Childrens rights are human rights
How many times have we participated in conferences that address the situation of young people? How many conventions have we signed and ratified that we have failed to implement? Have we ever attempted to find out how much money, valuable time and energy have been put into child rights programmes since the signing of the Convention of the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC) ? How many meetings conferences and seminars have we organised and attended to address the situation of children living under extreme poverty, HIV/AIDS, perpetual abuses, wars and conflicts?
These questions do not in any way imply that seminars and conferences organised to promote and protect the rights of children have not yielded some fruits in addressing the plight of our children. However, when one looks at the prevailing situation of children in our countries, we cannot but feel guilty at times that a lot of resources have been spent and yet still the desired results are far from being realised.
So often, we have seen young boys aged between 7, 8 and 15 and sometimes even younger, going up and down the streets in many West African countries asking for charity or alms. Are they asking for alms for themselves, their parents or are they given special assignment by their marabous? Why do parents have to subject their children to such situations?
Most people feel that parents take their children to marabous as “talibes” because they want to shy away from their responsibilities as parents. Others feel that they want their children to be well educated in their religion with the hope of becoming grand marabous in the future. Whatever the reasons are, there are those who strongly argue that you can raise your child in your home, educate him and at the same time ensure that he learns his religion.
Some of the marabous do explain that some parents bring their children to them without any kind of support. Thus they are obliged to send them to beg for alms on the streets. They further explained that the child has to be taught to suffer, in order to know the world better. Asked how much time the “talibe” dedicates to learning, marabous answered that the children learn in the mornings and late at night. This is obvious because they spent the better part of the day in the streets. When one analyses the situation of the talibe, it is evident that he is out on the streets at dawn and keeps on begging up to as late as 8 Oʼ clock in the evening. More than twelve hours of tediously running up and down the streets to satisfy the wimps and caprices of their masters. So one wonders how much time they dedicate to learning.
The question that remains unanswered is- who should address the situation of the talibe? Is it the parents? The marabous? Government? Or should we hold civil society responsible? A number of people believe that it is the responsibility of the society at large to address this issue once and for all. First and foremost, parents have to shoulder their responsibilities. You cannot bring a child to this world through no fault of his and then subject him to all forms of suffering and inhumane conditions.The marabous have to live up to what they preach. If they are God fearing, they should endeavour to treat these children with some amount of dignity, care, respect and concern. They should stop exploiting them. In short they should treat them like their own children.
Our governments have signed several international instruments that protect the rights and welfare of the children. They also receive a lot of funding from international organisation in support of children and human rights. They should not shy away from addressing the issue due to fear of the marabou not praying for them to remain in office forever or of losing the votes of the people during elections. They have to show some level of commitment and be accountable to the people.Last but not the least society should not stand aside and be onlookers. We should not see these children just as recipients of our alms. They are part of us and it is our collective responsibility to protect, guide and educate them so that they become respected members of our society. They too are human beings like us. Therefore let us act now to save the souls of the many talibes who are suffering in silence! We cannot remain indifferent!
