By Busuyi Mekusi

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Birth and citizenship seem to be complementarily relevant in human existence. While the former is naturally-inclined, the latter is socio-politically attributable, depending on the location of the parents of an offspring. Even though the first could be limiting and disadvantageous, the assumption of the new form of the second is a possibility that is today attained, both genuinely and otherwise.

The foregoing explains why people move across boundaries, particularly from nations that are economically and politically considered to be in the fringe, to countries that are believed to be a centre. The margin and peripheral notations of embattled nations, mostly post colonies, in relation to the hegemonic others, are not just a theory of human existence, but a clear manifestation that are now sustained through economic subservience and cultural subversion.  Beyond the conversations about exchanges across national borders, disparities within socio-economic and political concaves are palpably loud.

Human procreation has been taken out of biological processes to make socio-cultural inscriptions by some people, while some other civilizations saw it as an economic tool for profiteering. For instance, among the Yoruba, the opinion is that it is someone who could boast of children that is relevant in life. The same cultural orientation supports the fact that it is after a parent is survived by a child that such a parent could be referred to as having given birth to a child. This background ascription to connubiality is also a popular yardstick to measure the acceptability of a woman in a family she is married into. Just like the old but still viable patriarchal construction found in most African societies, the woman gets easily sanguine and blamed for any instance of inability to give birth to a child, even when the man/husband is the one that is potently and patently sterile. This is not to talk about how females get buffeted for only giving birth to a set of girl child in marriage. To unmask both the contradictions of infertility and inability to ‘produce’ male children, infidelity has led to copulations outside wedlock that has fueled the notions of ‘illegitimate’ children. Revelations in recent times are suggestive that cross-marriage sexual escapades are popular, even among highly religious people. You may need a DNA to determine how you stand, both as a child and a parent!

Another associative factor to child bearing is ethno-religious stereotypes; built around the propensity certain people have to give birth to more children than others. It is, for instance, a notable myth or fact that majority of Muslim Nigerians, are practicing polygamy, as against majority Christians who subscribe to monogamy, even though some of them have secret children outside, and similarly give birth to many children in their quest for a particular sex, most times male. Notwithstanding the religious orientation of some Nigerians, female children for them remain an instrument of economic advancement, as they use them for marital socio-economic contractual dealings, commercial-economic activities, or agrarian purposes. It is for the foregoing reasons that children, most especially the girl-child, are made to; run errands rather than being in school, hawk wares on the street or serve as manual labourers at construction sites or farms, either to be able to fend for themselves or cater for family dependants. There are unacceptable instances when the girl-child would be pulled out of school to work for the money needed to sponsor their male siblings in school, just because the misguided parents felt that the girl-child is a mere object to be ‘willed’ out in marriage sometimes in the future. This is without regard for the great exploits women are doing globally, form Funmilayo (Anikulapo) Ransome-Kuti to Ngozi-Okonjo Iweala, from Zainab Ahmed to Folorunsho Alakija, etc.

Apart from these seemingly excusable default and oppressive treatment of children, their use as domestic servants, which exposes them to all forms of violence, their usage as drug peddlers and sex workers are new forms of second-degree abuse and subjugation, when different layers of economic interests are oiled with the sweat and blood of the innocent children. Cases of criminal ‘fight back’ by some of these oppressed children that are used as house-helps, may not be acceptable, but they are indicative of the possibility of revolt under an annihilating dispensation.

Governor Sanwo-Olu’s recent encounter with two out-of-school girls, Amarachi Chinedu, 9, and Suwebat Husseini, 12, who were running errands for a bean-cake seller, the mother of the latter, in Anthony Village area of Lagos, and his attendant lamentation is wholly reminiscent of the luxurious life dogs are exposed to in a South African Cape Town ‘6 Star’ Hotel, a nation where poverty co-exists with affluence, just as every comforting and refreshing beautiful city oversees a disadvantageous volatile township. Sanwo-Olu had reminded us that the condition of the two girls portend those of other vulnerable ones, having listened to their stories. He went ahead to ironically wondered about what brought their parents to Lagos, encouraging Nigerians about what they need to do differently. While he acknowledged that there were others in their shoes, he emphasised the need to show kindness to humanity. He ended up by advising parents to give their children a better future, and patronise public schools, as against the expensive privately-owned ones. Sanwo-Olu and the First Lady deserve our commendation for accepting to take these two girls off the street, just that there are others whose lice still leave bloodstains on our fingernails.

Sanwo-Olu and others whose philanthropic gestures are an exploitation of poverty of the poor should be reminded that building a better society, and ensuring that commonwealth gets used for the benefits of all citizens would not require his stopping his convoy to listen to stories that are very known to so many of us. The Nigerian political class are like the owners of the dogs that get their share of maximum splendour in the ‘6 Star’ Luxury Canine Hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, a nation where the homeless poor and disadvantaged black majority are still disillusioned. Nigerian political leaders are like the dogs in the Superwoof that drink champagne, enjoy good music and beautiful scenery to the disadvantage of helpless citizens who are not sure of one good meal a day.

Public offices remain heavily monetised and over-garnished to the detriment of infrastructural provisions and the emplacement of a viable economy. Political office holders continue to speak above the heads of their citizens, terrorise them on pothole-ridden roads, and brutalise them when they meet in common spaces. It is high time Nigeria undertook deep political reforms that would discourage the heavy monetisation of political processes, in order to allow good-minded individuals to seek political offices, as against people with questionable wealth that are gradually taking their seats in states’ Houses of Assembly, National Assembly and executive corridors.

The out-of-school children in the North, the Almajeris, remain a thorn on the flesh of all Nigerians, as they peripatetically diffuse nationally in search of survival, having been denied love, care, and humanity. Their lack of humanity would not allow them value those of others, with their availability as potential recruits by terrorists and bandits. The seemingly school-enrolled children in the south are as good as being out, as little academic learning but criminal-skill acquisitions are popular among ‘rich’ students with no known means. The little viability left of Nigerian Public University system is being eroded by the day, as belligerent staff unions and recalcitrant governments refuse to hear each other speak. With the establishment of expensive public universities by some states, private universities are fast gaining from the pains of parents and guardians who have been excused from what used to be a Hobson’s choice. The high rate of student migration to other countries is not as worrisome as some of them ending up in low-rated and less-qualified institutions. When will the brain drain stop?

The commoditisation of children, most especially the girl-child, must stop. Their objectification and ritualisation as part of the venting of pent-up emotions in a psychically-violated nation must be discouraged. Beyond the politicisation of gender discusses, notable women groups and other stakeholders should be deliberate about the reversal of the negative narratives about the girl-child, and the affected lots should be oriented to heal themselves of victimhood, and take a bold step to end their slavery, getting inspired by the success stories of other women, beyond the stories Sanwo-Olu and his ilk would like to hear.