Need For Reform Of The Juvenile Justice System, By Catherine Doosuur Ishu Esq

NEWSDAILYNIGERIA: There is a heartrending video that has gone viral of several young persons from various parts of the country mostly from the Northern part of the country who have been detained, arraigned and currently on trial for their involvement in the #endbadgovernance protest that took place on the 1st August, 2024.
Their arraignment is before a High Court of the FCT.

The video is disturbing and has brought to the fore the lapses in the Nigerian Criminal Justice system with regards to Children and Young persons.

The cliché ” the children are the leaders of tomorrow” is more of lip service than a reality. It has become a myth than reality. It is more futuristic and unattainable for the children and young persons in Nigeria.

The Country has a Children and Young persons Act and eventually Children and Young persons Laws of various States that have domesticated same. This Act or Laws as the case maybe, have laid down procedures to handle cases that involve Children and Young persons. The children seen in the video were even detained with adults which ought not be but was done, who could molest them one way and the other.

The question that desires an answer is ” who is a child or Young Person?” Under Part 1 of the Children and Young persons Act LFN 2004, a child is defined as ” a person under the age of fourteen” and a Young person by the sane Act is defined as ” a person who is fourteen years of age or upwards and under the age of seventeen years” Do the children in the video gone viral qualify as children and young persons? The answer is in the affirmative.

The Children and Young Persons Act is a creation of the National Assembly which was eventually passed into Law. The Laws of the land are sacrosanct and must be followed so as to avoid any form of anarchy.

Did these Children and Young persons have any right to protest? The answer is in the affirmative. The rightness or wrongness of their engaging in a protest which purely or strictly so called a thing for the adults is not what should be looked into at this stage.

Children have rights too. Part II of the Child’s Right Act 2015 enumerates the various rights available to a child. With harsh economic programs laid out by the current government, how many children can afford to go to school in the current situation? This is a right that should be available to the child. A child who has his or her rights stripped might not just sit back and let go. The right to survival and development is a fundamental basic right of a child.

Most of the children who were arrested had their right to survival and development stripped off them.

The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) which is the grundnorm of the Country, has made sure that certain rights are fundamental which is to say that they are not privileges that the government would feel it is doing these children a favour but this is their endowment from the Almighty except a Court of Competent Jurisdiction decides otherwise.

It is quite disheartening that the leaders we all claim to be the leaders of tomorrow, have been tossed into the trash can and allowed to pine away in their difficulties. What manner of leaders are we raising as tomorrow’s leaders? My heart went out to the little one who slumped and was holding his stomach for lack of food for the prolonged days of detention. This country has seen worse leaders do the unthinkable yet this manner of treatment was not meted out on them.

This is a wake up call to even the Judiciary to handle these kinds of cases with wisdom, expedition and love. These children need to be shown love no matter their offence.

These children and Young persons seen in the video mirrors our macro society. The government as well as the system we thrive on has failed not just these children but even many yet unborn.

This is a wake up call as these young ones will not forever remain young but as the saying goes, ” the young shall grow” truly grow and perhaps become a menace to society.

I therefore urge the Courts to do the needful and see to it that the sole aim of justice should not just be to punish these children but seek to reform them and also that the government begins to see to strengthen the Juvenile Criminal Justice sector to better deal with the issues of Children and Young persons. Also, the government should know that the children and young persons have rights which should as a matter of urgency be given to them to encourage them to live productive lives leading to better leaders of tomorrow.

Catherine Doosuur Ishu Esq. based in Kaduna.
1st November, 2024