Dogara calls for domestication of Child Rights Act

Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, has called on the 12 states yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act to do so.

Delivering a keynote address at the second edition of the NILS/FCT Senior Secondary Schools Quiz Competition in Abuja, he expressed concern that millions of children in 12 states of the

Federation do not have the appropriate legal framework for the protection of children’s rights.

A draft Child’s Rights Bill was passed by the National Assembly in July 2003. Then President Olusegun Obasanjo assented to it in September 2003, and it became the Child Rights Act 2003.

Since then, 24 states have so far domesticated the law. States that are yet to do so include: Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Enugu, Gombe, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara states.

Represented by the chairman House Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Osai N. Osai, the speaker submitted that domestication and strict implementation of the law was critical for success in the battle to raise a future generation of national torch bearers.

On her part, the director-general, National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), Ladi Hamalai, a professor, said the exercise was organised to keep the students abreast of legislature and democracy.

Over 80 public and private secondary schools in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) participated in the exercise, with School of the Gifted Gwagwalada, Government Secondary School Karishi and Government Secondary School Tudun Wada emerging First, First Runner-up and Second Runner-up, respectively.