UNICEF seeks child-friendly budget in Nigeria

AGAINST the backdrop of Nigeria’s poor performance on several basic indicators of child health and survival, education and protection, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has canvassed affable budgeting formulations for children’s rights.

Speaking in Enugu at the just-concluded UNICEF workshop on media dialogue on Child Friendly Budgeting (CFB), Social Policy Specialist, UNICEF, Maryam Abdu, regretted the “unavailability and lack of access to reliable data on the situation of children and government expenditure targeting them.”

Though basic provisions of the Child’s Rights Act, 2003, ensure that the Act covered children’s rights with respect to child survival, development, participation and protection, gaps and flaws in budget implementation with regards to CFB exist.

Executive Director, Youth and Gender Network, Anuli Ausbeth-Ajagu, stated “Our children deserve our help and it is everybody’s business to protect our children.”

Lecturer, Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Benin, Prof. Christiana Okojie, who was represented by Clement Ighodaro, stressed the need to “mainstream children’s rights into the budget process.

Okojie lamented: “If budgets fail to respond to the needs and demands of children, resources will not be adequately directed to the programmes and services for children.”

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By Lillian Chukwu, Abuja