Girl Child Day: Our girls are in captivity – Northern Christians laments

By Kingsley Chukwuka

The National Youth Leader, Congress of Northern Nigeria Christians (CNNC), has said most Christian girls in Northern Nigeria are in captivity

The Youth Leader, Engr. Daniel Kadzai, said Christian girls are being kidnapped in boarding schools across northern States almost on a daily basis.

Kadzai stated this on Wednesday as Nigeria joins the rest of the world to commemorate the International Day of the Girl-Child (IDGC).

He laments that there is nothing to celebrate as the country ranks bottom six globally in child welfare, and bottom 10 for girls flourishing, an index that is worrisome owing to the fact that the girl child in Nigeria have not protection from government.

According to him: “The country may remain underdeveloped if it fails to address the problems of marginalisation, abuse and exploitation of the girl-child.

“Girls should be entitled to a life free of violence and discrimination, and deserve equal opportunity for access to education and health to prepare them as future leaders.

“The issues hampering the girl-child are still very much in place and the last few years have seen a steady rise in the number of girls being sexually abused and suffering other forms of abuse and molestations”, he said.

Kadzai disclosed that 2,146 girls have suffered abuse in the last two years while almost 300 suffered defilement and rape.

“Girl children are facing emotional abuse, molestation, harassment, child abuse, neglect and zero parental care in addition to the already pre-existing issues they face.

“We have to do more to stem this deplorable number of rising abuse our girl children are facing and it behooves everyone to play their part”, he said.