In Nigeria, 32 million children face bleak future
some nursing mothers at a health faculty in Ibadan Born on 25th of November, 1996, Oyetunde Oyebisi was a great source of joy to his parents and the entire family. He was christened according to the norms and his full name and his date of birth were written on his stomach. That was how his parents recorded his birth and they thought his birth had been sufficiently recorded. Without basic education, the 22-year-old Oyebisi is now learning how to become a bricklayer and he is quite oblivious of what the future holds for him. His case is just one out of millions of such instances. A Child Protection Specialist with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Nigeria, Sharon Oladiji said children whose births were not registered have no official record as citizens of the country. “Their access to basic services is under threat; their official ‘invisibility’ increases their vulnerability to abuse and exploitation. In legal terms, they do not exist. Violatio...
