The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) received 1,223 complaints on child abandonment in December 2024.

The figure was given by the senior human rights adviser to NHRC, Hilary Ogbonna, at the presentation of the December dashboard report prepared by the commission.

The dashboard showed that the commission received 355,726 complaints of human rights violations in December.

“We are trying to complete a forum—a policy and action forum—that will look at this from a multi-sectoral and government-wide approach.

“We hope that in this union we are able, with the support of pastors, to organise that policy forum on child abandonment, but from what we know from our state offices, a lot of them are attributed to the current economic situation in the country.

“However, the commission is of the opinion that there is no justification for abandoning a child or a family; there can be no justification.

“Having noted that, we continue to call on authorities to establish social welfare mechanisms that would require or recognise that children are at the heart of our future,” he said.

Mr Ogbonna said child abandonment is the foundation for the violation of multiple child rights.

He pointed out that when a child is abandoned, that child is exposed to violence and possible child marriage.

“The child will not have access to good nutrition, so abandonment should not just be seen as a single event of a father or a mother abandoning a child or children but rather a foundation for multiple human rights violations,” Mr Ogbonna explained.

The dashboard is a monthly analysis and graphical presentation of the human rights situation in Nigeria, while the observatory is for monitoring, reporting, and analysing violations.

(NAN)