23 Years After, Nigeria Reopens the Child Rights Question
By Matthew Eloyi
Twenty-three years after Nigeria enacted the Child Rights Act (CRA) 2003, stakeholders in the justice sector are confronting a difficult question: how effective has the law been in protecting the Nigerian child from the realities of a rapidly changing society?
The question took centre stage in Abuja on Wednesday as policymakers, judges, legislators, law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations and international partners began a three-day national engagement on the review and amendment of the landmark legislation.
The exercise, organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice in collaboration with UNICEF and International IDEA, represents an attempt to bridge the widening gap between the rights guaranteed to children under the law and the protection they experience in their everyday lives.
When the Child Rights Act was enacted in 2003, it represented a major step in Nigeria’s effort to domesticate international commitments on children’s rights. More than two decades later, however, the environment in which Nigerian children grow up has changed considerably.
The digital revolution has created new opportunities for education, communication and participation, but has also exposed children to new forms of exploitation and abuse. At the same time, insecurity, poverty, child labour, child marriage and barriers to education and healthcare continue to threaten the wellbeing of millions of children.
For stakeholders at the Abuja engagement, these realities make a review of the law not only timely but necessary.
Opening the engagement, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, represented by the Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba, stressed that the future of Nigeria was inseparable from the wellbeing of its children.
According to him, investment in children represents an investment in the country’s future workforce, leadership, innovation, peace and prosperity.
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He argued that child rights should no longer be treated as a peripheral social issue because they are closely connected to human capital development, national security, social stability and sustainable development.
The central challenge, therefore, is not simply whether Nigeria has legislation protecting children, but whether those legal protections are accessible and enforceable.
The review committee is expected to examine the areas where the existing law has failed to keep pace with developments and identify provisions requiring amendment, clarification or stronger enforcement mechanisms.
Fagbemi urged participants to focus on the gap between legislative intent and the lived experiences of Nigerian children.
That gap remains one of the most significant challenges confronting child protection in the country.
The circumstances facing Nigerian children today are significantly different from those of 2003.
The internet and social media have transformed childhood, creating challenges around online exploitation, cyberbullying, privacy, harmful content and other forms of digital abuse that were not prominent considerations when the CRA was enacted.
Beyond the digital space, insecurity has disrupted education and exposed children to displacement, violence and psychological trauma in many parts of the country.
Child labour and child marriage remain persistent concerns, while poverty continues to limit access to education, healthcare and adequate nutrition.
The Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho, represented by Justice James Omotosho, drew attention to these changing realities.
He noted that more than two decades after the enactment of the CRA, Nigerian children were confronted with challenges that the original framers of the legislation could scarcely have anticipated.
Among the issues he identified were the pressures of the digital age, insecurity, child labour and child marriage, as well as the absence of uniform domestication and enforcement of the Act across the states.
His intervention highlights one of the fundamental complications surrounding child protection in Nigeria: legislation at the federal level does not automatically translate into uniform protection across the federation.
One of the long-standing challenges in the implementation of the Child Rights Act has been the uneven process of domestication by states.
Nigeria’s constitutional structure means that the practical application of many provisions affecting children depends heavily on state-level legislation, institutions and enforcement.
Consequently, a child’s protection can vary depending on where that child lives.
This creates a troubling inconsistency in the application of rights that are intended to be universal.
For the ongoing review, stakeholders are therefore expected to consider how legislation can be made more coherent, implementable and enforceable, while also strengthening coordination between federal and state institutions.
The review has also brought the justice system itself under scrutiny.
Justice Tsoho emphasised that protecting children does not end with passing legislation. It requires courts that children can access, procedures that do not expose vulnerable children to further trauma and judicial officers who understand the particular circumstances of children appearing before them.
He called for stronger enforcement mechanisms, child-friendly court procedures and closer coordination among the judiciary, law enforcement agencies, social welfare structures, traditional institutions and religious bodies.
Justice Suzzette Nyesom-Wike, Co-Chair of the Review Committee, representing the President of the Court of Appeal, similarly urged participants to bring their professional experience to bear on the review.
She assured stakeholders of the judiciary’s readiness to contribute to the process and support efforts to strengthen the protection of children’s rights.
The significance of the review ultimately lies in what happens after the stakeholders leave the conference room.
Nigeria has no shortage of laws and policies addressing social development. The recurring difficulty has often been translating policy commitments into effective implementation.
For children, the consequences of weak implementation can be particularly severe. A child denied education, exposed to violence, forced into labour or subjected to early marriage may have opportunities permanently altered before the justice system ever intervenes.
That is why the current review is being framed not merely as a legal exercise, but as an opportunity to strengthen the institutions responsible for turning children’s rights into tangible protections.
The challenge will be to produce amendments that are clear enough to enforce, realistic enough to implement and strong enough to respond to contemporary threats.
Stakeholders at the Abuja engagement appear united on the need for legislation that reflects the realities of today’s Nigeria.
But the ultimate test will be whether the review produces a framework capable of moving child protection from legal aspiration to everyday reality.
Twenty-three years after the Child Rights Act entered Nigeria’s statute books, the country is once again examining how best to protect its youngest citizens.
This time, the measure of success will not simply be the strength of the amended law, but whether Nigerian children can actually feel its protection.
