Thank God it’s Friday! Finally, majority of us get to take a tiny break from work, relax our body and minds, and prepare for Monday.

Today I will be addressing a few issues in the typical lower class Nigerian home regarding The Girl Child.

This happens to be the first on my list as a result of its grave importance. Whether or not you belong to the lower class Nigeria, you should read this because this affects all of us as a nation and must be taken seriously.

Our Fathers and Mothers at home,

YOUR CHILDREN, INCLUDING YOUR DAUGHTERS NEED TO BE IN SCHOOL.

I can not emphasize this enough. Not just BE in school, but REMAIN in school.

– I walked into a shop one time ago to get something and a little girl who happened to be eight years old attended to me, on a Monday morning.

I was a bit surprised to meet her there. The street was quiet and void of children’s voices because they were all in their classrooms, where they ought to be.

I asked Funmilayo, “Why are you not in school today?”

“I am helping my mommy to sell, she is doing something at home” She replied

I nodded and tried to brush it aside as none of my business but I just couldn’t resist the urge to know more. So I asked again,

“Do you go to school?”

She shook her head, I sighed. I collected the things I wanted to buy, handed her a few naira notes and walked home.

Ever since then I haven’t been able to get it off my mind.

Is your business more important than your daughter’s education?

It’s  a small shop and they obviously don’t earn enough so most of you might say “oh she can’t afford to pay the girl’s school fees”

But there are government schools which, of course, are free of charge, except you get to buy some books and pay for projects and that’s totally affordable. So there’s no valid excuse explaining why the girl isn’t in school where all her mates are. The girl’s mother clearly doesn’t care about her child’s education.
-What about the fathers who think that once their daughter is developing breasts, she is ripe for marriage so they give her off to a suitable suitor once she is done with her primary or secondary education because, obviously, they can’t afford to put her in the university?

Why are you so lazy and impatient?

Why can’t you work extra hard to make sure your daughter gets the best out of life?

Why do you tarnish her hopes and dreams?

You prefer to place her in a forced marriage, destroy her ambitions, and put her in a situation where she has to endure loads and loads of undeserved suffering either from her husband or others for the rest of her life. Her husband wouldn’t know how to treat her because she has no say in her life’s decisions.

She feels like a purchased item. Like a wrist watch, or less. 

She can’t talk about her dreams or imagine achieving anything afterwards because next thing, she is pregnant and has to attend to the affairs of a child, and another right after, and another.

A sex and baby machine, that’s what you turn your daughter into because of your impatience and greed.

– What about the people who send children to hawk food, fruits and water in traffic? 

It’s a very serious offence and I’m shocked that the Government isn’t taking it so seriously. Children way less than 18 walk and run in traffic hawking, their clothes dirty and tattered, their feet dusty. Innocent hurting souls. Pitiful eyes pleading that you buy something from them.

Some of them sit on the sidewalk watching as cars zoom by, wishing in the hollow of their hearts that they had a better life.

Some of them work with so much energy that should be used in the classroom and not on the streets, not on the wicked streets.

How ruthless putting a child out in an unfamiliar world to hawk and make money for you while you carry on with your lives, eating, sleeping soundly and laughing with people like everything is fine, while a child you sent out is running around, sweating, hungry, getting bullied for the money she made, getting hit by a car who quickly zooms away, getting raped…..

Yet you say everything is fine?

Everything is not fine!!

Nothing is fine or will ever be until every child, especially the girl child gets quality education. We all need to put effort into making this a reality.

Our children, our future

Get them off the streets and into the classroom.

Thank you for reading and I hope this made some impact. This is dedicated to the African Girl Child because I know they deserve better than they get.

Happy Weekend 💖💖💖