CURBING THE MENACE OF STREET CHILDREN IN UYO METROPOLIS; THE ROLE OF THE CHURCH AND THE SOCIETY IN IMPLEMENTING MATTHEW 25:31-46
CHAPTER ONE
- Background of the Study
Insurgency by street children at public places in cities or metropolis in Nigeria became definite so that one basic expectation within Uyo the capital of Akwa Ibom state is the harassment by hoodlums fondly known as Utoto or Nditouba should be envisaged. Life at times becomes unbearable for unsuspected citizens who become victims of these street children along Ibom Plaza at night between 9.00pm-12.00am, and to dig out the culprits usually defy normal techniques making the town vulnerable to the menace of street children.
The validity of the core or universal ethics
Whether these street children are guilty of what they are accused of or not, the society have programmed some abusive paradigm to measure the worth of these children. Equally I felt my work could appeal to the legislators to enact a special law for their welfare or some form special care beside what is speculated.
Vulnerability of street children
I had an opportunity of hearing about the vulnerability street children by a law enforcement officer and this give rise to my inquisition on their social history, part of reasons leading to this research work.
Solidarity for Street Children
Religion plays both redemptive and evasive roles being a compound institution. One of its roles is escorting children to the streets through its witch excavating ministries. Roles as this cheapen, and weaken its redemptive services. I had wondered why the likes of such ministries would endanger children’s destinies by denying them human right through their hallowed programs. Such inquisition has fueled the selection of my research topic.
A street child is a term for any child experiencing homelessness and lives on the streets of a city, town or village. Homeless children are often called street kids or street youths; The definition of street children is contested, but many society health practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls, age less than eighteen years, for whom “the street” (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised.1
Nigeria today is faced with challenges of national development as well as national insecurity. Almost all the regions of the country are in one sort of agitation or the other. For example, “the North Eastern part of the country is facing an insurgency that has killed over 15,000 people and displaced more than 1million people scattered in most part of Africa and within the country as Internally Displaced People1 (IDP)”.The South-South region presents the country with vandalism of oil facilities by militants, reeking with arm robbery, kidnappings, piracy, and illegal refining and sales of crude oil. Such attack threatens both the multi-national oil companies operating within these Niger Delta regions and the economy of Nigeria. The resurgence of agitation by Independent People of Biafra (IPOB) for the independence of Biafra in the Eastern part of the nation is a dividing force chanting doom against Nigeria’s unity as well. The soaring rate of unemployment, underemployment and high scale display of corruption by the ruling class, only inflame lack of trust, principally in the youth and infest them with unpatriotic desire towards the nation. It is gloomy for a nation as potential as Nigeria, to be compassed with a cloud of atomistic elements as mentioned above.
According to General Yakubu Gowon, the situation in Nigeria today leaves the youths without any moral direction, skills and gainful employment, which in his words,“ is a “ticking time bomb”…2it is obvious that the driving force for most of the menace in Nigeria is the disappointed Children/Youth. They are like explosive convened in an aircraft with hundreds of passengers onboard. Nigeria being inflatable with societal and religious disappointments has failed to bring citizens into the part of rectitude; therefore some children/youth have resolved to open their can of worm upon the fabric of the society. With the break down of ethical value in most of our institutions, children/youth that are in actual sense the nation’s productive energy, are forced to become apprentice to all kinds of vagrancy in order to make ends meet. It is therefore expedient that swift measures be mounted to arrest these hazards from invading Uyo Metropolis. These are the challenges this work is set to address in order to curb the menace of street children.
Street Children are found globally, especially in most of the developing countries where children are subjected to all manners of abuse, neglect, exploitation and in some cases, murder for rituals. These children are victims of conditions created by the environment or parental circumstances or neglect, and natural or artificial disasters. By extension, some of these children are on the streets due to inherent socio-economic problems prevalent in the society.
Such children find ready-made homes in untenanted dwellings, uncompleted buildings, under the bridges and wastelands in some cases. There are children who perhaps are not actually homeless or without families, but live in environments where there is little or no protection, supervision and directions from responsible adults. Children in such a wide variety of situation and characteristics feel the society, authorities and the family have failed them because of the harsh conditions in which they find themselves. Beside the economic meltdown, some children may have chosen to make the street their alternative home out of frustration either because they were abandoned at birth, orphaned, or disowned by parents and accused as witches. However, children may choose to live in the streets in defiance, or due to psychological makeup of the parents. Regretfully though, some children are out in the street to work and augment family income. There are two categories of street children, “Children on the Streets and Children for the Streets”.(See UNICEF report on street children 2012)
Children of the Street are children who live with their families but due to the increasing threat to their survival, are exposed to the street or forced to assume one role or the other in the street either to serve as hawkers, beggars, unskilled labors, or touts in search of livelihood. On the other hand, “Children on the Street” are the ones whose social dilemma seems irredeemable, in that they have no home to go back to, and may have been largely affected by circumstance that leaves them to fend solely for themselves. Various reasons account for this kind of situations. The chiefs of them are rejection, Crisis, deprivations, orphaning, poverty and unbearable frustrations. The irony is that, these children however, are expected leaders of the future, by experiencing numerous detestable and unbearable frustrations which in most cases turn them into the streets; they helplessly resort to harming others in the society.
1.2 Statement of Problem
Why this research is important is that, Street Children, which socially are the offspring of this generation’s complex and sophisticated urban realities worldwide, signifies one of the global family’s most severe, urgent and rampantly increasing social dead end. There is hardly any country and practically no city or town that is immune to the occurrences of the street children. This social dilemma has risen in the last decades at an alarming and distressing rate especially in developing countries. Congo, Nigeria and Uganda are outstanding African countries with similarities in the case of street children besides Asia. This feature appears as a gross indicator of the Third World sociology. In order to connect with the importance of the theme, it would be good to consider the following questions.
- What is there already to know about Street Children?
- Are there Street Children in Uyo Metropolis?
- Are the Church and Society aware of their existence?
- Whose responsibility is the Street Child; the Church or the Society or both?
- Is Matthew 25:31-46 the ideal paradigm to judge the commitment of the Church and Society regarding Street Children?
In survey of the problem, the basic fact is that children on the street are castaways with major pains of being deprived the right of belonging to a caring family. This helps to explain reasons why they constitute nuisance to the community. And to identify a solution as quickly and directly as possible, some key factors why children are constantly victimized and clubbed into the street has to be considered.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The objective of this study therefore is to:
- Evaluate the implementation of Matthew 25:31-46 as a religious charter of the Church in Uyo Metropolis.
- Open attention to the security implications of street children to the society.
- Examine the role of the society and the Church in tackling the menace of street children
1.4 Scope and Limitation
The scope of this work is limited to Uyo Metropolis. It will assess the efficacy of Supportive Ministry as found in the Matthew 25:31-46. Being limited to Uyo, the work will probe the idea of Christianity by contemporized Church and Society in regard of Street Children. On the average, the sociology of Uyo Metropolis will represent evidence that these victimized children clumped to the street either through the Church escorted programs or socio-economic depression could be dangerous. The concept of witchcraft in Uyo religious culture would be limited as background to ascertain the role of the Church and the Society in contributing to street children emergence.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This study would be beneficial to all and sundry as it would awaken the interest of individuals and institutions on the plight of the street child. And by allegations of Matthew 25:31-46 reprove all negligence towards them. It is expected that the study would reeve attention to the security implications, environmental menaces and havocs, associated with Street Children which metropolis would reap as a result of the growth of street children or by nursing tendencies that encourages the society in breeding street children. These children are not only vulnerable, but can be classed as soft targets for assortments of anti-social activities and various crimes.
1.6 Definition and explanation of Terms
Who is a Street Child?
A street child is a term for children experiencing homelessness who live on the streets of a city, town or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids and street youth; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policymakers use UNICEF’s concept of boys and girls, aged less than eighteen years, for whom “the street” (including unoccupied dwellings and wasteland) has become home and/or their source of livelihood, and who are inadequately protected or supervised.1There are a number of common misconceptions about street children, from who they are, to how many there are around the world, to why children take to the streets in the first place. This work outlines some of the most up to date information, based on findings from the 2012 United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ study.
Street-connected
The term ‘street-connected’ is now more widely used to describe the broad range of experiences children and youth have on the streets: some live on the street; some work on the street; some street children maintain relationships with their family whereas others break all contact; some are on the streets currently and some are off the streets but could be easily drawn back there. All of them have strong connections to the street.
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