Time to End Violence against Children

Catholic News Service of Nigeria (CNSN) || By Fr. Cornelius Omonokhua || 02 March 2016

Many organizations and writers have made series of enquiries into the causes of insurgency in many parts of the world especially Nigeria that is now recorded as having the most deadly terrorist outfit in the world. I have contributed to this research in my books and through the media. My book “Dialogue in Context: A Nigeria experience” (2015) has a lot on this subject especially the articles, “Reaping the whirlwind” (Page 154) and “If this Song did not exist” (Page 345). Violence against children has been identified as one of the serious causes of insurgency in Nigeria. The ongoing campaign to “END VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN” by United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is an effort to raise children who will not be a problem to the future generation. If children are raised to grow gracefully with the right form of education and gainfully employed thereafter, the society would grow a healthy nation. 

On February 25, 2016, I participated in “The Special Representative of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General on Violence against Children Interactive Workshop with Religious Groups Stakeholders” in Lagos, Nigeria. From the contributions and questions, attention was drawn to the need for a clarification of the concepts, “discipline of children” and “violence against children”. In the context of African culture, it is believed that “to spare the rod is to spoil the child”. This means that scolding and beating could be used to train a child. Some African children testify that if not for this form of discipline, they would not have been successful in life. For the African children then, fear of punishment makes them behave well to get rewards instead of punishment.  The authentic African parent loves children hence it appears abnormal for some parents to be violent and wicked to their children. By extension, it is believed that the training of a child is the responsibility of the community.

The Bible affirms the discipline of the child for a better future. Wisdom literature focuses on the training of the children. A brief reference to the book of proverbs reveals these facts: “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself would bring shame to his mother” (Proverbs 29:15).  “Discipline your child, and he shall give you rest; he will give delight unto your heart” (Proverbs 29:17).  “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15). “Do not withhold discipline from a child, for if you beat him with the rod, he will not die. If you beat him with the rod you will save his life from Sheol” (Proverbs 23:13-14). Wisdom literature thus focuses on the character formation of the child in terms of morals, ethics, intelligence, home management, industry and the well being of the society. The aim is not to destroy but to form the child.

Saint Paul condemns violence against children but did not neglect the aspect of discipline. In his letter to the Ephesians, he said, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). However we should note that excessive physical and verbal punishment could lead to trauma. This is where “The United Nations Secretary-General's Study on Violence against Children (http://www.unviolencestudy.org/) is very relevant in the world today. We really need to face the true reality of violence against children in a way that does not contradict the obligation to train them.

What we could do as a starting point is to respond to some questions like: “Who is responsible for violence against children”? “Who are the children abused”? From a critical point of view, it is not common for parents to be violent against their own children but some parents do. What is common is that surrogate parents tend to maltreat the children who stay with them but some have treat other children like their own children. This contradict the common saying in Africa that it is difficult for some women to love another woman’s child like their own children. Some factors that are responsible for violence against children are death of biological parents, poverty, and lack of birth control.

Many children who do not have value for life and have turned terrorists are children who did not have basic home training and were consistently exposed to one form of violence or the other. Some people think that almsgiving to orphans and vulnerable children is a soothing panacea to violence but the reality from the Nigerian experience is that “he who pays the Piper dictates the tune.” It is a known fact that in some parts of Nigeria, the rich who give alms to the children on the street also equip them and use them for political terrorism and religious insurrection. These benefactors are fully aware that they are sending these children on a deadly mission and so would not send their own children to do these deadly jobs.  

In Africa, some successful people testify to how they survived despite the violence against them when they were children. In Etsako of Edo State, Nigeria, there is a saying that “It is a child who is not ready for life that blames the witches for its misfortune”.  It is true that suffering could challenge a person to work harder but there must be an enabling environment for a person to actualize his or her potentials. This is where the community and the government have a role to play. Many of us actually went through one form of suffering or the other but we scaled through the challenges without despair. Unfortunately, many children and youths today find it difficult to scale through the suffering and violence that the failure of government has placed on their way. Consequently, even those who are determined to survive do not have the space and opportunities to do so.

I had thought that by now, the wind of change would have affected every aspect of government in a way and manner that children and youths would be free from structural violence. It is sad that some institutions still demand letters and phone calls from government officials before they consider an applicant for employment. It is therefore imperative that the government should do something fast to ameliorate the poor conditions of the children and the youths beyond the promised monthly five thousand naira to a sustainable security and welfare scheme.

The structural condition of some of the public schools is a systematic violence against children. While the children of the rich and government officials study under air conditioned class rooms, the children of the poor in public schools not only study under heat condition but under unhygienic space that can give them all kinds of infections and diseases. I wonder what would have happened to some of us who could not afford the luxury of private schools if the public schools we attended were in this kind of deplorable and inhuman conditions. It is time to end violence against children because they deserve human value and dignity as stated in the Civil Rights of Children (https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/childrens_rights).

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