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From Olanrewaju Lawal, Birnin Kebbi
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has declared it’s readiness to support the establishment of the Family Court to hasten justice at the rural areas and adequate children data to ensure proper planning for the children in Kebbi state.
Chief Field Officers, Sokoto Office of UNICEF, Michael Juma stated this during the 2025 end of year review meeting in collaboration with the Ministry of Budget and Economy Planning,which was held in Birnin Kebbi.
Juma explained that he had discussed the creation of family Court with the Kebbi Commissioner of Justice to take the necessary step on the establishment of the Court that would be saddle with the issues,related to the children.
According to him, ” UNICEF will partner with the Kebbi State government to establish family courts and develop a comprehensive system for collecting and using children’s data. This initiative is part of UNICEF’s broader support for strengthening child protection systems in Nigeria to ensure children’s rights are upheld, particularly in legal proceedings and for tracking their needs and well-being.
“The collaboration aims to establish family courts to improve the administration of justice for cases involving children, aligning with UNICEF’s advocacy for specialized courts for child-related issues.
” A key component is creating and implementing a system for collecting adequate and accurate data on children. This will help the government and partners track, monitor, and respond to the needs of vulnerable children more effectively.
” On the Child Protection, this support is a continuation of UNICEF’s ongoing efforts to strengthen child protection frameworks in Kebbi, including supporting the implementation of the State Child Protection Law and responding to issues like child neglect and abuse”.
He commended the Kebbi State Government for passing the Child Protection Bill at the Kebbi State House of Assembly, stressed that it would help alot to free some children in detentions, lessen the rigorous trials being face by the Children and assist them to be re-integrated into the larger society.
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Juma who declared the readiness of UNICEF to continue to collaborate the Kebbi State on poverty survey, social protection and nutrition intervention, lauded the state government for the released of N500 million counterpart funding on the nutrition.
He however suggested that there was need to address the issue of our of school children, cholera outbreak as well coming out with road map on WASH programme to ensure other LGAs join Arewa and Mayama Councils on the fighting against open defecations.
In his remark at the event, Executive Chairman of SUBEB, Kebbi State, Professor Suleiman Khalid cautioned various organisations at the meeting to be careful of how to implanting some policies that would in conflicts with the cultures, religious and tradition of the people.
He noted that the out of school children and Almajiris were caused by social and ecological factors.
According to him, ” during the dry season, that is the period you will see most of these children on the street and the adults would be migrating to the South. The questions we should ask ourselves are that, are they not having schools in their communities? Is there no traditional or religious leaders in their houses? I think,we need to use these leaders to enforce the parents to enroll their wards in schools.
“We have to be very careful on the enforcement of law on the citizens. We need to adopt dialogues on how to implement these enforcement”, he advised.
Different departments presented their 2025 reviews on nutrition, social policy, social and behavioral change, education and WASH among others.
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