Child Abuse In Nigeria

In Nigeria, severe child battery is generally viewed as instilling discipline in the child...culprits including neighbours, teachers, relations and parents inflict severe bodily harm on children believing that they are "training" them! I was even once taken on on this issue by a fellow doctor on Facebook....who argued devotedly in favour of caning. He never agreed that caning is violence....or that it is a sign of failure of the parents or guardian in rearing the child by civil means... Yet, people tend to forget that habits once formed have general application.

They expect adults to be civil to fellow adults while being bestial to kids. So you find a school principal who batters students under his tutelage paradoxically admonish same students that "only animals fight!" Child beating is so common with us that we carry it beyond nursery and elementary schools.....through our high schools.....through our univerities (where doctors~in~training are given head knocks and ear twists).....to our spouses! It is so perplexing how the society expects a chameleonic change of character in persons as they deal with kids and adults alike.

Quoting the Bible as the grand norm for guiding our lives in absolute terms is unrealistic in these times. I call the particular qouted text the idea of one manwho claims he penned down that idea under the influence of God. So, it is all ado about a claim. If our legal statutes are fashioned verbatim after the Laws Of Moses, one wonders what the world would look like by way of commensurate penance for infraction against fellow men and state. Flogging is not discipline! It is violence! Same goes for corporal punishment, excessive house chores, deliberate starvation and wanton neglect.

To posit that all kids beaten black and blue turn out worthy in future....and those "spared the rod" are spoilt is a simplistic approach to a complex problem. Child battery has been categorized as the worst form of bullying. Bullies may justify their techniques or even gloat over it but their victims do not find it funny. A victim of bullying may orchestrate cool and quiet plans to kill his tormentor....as in the case of the 21-year old who hacked his father to pieces at the Redemption Camp near Lagos!

Examples also abound in the US where bullied school pupils simply brought guns to school and killed their tormentors...fellow students and teachers! In most instances, such vengeance-extracting persons are otherwise easy-going individuals. The bullied child may grow up to be perpetually docile and unassertive. Yet he may become a bully to those weaker than him. Like begets like! The life experiences of a child can be likened to a script being written in indelible ink! The evolved adult is as such not absolutely responsible for circumstances of his development....or the type of adult he becomes.

Solutions proferred.
Solutions reside in more recognition of child abuse for what it is. Efforts should be intensified to re-educate the citizenry that it goes beyond discipline. Government must continue to enact laws to criminalize child abuse without ambiguity, enforce those laws and punish offenders. Improved vigilance is required on the part of neighbours, friends of the family and relations who should demonstrate a greater level of concern.....by making prompt reports to the police. Caning must be absolutely banned in schools. So is corporal punishment. Schools must be constantly monitored and cases dealt with decisively.

Doctors and other healthworkers must highten their index of suspicion to make more diagnoses of child battery. They must endeavour to bring such cases to the attention of security agents....whose mindsets should be changed from seeing child battery as mere discipline. They must handle such cases with due diligence and seriousness! The emergence of Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) fixated on drawing awareness to the problem and laising with authorities to deal with it is commendable. Such efforts should continue.

Conclusion.
I am sure that most proponents of flogging mean well and do not intend to advocate battery of defenseless kids. I may even extend this reason of innocent intendment to Biblical authors...for I presume they equally meant well. But ideas must fit into the times and as opinion leaders, we must refrain from advocating solutions which are diametrically opposed to the realities of the times. The times for unmitigated child abuse and battery.....on the altar of discipline....are gone! They should be cast into the dustbins of history!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/06/nyregion/missed-signs-in-a-bloodied-girls-abuse-case.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=0

DR TOSIN AKINDELE is a Lagos-based medical practitioner, founder of Analytical Minds, good health advocate and social critic.