CHILD SERVICES, JUSTICE OR INJUSTICE?

Here in Nigeria child services are very limited. The organization that protects the welfare of children is hardly known by the average Nigerian. Unlike continents outside Africa. Africa has a general disciplinary culture that makes it hard for child services to function. In countries like America and a lot of these European countries hitting a child is seen as a form of abuse. In Nigeria, it’s seen as a method of correction. And this method of correction applies to even me whose first instinct is to whoop a child’s ass whenever they fall out of line. Growing up my parents whooped me so much that I already knew the punishment for even falling out. Now imagine how a small organization can control how at least 50% of the citizens treat their kids.

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Back in boarding school a child was admitted who had spent his entire life in the USA. He thought Nigeria was like where he came from where he could speak to his elders rudely and get away with it. But they learn the hard way when elders and students will beat him up for being rude. We don’t beat people up like that by the way, but his parents who happen to be Nigerians were tired of seeing their child lack african culture. We beat this boy until he learned to shut up, show respect and mingle with society then we started showing him a lot of love. So much so that he begged his parents to let him finish in our school. His parents on the other hand were so proud to see their son having manners and being cultured.

I feel child services should clearly define what rights a child has and what right a child doesn’t have. A lot of parents overseas have gone to jail because their kids out of the mischievousness of their hearts have put them in jail. Most of these kids later grow up to understand that they were wrong for reporting a disciplinary action by their parents who were only shielding them from the world's wickedness. There is a clear difference between maltreatment and discipline and that is where a lot of people draw the line. But apart from this, I will applaud the fact that there is an organization that holds parents accountable for how they treat their kids.

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In Nigeria we don’t have such a thing, at least it’s not very common to see someone from child service coming to ask a parent why his child hasn’t eaten for three days or ask a parent why they would threaten their child with death. This is why a lot of children who suffer from parental abuse do not know what to do, or where to go for help. And those around who know about the abuse don’t speak up until it’s too late. A lot of things go wrong with children in Africa and there are no people to look into it. So even though I might not totally fancy the methods child services take, I will still wish it can be functional over here.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 165 EPISODE 2