke up to prepare her children for school. Surprisingly, when she went to fetch water outside the house, she saw a beautiful baby wrapped in a polythene bag and kept by the gutter on the street. Moved by compassion at the cry of the child, she took him in her arms.
Mama Blessing was later surrounded by sympathizers and onlookers who were shocked and angry as they asked one another: what mother on earth could have exposed the innocent baby to die? Was she insane? What is the world turning into? Advised by good-hearted neighbours, she reported the case at the police station.
Despite the outcry and efforts of government at all levels to curb the menace of abandoning children, child abandonment which seems to become a daily occurrence has been on the increase. Dropping points include garbage dump sites, cemeteries, uncompleted buildings, mosques, churches and at the entrance of roads near orphanages.
Experts have said that one of the reasons for the increase in this phenomenon is obviously the protracted economic crisis in the country and the attendant widespread poverty. “The pervasive level of unemployment in particular has negative implications for positive family values, exacerbating the incidence of single mothers, unwanted pregnancies, high divorce rates, teenage delinquency, prostitution as well as alcohol and drug abuse that result, among other causes, in abandoned babies,” they said.
Roaming aimlessly on the streets are some of these children; hawking and scavenging for survival, because they have no one to cater to them. Also, Education seems to be a luxury, one with which they do not have access to it.
The foundation of every child is very important, as this will determine their future. These cases of desertionare not caused by natural factors as most are as a result of human factors.
Most of these abandoned children’s future have been truncated either by natural, emotional or mostly through selfish decisions.
It is never the wish of a child to come to this world to suffer, yet, some children find themselves in this ugly situation. Disturbed by the rate of child abandonment, the Managing Trustee of Agape Homes, Lagos, Mrs Faith Okpe, said incident’s of child abandonment had risen.
“Child abandonment cases have been on the increase overtime. Causes include many social and cultural factors as well as mental illness.
“Poverty is often a root cause of child abandonment. Persons in cultures with poor social welfare systems who are not financially capable of taking care of a child are more likely to abandon him/her,” Okpe noted.
Corroborating Okpe, a nurse in Suleja General Hospital who pleaded anonymity told LEADERSHIP Weekend that the case of dumping and abandoning children is getting intolerable, as this happens virtually every day in the society.
“It is pathetic that mothers, who are expected to be the saviours of their children, are the ones committing this wicked act. Sometimes I wonder why some ladies would carry a baby in their wombs for nine months, addedwith the pains during labour, only for them to dump the child by the roadside, without remorse or a thought to what will happen to the child afterwards. The umbilical cord that ought to be the interminable connection between a mother and her child seems to have been misplaced,” she stated.
Adding, the midwife said, “Child abandonment is not only a consequence of an unwanted pregnancy. There are several factors that can lead to child abandonment.
“In most cases, what leads to child abandonment are the parents, especially for under aged pregnancies. With the economic situation of the country alongside the stigma attached to unwanted pregnancy and inability to meet the needs of their children may lead to being frustrated, thereby making such parents to abandon such children.
“It is not necessary for parents to dump a child by the roadside before they abandon their children. Some even abandon their children at the hospitals after birth because they cannot afford to take care of them when they are eventually discharged. Most of the parents we have today have in one way or the other neglected their responsibilities to their children, thereby fasaking them to an unkownfate. That is why couples are urged to have family planning so as to avoid giving birth to children they cannot cater for.”
For Mrs Bimbola Ade-Ayeni, who manages Future Stars Orphanage, the abandonment of children is a menace still being tackled by government and private organizations in Nigeria.
“It is worrisome that when these mothers abandon these children, they leave them to die. They desertthem in places where they cannot be found like in bags in dustbins. So, it is heart-breaking that some of these children never get found and eventually die,” Ade-Ayeni said.
Analysts averred that the effect of abandonment on children is damning. “Without parental care and protection, they fall into wrong hands. It is a known fact that unscrupulous elements continually scout the streets of major cities in Nigeria, looking for new recruits into their gang. They lure these unsuspecting children into criminal acts under the guise of helping them.
“Many end up with such gangs becoming robbers, rapists, kidnappers or killers. For the girls, they are forced into prostitution and often brutalized. Some may die in the hands of ritualists while others end up being single mothers who may likely abandon their children just like they were abandoned thereby further entrenching this menace into the societal fabric,” they said.
The Child Rights Legislation in Nigeria Act (2011) provides for freedom from discrimination on the grounds of belonging to a particular community or ethnic group, place of origin, sex, religion, the circumstances of birth, disability, deprivation or political opinion; and it states that the dignity of the child shall be respected at all times.
“No Nigerian child shall be subjected to physical, mental or emotional injury, abuse or neglect, maltreatment, torture, inhuman or degrading punishment, attacks on their honor or reputation. Every Nigerian child is entitled to rest, leisure and enjoyment of the best attainable state of physical, mental and spiritual health” it states.
The Act mandates parents, guardians, institutions and authorities in whose care children are placed to provide the necessary guidance, education and training to enable the children to live up to these responsibilities. There are clear indications that the legislation Act is not adhered to, as the increase in the cases of abuse and abandoning of children is alarming.
Reacting to the menace of child abandonment, the wife of Ondo state Governor, Mrs. Olukemi Mimiko urged mothers to stop the ungodly act. “Every child is born different and he has the right to life and fulfills his God’s given potentials. No woman, under any condition, should abandon the baby she carried for 9 months,” She warned.
In order to curb the incessant abandonment of children in Nigeria, Ade-Ayeni said there is one key way to end the scourge.
“The only way we can get rid of the scourge is by collective effort. No other method will work effectively. If everyone who can easily reach these children, does, it will assist relevant agencies tasked with this issue.
“Government cannot be left alone to deal with this problem. The contributions of parents, religious bodies, traditional rulers, community leaders, civil society groups, educational institutions and prominent role models, among others, are equally essential in redressing the moral deficits that allow the culture of abandoned babies to flourish.
“Government at all levels must be at the vanguard of efforts to address the root causes of this problem through mass job creation, poverty alleviation, public education and enlightenment as well as better security to tackle social and moral delinquency,” Ade-Ayeni said.
Continuing, she said, “Parents must be alive to their responsibilities. Mothers should be close to them and train them. When you abandon your role as parents, children will be misled.”
If parents should live up to expectation by training their children and people join hands with relevant authorities to combat child abandonment, babies will breathe a sigh of relief and live to fulfill their destinies.
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