Uche @ 5, adorned in a Nigerian outfit. |
Children's Day in Nigeria is seemingly reserved as public holiday for children, and some children engage in lively activities which are considered as part of the characteristics of the day. A number of children go to various stadia to actively participate in parades and marches and listen to speeches of various leaders. In some cases, there are varieties of parties to choose from, with lots of food, drinks, merriments, dancing as well as games, as the case may be.
I remember our childhood days, children's day afforded us the opportunity to engage in match past and traditional dances at our various stadia, we always looked forward to May 27th every year as well as October 1st our independent day celebration; this is hardly the case any more. In todays Nigeria the children are left for the parents to decide what level of fun activity to engage their kids with, therefore while the celebration bring laughter and joy to a section of people it brings tears and dismay to another section. Who are these people- Children of the affluent and the not so affluent!
The rich folks can afford a roller coaster ride and a merry go round for their children. They will say, “let’s take a trip to the Bahamas, its Children’s Day!” They are those who feel delighted watching their children ride on a luxury horse with a candy stocked in mouth and a handy toy all at hand. A rich man will say “come on, throw away your Phone and have this Blackberry Touch”. Only a well-to-do man will do all of these.
On the contrary children from the other side of the divide may not even have the luxury of fun watching the various celebration on television but will hear words like stop watching TV and go help your mom in the kitchen on a children’s day! because the child is likely to watch other children on TV stations who are enjoying themselves by reason of the season. The child from this other divide will have to hawk bread on the street to gather money for fees, their parents will tell this children how ‘big men’ do all manner of terrible things to get money. He is full of sorrow, pain, anguish and confusion. He is not a happy man.
Some Nigerian children in the game of Punch Balls |
We urge those who are in a better economic and social positions to please, look out for those hungry kids on the street and even in ‘hidden’ places and show them some love instead of leaving them out to nurse their pain on a day they should be happy and celebrating with other children. You don’t have to give all you have or create a scene, make it simple, a little will go a long way to reassuring those children of a future for themselves. We do hope that you who is reading this will take a step towards achieving this goal.
WMN.