Kogi Govt Forcefully Engaged School Children To Clean Lokoja Township Roads On Children’s Day

…Lacks the real essense of Children’s Day celebrations.
It is common knowledge that children are the future of every country. They are the future of a great nation only if given a solid foundation on which a better society can be built. The direction of a nation therefore can be gauged by the importance that nation places on its children and youths.

The Children’s Day in Nigeria was created in 1964 as inspired by the United Nations children’s efforts. It is marked on the 27th day of May each year and recognised as a school holiday for them. The standard practice is to select children from each school to participate in a match-past to salute the state leader in the stadium in competition with other schools. The schools are selected for first, second and third prices respectively, won at the march past. This renders the celebration education based, thus depriving others that are unable to enrol in schools due to poverty.

In the case of Kogi State, the government through the honorable Commissioner for Environment and Natural Resources, Mrs Rosemary Osikoya, The Kogi state SUBEB Chairman, Mrs Deborah Osatimehin and the state commissioner for Education, Dr Sunday Tolorunleke on Saturday took the students to the streets of Lokoja to sanitized the street said its the real essence of the celebration. This new development in Kogi State is so bad and the children are been exposed to danger on their special day. They were forcefully engaged to uproot grasses with their bare hands on their day of celebration. This is unfair. This is against the child’s right law. The children of Kogi State deserve apology from the state government.

Despite all the publications made by office of the Commissioner for women affairs and social development, Honorable Bolanle Amupitan, one would be expecting an elaborate celebrations for kogi children on that day instead of taking them to the street for sanitation of lokoja roads.

The government should apologize to the Kogi State children for violating their right on their special day.

– Amina Agada , from Lokoja.