The African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD) has said that children should be encouraged to work on their dreams and not in the fields as minor.
Centre LSD in partnership with Malala Fund Nigeria, joins the rest of the world to commemorate the 2019 world day against child labour.
It said the “International World Day against child labour (June 12) is a day globally reserved to identify with the plight of children who are used as labourers and offer strategies that society must take to put an end to the menace,” according to a statement the group issued on June 12, 2019.
The statement added: “Recent statistic show that 152 million children are suffering child labour 20 years after the adoption of the child labour day. The Malala fund Community led Collective Action for Girl Education (C-CAGE) project in Adamawa State being implemented in Numan , Maiha and Song local government areas to improve the enrolment, retention and completion rate of girls in secondary schools being part of effort to challenge the narrative.
“Child labour has negative impact on the economic growth of any nation by preventing the benefits associated with human capital development. Many children are exposed to long hours of work in unsafe and unhealthy environment There is evidence that working under these hazardous conditions with little or no food as a result of low income, no education and no medical care are clear violation of the rights of the child.”
A release by the Malala Fund Gulmakia champion for C-CAGE Ms Frances Uchenna Igwilo, said focus on the issues of children has become necessary as Nigeria has just concluded the inauguration of its new set of political leadership both at the National and sub-national levels, calling on the returning political leaders including the President and the Governors to give priority to education and welfare of children by ensuring proper budgetary allocation of between 15 to 20 percent in line with UNESCO budgetary benchmark on education.
She enjoined the Buhari led government to invest in the training of teachers at all levels of the educational system in Nigeria by living up to its commitment to goal four of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals aimed at transforming the world by 2030.