A new Nigerian youth model, Malala Yousafzai: The courage of a child who stood up against the Taliban

THE
last couple of weeks have seen the World’s attention focused on issues
around the girl-child. Precisely on 11 October 2012, the World marked
the first ever special day reserved by the United Nations as the
International Day of the Girl Child.
Incidentally, while the rest
of the World paused for a while to reflect on ways and means of
promoting, protecting and enforcing legislative frameworks and laws that
safeguard the rights of the girl child, the people of Pakistan were
thrown into shock and trepidation over the attempted assassination of a
foremost girl child activist, the little Miss. Malala Yousafzai by armed
terrorists belonging to the banned Taliban gunmen while returning home
in a school bus.
The attempt on the life of this young school girl
who has shown remarkable gifts and talents as a good speaker and
defender of the educational right of the girl child drew International
condemnation.
The inspirational story of Miss. Malala Yousafzai as
captured by the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has it that she was born
in 1998 in the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan’s
North-West Frontier province.

Malala, according to documentary
evidence, is reputable as one of the best known Child rights activists
of the contemporary times. She gained fame for her education and women’s
rights activism in the Swat Valley, where the Taliban has, at times,
banned girls from attending school.
In early 2009, at the age of
11, Yousafzai wrote a blog under a pseudonym for the BBC detailing her
life under Taliban rule, their attempts to take control of the valley,
and her views on promoting education for girls. The following summer, a
New York Times documentary was filmed about her life as the Pakistani
military intervened in the region, culminating in the Second Battle of
Swat. Yousafzai began to rise in prominence, giving interviews in print
and on television, and taking a position as chairperson of the District
Child Assembly Swat. She has subsequently been nominated for the
International Children’s Peace Prize by Desmond Tutu, and has won
Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize.
Miss. Malala can as well be described as the new little ‘Nelson Mandela’ of our time.
I
have keenly followed the ordeals of this beautiful girl since she was
unfortunately shot by the bandits who do not have regards for human life
and I can attest that she has provided inspiration for other girl child
activists especially in a developing society like Nigeria and the rest
of Africa to join the global advocacy to improve respect for the
fundamental rights of all children and especially the girl child since
all human rights are universal; inalienable; sacrosanct and inviolable.
Before
Malala was airlifted to a British hospital for treatment in the wake of
her attack by the terrorists, I watched the former premier of Britain
Mr. Gordon Brown on the international media as he waged global-wide
advocacy for World leaders to provide concrete support for the kind of
inspirational work and advocacy activities that the likes of Miss Malala
has launched.
Mr. Gordon Brown who appeared on a special
interview session with the UK-based television station—Skynews— to
inaugurate a United Nations petition in the name of Miss. Malala using
the slogan “I am Malala,” demanded that all children World-wide be in
school by the end of 2015. The former British premier said he would hand
over the petition to Pakistan’s President, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari in
November.
I was also opportune to have watched one of Malala’s
recent interview by the United States-based Cable News Network (CNN) and
was indeed proud of her display of prodigious intellect and wisdom when
she clearly stated in polished English language that “It is not true
that the Islamic religion forbids girl child education. If I have a
meeting with Taliban I will tell them that the Islamic religion promotes
girl child education”.
The interesting dimension of Malala’s
human rights advocacy is that it appears that the pivot of her campaign
molded and inspired the United Nations’ introduction of the first ever
international day of the Girl Child.
On 11 October, 2012, the
United Nations marked the first ever International Day of the girl child
by calling for an end to child marriage, and stressed that education is
a strategic background for protecting girls against this harmful
practice.
“Education for girls is one of the best strategies for
protecting girls against child marriage”, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
said in his message for the Day. “When they are able to stay in school
and avoid being married early, girls can build a foundation for a better
life for themselves and their families”.
“Let us do our part to
let girls be girls, not brides,” he stated, urging governments,
community and religious leaders, civil society, the private sector, and
families—especially men and boys—to promote the rights of girls.
The
International Day of the Girl Child was designated as 11 October by a
resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in December 2011, to
recognise girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges girls face
worldwide. The theme of this year’s observance is ‘Ending Child
Marriage.’
Approximately 70 million young women today were married
before age 18, according to the UN, which notes that child marriage
denies a girl her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her
opportunities, increases her risk of being a victim of violence and
abuse, and jeopardizes her health.
Girls with low levels of
schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage has
been shown to almost always end a girl’s education, the UN adds.
Conversely, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less
likely to child marriage, according to the UN.
Nigeria is a case
study of where the government and indeed even the legislators pay lip
service to these two fundamental rights of the girl child which are
freedom from early marriage and right to sound education.
Few
months back, a serving Senator of the Nigeria’s National Assembly was
accused of marrying a suspected girl child of 13 years from Egypt but
when different groups demanded his prosecution, the Federal Government
through the office of the Federal Attorney General, criminally failed to
protect the fundamental rights of this Egyptian girl child even when
there is an extant law against such practice known as the Child Rights
Act of 2003 which was passed validly by the Nigeria’s National Assembly
of which the suspected high profile violator is later to be a member.
A
presenter with one of Nigeria’s Ray power fm, Mrs. Queen Kunde, once
commented that government’s lip service to the rights of the girl child
is deeply entrenched.
Queen, who is a mother herself, said that
while President Jonathan rightly inaugurated the Almajiri educational
rescue project for over 10 million street boys in Northern Nigeria who
were out of formal schooling, the same government failed to introduce
similar programme for the girl child in parts of Nigeria who largely
face child labor such as street hawking and lack of education.
The
Federal government needs to urgently redress this systemic anomaly
because what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, so goes
the wise saying.
Nigeria is also blessed with talented young girls
who have used their enormous gifts to campaign for the respect of the
fundamental rights of the girl child.
In the 1980’s, Nigeria
witnessed the emergence of an enormously talented young girl child by
name Miss. Tosin Jegede who excelled in music and indeed used her 
talents to call on stakeholders in the Nigerian project to train the
girl child educationally and save them from child trafficking, sexual
molestation and early marriage. A national newspaper earlier in the
year, on 20 July, published a brief story of the remarkable activities
of Tosin Jegede who has now grown to adulthood and has also achieved
much academically.
According to the paper, Tosin Jegede ruled the
Nigerian music scene as one of the youngest child stars in the 80s.
Renowned for persuasive songs, in which she urged ‘parents to listen to
their children and pay their school fees’, Tosin began her foray into
music at the age of four.
Her music videos enjoyed generous air
play on NTA Channel 5, 7 and 10 which were the on only TV stations in
Lagos at the time. She left the country 16 years ago, with three albums
to her credit. She returned briefly in 2005 to stage a visual arts
exhibition of some of her works.
After taking a degree in Business
Decision and Analysis from the University of Bristol, London, she
finally returned to Nigeria four years after. She also worked briefly in
the UK as Pension Adviser.
Now in her late 20s, according to the
newspaper,  the chubby-faced artiste lost her mother, Mrs. Martha
Jegede, recently after being diagnosed with a muscle disease.
The
anti-human trafficking agency (NAPTIP) building upon some of the
inspirational works of great children like the then little Tosin Jegede,
should be empowered to independently prosecute habitual abusers of
children without necessarily waiting for the Federal Attorney General
for authorisation.
The National Human Rights Commission, with the
new independence that the National Assembly gave it, must partner
actively with sister organizations such as NAPTIP and credible civil
society groups to consistently put the issues around the rights of the
girl child and, indeed, the Nigerian child on the front burner of
national discourse.
Mrs. Funmi Femi-Falana aptly and, indeed,
rightly noted in her new book titled “Girl Child education in Nigeria”,
that ‘an untrained girl child is indeed an untrained society’.
• Emmanuel Onwubiko, Head, Human Rights Writers’ Association of Nigeria.

Source: The Guardian