The condition of the Nigerian child still shows no sign of significant improvement. This much is apparent in the recent release of the 2008 United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) "State of the World’s Children Report". The section on Nigeria is tellingly grim, a very disturbing story of insufficient concern, if not outright neglect of society’s most vulnerable group.

The report specifically stated that over a million Nigerian under-five children die each year from preventable diseases such as whopping cough, polio, measles and pneumonia, making Nigeria one of the top 12 countries with the highest under-five mortality rate in the world. Also, according to the report, nearly a third of the country’s children are under-weight and about half of the country’s total population has no access to safe drinking water. The report further disclosed that the Nigerian child is faced with severe cases of under-nutrition, a factor which contributes to about half of all deaths among the under-five.

On the whole, according to the report, although sub-Sahara Africa accounts for just 12 per cent of the world’s population, it accounts for about 50% all global deaths among children. And what is more, about 50% of the total under-five deaths in sub-Sahara Africa come from Nigeria. No wonder, moved by the pathetic situation of the Nigerian child today, the UNICEF report observed that if the country is to have any chance of meeting the aims of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which seeks, among other things, to cut child’s mortality by two-third by 2015, "Nigeria must demonstrate increased attention and investment for the survival and development of children. It must be the country’s top priority for the coming years."

This is the grim reality of the Nigerian child, an existence marked by the most difficult of struggles for survival, from the womb to the tomb. For most, it is a miserable life that more often than not is cut short as a result of the absence of the basic necessities of life. In life, he or she is often unloved, unwanted and even abandoned, left all alone to face society’s cruel fates. In Nigeria, he or she is an adult even before he has matured, forced to fend for himself or herself and made to bear the burden of the gross follies and failures of the adults who run the affairs of society. He is the perfect study case in exploitation, neglect and abandonment.

Can anything be done to ameliorate the abysmal condition the Nigerian child finds himself in today? There are so many ways and measures that can be adopted or put in place to improve the life of the child, to make it more livable, longer and more productive and useful for himself and for society generally. To start with, there should be a comprehensive child policy that addresses all the needs of children in the country from their health, diet, education and job security when they reach adulthood. For example, there is no reason why there shouldn’t be free health services for women and children in the country. The health of mothers and women are integral part of the overall health and development of the child. In the same vein, free education, at least in the first nine years of schooling will go a long way in providing education to the otherwise substantial number of children whose parents cannot afford the fees charged by school authorities at both primary and post-primary levels. There is so much to be gained by society from healthy, bubbling children who go to acquire the requisite knowledge and skills needed for individual and national development.

On its part, UNICEF, in its concern for the Nigerian child has called on all the states in the country to implement the Integrated Maternal, New-born and Child Health Strategy (IMNCH), a policy that encompasses the Accelerated Child Survival and Development (ACCD). According to UNICEF, the ACCD promotes the selection of low-cost and high impact intervention packages such as strengthening routine immunization, Vitamin A supplementation, exclusive breastfeeding, Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) and the use of Insecticide Treated Nets (ITNs). These measures, if fully implemented may not just put us on the road to meeting the MDGs target date of 2015 for reducing under-five mortality rate by two-thirds, but more importantly improve the overall health and wellbeing of our children.

The Nigerian child has been battered and abandoned long enough. Is it not then time we listened to his pleas for mercy, for concern, for love and above all his call to us to relieve him of the terrible pains he has been in since birth? Shouldn’t his everyday tears move us to action? Shouldn’t his cries be our cries, his pains, our pains, his hunger our hunger and his vulnerability our vulnerability also? He is precious and invaluable, God’s priceless gift to mankind. The kind of tomorrow we want for our country is dependent on the kind of investment we make in the child today. This, therefore means that our future, including our desire to be among the top 20 world economies by 2020 is tied to what we make of him or how we treat him today. Here then is the stark choice before us: treat him well now and reap a bountiful future or continue to abandon him and the country will continue to be consigned to backwardness.