The recent release of minors arrested during the #EndBadGovernance protest has sparked relief and concern. While their freedom is celebrated, questions linger about their future and well-being.
After almost three months in detention, the Nigeria Police finally arraigned some persons arrested during the #EndBadGovernance in August. Among them were children, which generated heated argument about their arrest and subsequent arraignment in court.
However, following public outcry and pressure from advocacy groups, the Federal Government through the Attorney-General of the Federation’s office took over the case, and thereafter dropped all charges against the protesters.
Read also: Atiku, Obi knock FG for detention, prosecution of minors over #EndBadGovernance protest
But, the experience has left emotional scars. First for the children involved in the protest, their families, and the nation as a whole. While the release of the minors is seen as a positive step on the part of the government; however, analysts believe it is just the beginning of what should have been done.
Accordingly, they said that ensuring their successful reintegration requires collaborative efforts from government, civil society, and communities. “Beyond releasing the minors, issues of values that build up a decent and progressive society need to be addressed by the government at all levels and other stakeholders,” Olusola Daniel Olatomi, senior pastor, Christ First Truth Assembly, Ota, Ogun State, told BD Sunday.
According to him, the protest was intended to draw attention and did reveal some deep rooted problems within the Nigerian society, which may make or mar the future of the country. However, many of the protesters were arrested including children who are considered minors under the law.
“In the first place, the #EndBadGovernance protest was meant to make this present administration see the living conditions of the populace due to the policies it adopted.
Read also: Court strikes out charges against #Endbadgovernance protesters
“The minds of young ones across the board need to be renewed if we are thinking of a good and better future for our society. What our society promotes is anti-human development, which this administration needs to address,” Olatomi said.
According to the Human Rights Watch, about 70 percent of released minors struggle with social reintegration, while the UNICEF said that about 50 percent of detained minors experience long-term psychological damage.
However, Olatomi said that there is a need to review the educational system to accommodate all persons by looking beyond the current out-of-school data. According to him, the government must put measures in place to bridge the high out-of-school rate, leveraging both the formal and informal educational sector.
The clergy noted that failing to address the educational problem of the country would amount to putting the future of the country in jeopardy.
“What we witnessed about the minors being arrested is a failure of our society. Government at all levels needs to champion the revamping of the educational system to help put our future leaders to productive engagements.”
Chukwudinma Okoji, a lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Offa, told BDSunday that the missing link for the arrested minors involved in the #EndBadGovernance protest was the civic responsibility of every citizen.
“Thank God for the advocacy about the incarceration and prosecution, which actually made the government to release them. So, going forward, education is important, and we know in the north, most of these kids are Almajiris. They have no contact with education that could have taught them what to do, what is good and what is bad.
“So, civic responsibility should be taught to them, they should be given orientation, and also those who are still young should be taught how to behave in a civil environment,” Okoji said.
Speaking on what could be done after their release; Okoji said that the governors in the northern part of the country have a lot of work to do on reorientation, re-education, and even putting the released minors back into the school system. “But the reorientation about what ought to be and what ought not to be is something the government and even the religious institutions, in the north especially, should do.”
He said further that the minors should have learned that destroying public properties in the name of protest will not be accepted by the state. According to him, the protesters failed to bring civility to bear while protesting and that was what led to their incarceration for over three months.
“With the way the protest and the prosecution of the kids were all over the media, both mainstream and the new media, I know the younger ones in the north and in every other part of Nigeria will take a cue from what has happened to these boys in preventing reoccurrence,” Okoji said.
While the current situation begs the question of how the Nigerian government can prevent similar incidents in the future, senior legal experts, including Mazi Afam Osigwe, have pointed out that bypassing juvenile court proceedings and placing minors in adult facilities contradicts the Child Rights Act mandate, hence should not be allowed to happen again.
He called for strict adherence to the Child Rights Act across all country to ensure that juvenile courts handle cases involving minors, going forward.
The lawyers also urged the government to observe the international standards, as well as the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Nigeria has ratified. The Convention stipulated that the detention of children should prioritize rehabilitation and be managed within facilities designed for minors, which was not the case for the recently released minors.
But Tanko Aliyu, a Kaduna-based human right activist, noted that the government can forestall the ugly incident from recurring by focusing on community-based corrective measures to mitigate the risk of minors being drawn into high-stake protests.
“We need to address the root causes like economic hardship and educational shortfalls, which often push children into crime and activism. If the government and the society do these, we will drastically reduce the occurrence of youth protests driven by socio-political grievances,” he said.
He also pointed out that the recent case highlighted significant gaps in Nigeria’s approach to juvenile justice, while urging an immediate re-evaluation of policies affecting young Nigerians’ rights and protection from undue legal repercussions.
“If we enact laws with human face, and implement them, that would mean justice for all, and the government will situp, knowing that it must be accountable to the people.
“The reality is that the minors were involved in the protest because they don’t have opportunities like children of politicians. The government should give every child a chance to grow, be educated or acquire skills and excel in life, not only their children, who you hardly see,” Aliyu concluded.
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