January 13, (THEWILL) – The latest news about the child abuse incident in the Ikorodu area of Lagos is that last Thursday the school teacher, Stella Nwadigo, arrested by the police for physically assaulting Abayomi Michael, a three-year-old pupil of Christ-Mittots International School, has appeared before Magistrate M.O. Kusanu at the Ogba Magistrate Court, pleading not guilty on two charges.
Reports also claimed that little Abayomi, who was allegedly slapped around by the teacher, may have sustained damage to his ears.
Nwadigo is captured in a video that has since gone viral, slapping the boy during a numeracy lesson in class. Her action immediately attracted an outrage that is yet to abate, with many Nigerians calling for her arrest and prosecution.
We dare say that despite the outrage that greeted this incident, this is not an isolated case. Corporal punishment, especially in schools, is common in many parts of the world. Here in Nigeria, while government officials seem to perpetually fold their arms and look on unconcerned, it has been elevated to the point of becoming a culture.
Stella Nwadigo may not be the first school teacher to brutalise a pupil, even one as young as Abayomi Michael, but there have been others before her. The storm that her action generated shows that Nigerians are growing impatient with behaviours that diminish the quality of human life.
Nwadigo has been suspended by the management of Christ-Mittots International School, pending the conclusion of investigation into the incident involving the teacher. But this seems like wielding the big stick a little too late.
The school authority has gone a step further to ensure that child abuse does not gain a foothold in the school, we learnt, by introducing a whistle-blowing system. This is commendable, no doubt, and a genuine effort aimed at dealing with the perennial problem posed to the Nigerian school system by advocates of corporal punishment.
For many years since independence, Nigerians have repeatedly called for the abolition of corporal punishment from schools. On one or two occasions, even government had made half-hearted attempts to address the issue but in vain.
Although there appears to be no specific legislation that disallows corporal punishment in schools, it has been stated that the Child Rights Act prohibits. But this not true.
The Child Rights Act says that children, including children of school age, should not be subjected to any form of torture or degrading treatment, but it fails to explicitly ban corporal punishment from Nigerian schools. Government should do something about this and urgently, too.
