Child rights most important – Activist

A rights activist, Professor Yinka Olomojobi, has said the rights of the child are the most important group rights.

He made the submission in preparation for the public presentation of his book titled, ‘Human rights: Legal protection of children in Nigeria’ taking place on Thursday at Ikoyi, Lagos.

Olomojobi argued that the rights of children were more important because they (children) were the building block of society and the next generation.

He said, “The rights of children have been to an extent neglected in Nigeria despite a vast dossier of international, regional, and national laws upholding the rights of the child. There has indeed been a reluctance to promote the rights of the child in Nigeria given the fact that it appears intangible and difficult to ascertain.

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“Beyond doubt, the rights of the child are the most important group rights, simply because they are the building block of society and the next generation. Despite being a vulnerable group, the rights of the child have not been taken seriously in our part of the world, for reasons not exclusive to complexities of a developing state, a weak Gross Domestic Product, a declining economy, lack of infrastructures and given the fact that a vast number of human rights of adults have not been taken seriously by the state.

“It is clear, to an extent, that the inadequate standard of living of adults has indeed affected the rights of the child, therefore leading to ubiquitous child poverty.”

The activist stated that the crux of the book was to illustrate that children had the same number of rights as adults.

Olomojobi said, “This book has conceptualised the rights of the child. The rights of the child have been cloaked under the broad rights of adults, notwithstanding the unique individual rights of children.

“The crux of this book is to illustrate that children have the same quantum of rights as adults, in other words, children’s rights are human rights as well as ‘special rights’, which are often referred to as child-specific provisions. What is observed from our study is that the ‘best interest of the child’ is a consistent variable throughout the 17 chapters of the book.”