Thursday 2 August 2018

Falana Calls for Better Healthcare for Nigerian Children

Rebecca Ejifoma
Children at IDP Camp

Human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, has called on the federal government to create an enabling environment for Nigerians, especially children in order for them to have good health and better lives.

He made this call in Lagos at the launch of Upright for Nigeria; Stand against Corruption Campaign, which the Centre for Communication and Social Impact organised in Lagos. 



“With respect to the provision of basic healthcare for the people, the government has failed in carrying out her duties. We have public officers and their family members flown abroad for medical treatment in foreign medical centres,” he said.

While the Upright for Nigeria initiative seeks to build public demand and attitudes for anti-corruption through strengthened, organised collective and individual actions and voices, Falana decried the healthcare system further.

He expressed sadly: “People are left to die in our ill-equipped hospitals. Those who go abroad to have their children do so for their children to have better lives and secure better lives for their future”. 

The Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), however, described the primary purpose of the government as creation of an enabling environment for her citizens, adding that such would reduce crime among youths, especially.

“In our days, the government paid us, as students, bursaries. And when you graduate from school, jobs were already waiting for you. How then could we think of crimes in our time?,” he queried.

According to him, things are incomparable. "These days, crime is everywhere because the government has failed to provide jobs and good education for the children of this country. Why won’t the crime rate increase?"

Meanwhile, he continued that the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) disclosed that 10.5 million children out-of-school figure has increased yet government in Nigeria has done nothing to improve this.

“I call on the authorities to arrest and prosecute parents or guardians, who fail to send their children or wards to school,” Falana advised. 

As part of its aim to Strengthening Citizen’s Resistance against Prevalence of Corruption (SCRAP-C), the Executive Director for Center for Communication and Social Impact, Babafunke Fagbemi, expressed that the campaign is an initiative funded with aid from the UK government. 

“The campaign, which is to help reduce corruption in the Nigerian system, will have national and state-specific engagements in Akwa-Ibom, Borno, Enugu, Kaduna, Kano, Lagos states to increase citizens’ capacity to resist and fight acts of corruption,” he described.  

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