WHY KANO IS YET TO DOMESTICATE CHILD RIGHTS ACT
By Kolawole Omoniyi
Fifteen years after Nigeria had adopted the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2003; Kano remains one of the 12 States across the country that are yet to domesticate the Child Rights Act despite the series of rape cases, assaults, molestations and other related attacks being melted on Children on daily basis in the State.
Still fresh in the memory of Kano residents is the case of a six year old Aisha Sani of Shahuci in Kano Municipal Local Government Area, who was allegedly gang-raped by Sadiq and his accomplices, Yusuf and Abba in May 2017. Despite the convincing exhibits presented by her mother to pursue the case to a reasonable conclusion, her suspected rapists are still walking majestically in the street of Kano.
The helpless Aisha’s mother is desperate to get justice for her innocent child, but she is financially handicap to hire a lawyer and obviously at the moment, she is almost getting tired of the rigorous judicial process without any headway.
No doubt, Aisha’s experience was pathetic, but that of another six months old baby Khadijat Bashir was even more disastrous in the city as the innocent Child was allegedly raped by a 30 year old family friend, one Muktar Muhammed who happens to be the husband of a friend to Khadijat’s mother.
An eyewitness, Dr Binta Jibril Wudil, who is the Zonal Director of Asiya Bayero Pediatric Hospital, hinted Factual Time that Khadijat’s mother kept her with her best friend in the neighborhood and went on an errand before the husband raped the innocent baby in broad daylight, the case which many residents linked with ritual.
These cases are just a drop in the ocean considering the number of such being recorded daily in Kano. A nongovernmental Association, SLOGAN led by Dr Sophia Alhakeem Dutse in July 2017 staged a peaceful protest against the incessant rape cases in the ancient city, claiming that about 700 cases of rape were recorded in just two sampled hospitals in Kano metropolis between Jan 2016 and May 2017.
Section 31(2) of the Child Rights Act stipulates that any person who commits an offence of rape liable on conviction to imprisonment for life, but Kano is among the 12 states across the country, who are yet to domesticate the act. Other affected States include Kaduna, Enugu, Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara.
When contacted, Secretary of the Kano House of Assembly Committee on Women and Children Affairs, Yahaya Umar said the House was aware of the existence of the bill and was willing to pass it considering its huge benefits to the society, but the lawmakers are yet to receive the draft bill from the State Ministry of Justice.
Reacting to the development, the newly appointed Kano State Commissioner for Justice Mr Muktar Ibrahim said the State Government was committed to domesticating the act in Kano, adding that arrangements have been concluded to finalize its paper work for onwards presentation to the State House of Assembly.
Nevertheless, the much anticipated presentation and eventual passage of the drafted Child Rights Act bill is not only imperative to the targeted children as the prime beneficiaries, also, other key stakeholders are worried over its avoidable delay. They are optimistic that its speedy passage would end a war on children in Kano and the nation at large.