By Doris Obinna
The United Nations Children’s Fund Nigeria (UNICEF) has said that one in two children live in poverty and 41 newborns out of 2,000 births do not survive due to complications and teenage pregnancies.
UNICEF Representative, Ms. Christian Munduate, disclosed this over the weekend in Lagos at a symposium organised by UNICEF in collaboration with the Nigerian Guild of Editors.
The symposium was part of UNICEF’s activities to mark the 2024 World Children’s Day and had the theme, “Reinforcing the Role of Media in Mainstream Child Rights.”
Present at the event are stakeholders in the media industry, eminent journalists, health practitioners, government officials, broadcasters, senior representatives from the private sector, influencers, among others.
The stakeholders were engaged in three-panel sessions where they addressed critical issues facing children in Nigeria and underscored the media’s role in advocating for child rights.
In her remarks, Munduate reiterated that there several factors that end in the loss of children’s life and 40 per cent of children under age five are stunted due to malnutrition which affects their intellectual capacity for life.
According to her, 2,000 live births do not survive due to different situations ranging from low birth weight, complications to mothers who are very weak and malnourished, teenage pregnancy and motherhood.
“Nigeria is home to around 220 million people, and nearly half of them are children. While we celebrate the vibrancy and resilience of our young population, we must confront some stark realities,” she added.
While calling on media practitioners to be more thorough in reporting issues relating to children, she said, stunting is the worst form of malnutrition.
“Stunting, one of the most complicated impacts, is that; they affect the intellectual capacity of children for life. So there is something that we need to do about this. And in order to save lives, UNICEF supports countries in terms of immunization even with the many challenges we have.
“About 2.1 million children are unvaccinated and one in five households engaged in open defecation among the poorest households, which exposes them at high risk to get any preventable disease.
“And also, we have almost 10 million children at primary school age who are not attending school due to different factors; lack of services, security. We know that parents want to protect their child, so they prefer not to send them to school.”
Charging journalists to give priority to anything that relates to children through quality investigative reports and going beyond the individual story and following through, she said, the media can communicate deeply with the people through which they can inform society about the true state of children.
“You need to make it a long-term vision so that you can contribute towards ensuring that the government, religious bodies, traditional leaders, community, and families are equipped with the right information.
“These efforts will go a long way in raising awareness, as well as fostering a culture of accountability across society. That is the powerful impact that communication professionals and media outlets can have in driving behavioural change.
“Your words are powerful, together; you can reach millions with your message, impacting not just hundreds or thousands, but entire communities,” she stated.
On his part earlier on, the president, Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), Mr Eze Anaba, called for collective commitment from all stakeholders from the media to policymakers and health professionals.
He urged that utmost attention should be paid to child rights and identified implementation of child-friendly policies, and community-driven solutions as part of measures to drive the course.
“We wield a unique power; the power of storytelling and our role in the mainstream is very important. We must uncover and amplify the voices of the voiceless by highlighting the challenges children are facing and advocating solutions,” he added.
