A Bill for an Act to establish the Child’s Right and Welfare Commission for the protection of Children’s right has scaled second reading in the House of Representatives.
The Bill is sponsored by Mr. Okey-Joe Onuakalusi.
Leading the debate on the general principles of the Bill, he said “the Child’s Rights Commission Act with some specific functions is different from the Child’s Right’s Act already existing in 24 states of Nigeria.”
Onuakalusi said the Bill is segmented into 20 Sections.
“Sections 1 – 3 on the Establishment of the commission, Sections 4 – 7 duel on Governing Council, Tenure, Functions and Power, Sections 8 – 10 are on constitution of the Board Members, appointment of the Director – General and other Staff of the Commission, While Section 11 is on Pensions of the Commission, Sections 12 and 13 are about establishment of Departments, including Investigation and Monitoring departments that are like the eyes of the Commission, Sections 14 – 16 have to do with the identification of Offences, Penalties and Jurisdiction of the Commission,
Sections 17 – 19 are about the Funds, Power to Borrow, Accounts and Audit of the Commission and Section 20 is the Citation of this Bill,” he explained.
The Lawmaker said these sections as contained in the Bill are explicit and self explanatory.
He stressed that the Bill is distinctive in nature and functions as it shall, when passed into law, prohibit, prevent, detect, prosecute and punish those that are involved in selling of Babies and Children, operating Baby Factories, illegal Orphanages and Motherless Babies Homes.
Onuakalusi said; “Unlike the Child’s Right’s Act which does not include the above aforementioned but deals on the Child’s right to be given protection and care as necessary for the well being of the Child, taking in consideration the rights and duties of the Child’s parents, legal guardians, individuals, institutions, services, agencies, organizations or bodies legally responsible for the Child, every Child has a right to life, survival and development and etc, the proposed Child’s Rights Commission would serve as the foundation for enforcing these rights. Every child has the right to life, survival, and development. Rt. Honourable Speaker and esteemed colleagues, I urge you to support the passage of this bill.”
Members contributed to the bill and it was adopted and passed for second reading.
Mercy Chukwudiebere