Not less than 30,000 girl children are married off every day across the world
This revelation was made known by the Nigeria Civil Service Union in a position paper presented at this year international day for Girl child organized by the Echo Nigeria International and facilitated by a 15 years Advocate, Joy Life Alegbemi , who was made a one day Sweden Ambassador in 2019 in Nigeria
The Programme which took place at the Auditorium of Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria in Abuja had in attendance Representatives of, Sweden Ambassador, Director General of NTA, Director General of NOA, Director General of NlMASA, leadership of MHWUN, A3 Foundation, school children, parents among other Representatives.
The Nigeria Civil Service Union lamented that Girls between ages of 5-14 years spend more than 28 hours engaging in hard Labour while 96% of human traficked for sexual exploitation are Girls and Women.
The Union position was made known in a document signed by both the National President Comrade Lawrence Uchechukwu Amaechi and the General Secretary Comrade Bomoi Mohammed lbraheem, the Union declared that “all these scenarios are very scary to the development of the Girl child especially in developing countries like Nigeria where poverty is prevalent. ”
The Union challenged all stakeholders in the advancement of humanity to evolve ways to step up more care for Girl child, empower the Girl child educationally and engage them in skill acquisition training, more advocacy against Girl child violence /Genital mutilation across the world, more talent hunts and to further step up mobilisation for enrolment of Girl child for basic educational level.
“The paper which was presented at the event by the Head of Department of Women, Gender and Youth, Comrade Gbenga Olowoyo who represented the union posited that the Nigeria Civil Service Union has resolved to partner relevant international organizations, non governmental organizations and other stakeholders so as to use Labour platform to focus more on the best ways to touch the lives of Girl children now that the environment is becoming more unfriendly to Girl children and Youths across the world , hence, our partnership with Echo Nigeria International is a pointer towards this resolution.
Earlier the promoter of the Programme, a 15 years old Joy Life Alegbemi disclosed that she was inspired to champion better attention for Girl child after she was made a one day Sweden Ambassador in Nigeria in the year 2019, she claimed that she was ready to step up advocacy within the next couple of years beginning with the establishment of Girl child information link platform to further engage Girl child for better attention from all stakeholders
Joy life Alegbemi emphasized that this year 2021 theme “Digital generation Our Generation” was a wake up call to both Governments at all levels, stakeholders and the general public to rise to the occasion by taking the bull by the horn and begin to explore opportunities through urgent urgently investment in the Nigerian Girl children through massive digital and ICT education/ empowerment
In the same vein, all development partners present at the occasion promised to contribute their own quota to ensuring that the aims and objectives of Joy Life Alegbemi Foundation achieved its desired goals without hitch but she was encouraged to scale up her campaign on girl child and expand the scope of coverage to reach all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.