Worried by rampant cases of teenage and child rape, child labour, hawking by school-age female children and of recent, the development of baby factories in parts of the country, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Dr. Habiba Lawal, has stressed the need for States that have not passed the Child Rights Act into law, to do so to save the future of Nigerian children.


While speaking at a capacity building workshop on the implementation of the Child Rights Act (CRA) in Nigeria, Dr. Habiba Lawal also called on those States that already passed the document into law, to establish appropriate legal structures that will ensure full implementation of the provisions of the document.

According to her, the Act provides for the survival, development, protection and participation rights of a child as well as a system of child justice administration and care and supervision of the child amongst other things. “Implementation mechanism for effective actualization of provisions of the Act include: the establishment of family courts, allocation of adequate resources for the implementation of the Act, massive advocacy at all levels and capacity building of duty bearers among others….It is one thing to pass the Child Rights Law at the States level and another thing to implement its provisions for the welfare and development of our children”; she stated.

She emphasized that the CFA spells out stiff penalty of life sentence to child rapists, and expressed optimism that if properly implemented, such rampant cases of teenage and child rapes, and other vices against children will be drastically reduced. “The Ministry is putting in place strategies that will ensure widespread awareness of the law including capacity building of the Judiciary to effectively enforce the law. We will also make effort to ensure that all the States of the Federation implement all the provisions of the law to protect and provide services that will enable children develop and contribute to nation building”; she added.

Dr. Habiba Lawal explained that through aggressive advocacy to States by the Ministry, a total of 22 States have passed the Child Rights Law leaving 14 States yet to do so; adding that the Ministry is still embarking on the advocacy to the remaining States to make sure that they also pass the law in the interest of our children.

The Permanent Secretary said the workshop was aimed at providing additional skills as well as galvanize participants and other stakeholders to complement the advocacy drive of the Ministry on the passage and full implementation of the law in all the States of the federation.
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