THE INFLUENCE OF BROADCAST CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE IN ITU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA
Abstract
The study set out to ascertain the influence of broadcast media campaign against child abuse in Itu Local Government Area. The broadcast media were NTA 12, Uyo and AKBC Radio. A survey of Itu Metropolis. The study is aimed at addressing the role of the media on their campaign against child trafficking and abuse in Nigeria and to examine their effort being made as well, and also to have an overview of their encumbrances and their performance so far. A total of two hundred questionnaires we given out to the mass media audience and one hundred questionnaires were issued to the mass media practitioners. The response rate of the mass media audience was one hundred and ninety. While the mass media practitioner’s respondents were ninety. The data collected was analyzed to determine their responses. The response favourable and in support of the role of the media against child trafficking and abuse was analyzed and it was discovered that most of the victims of this ugly vices were from impoverished homes.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Problem
The Nigerian society and indeed African societies in general highly value children. This is because of the intrinsic and emotional satisfaction children offer their parents as well as the instrumental role they play in lineage and kinship matters. Moreover, God sees the need of sending children to parent for the purpose of multiplication, joy and happiness in the home. The birth of a child is thus celebrated in the society, in many circumstances, with joy, songs and dance Kisekka (2001) assets that the Nigerian in the first one year of life is certainly a centre of attention. He is often carried on the back, curded, bathed and talked to by an array of old relations. The child, therefore, rarely eats plays as sleeps alone.
Okwara (2005) notes that child is a valuable gift from God and every ethnic group in Nigerian puts high value on children. In spite of this, it is unfortunate that some children have been exposed to abuse and neglect. Okolo (1996) reports that in several Nigerian communities, children are rejected and sometimes sent to the streets to tend for themselves and learn how to survive on their own. Bidemi and Adefuye (2007) are of the view that it has always been their customary for children to help their parents work. Children of trader would assist their parents to sell their goods; those of farmer would help them on the farm. Today, the situation has changed drastically as adult supervision of the children has reduced in several cases.
The child is now sent into the streets and highways alone. Sometimes to the market to sell goods, he is battered, under-nourished, poorly clothed and often abuse takes forms which include: beating with the hand, beating with available instruments, kicking and knocking on hard objects strangling of suffocating, stabbing on slashing drowning, burning, poisoning, deliberate neglect, exposure, hawking, lock in, starvation and education deprivation. All these practices expose the child to injuries and emotional tensions that do not allow for their effective growth and development.
Fontona (1996) states that in America alone, between 50,000 and 70,000 incidents of child abuse and neglect occur yearly. De Francis (1996) also reports that in London. 10,000 children are severally battered, 5,000 to 7,500 sexually abused, 1,000 neglected every year. Gesinde (2007) notes that accurate statistics on child abuse in Nigeria are currently unavailable. However, its existence has been reported by Ifeyinwa (2002), Dunapo (2000) and Bukoye (2000). Thus, in Nigeria the prevalence of child abuse appears higher than it does in the United States of America. Britain is reported by Wisdom (2007) as having the lowest figures of child abuse and neglect among the first world nations. Child abuse is defined in various ways by various people. The royal collage of Psychiatrists (2004) asserts that child abuse is a term when an adult harms a child or young person under the age of 18. Wisdom (2007) defines it as the physical, psychological on sexual maltreatment to a child’s physical moral or mental well-being. It also means physical abuses sexual abuse and neglect which many result in bruises, broken bones, permanent physical of developmental impairment, and emotional trauma or death. The African network for the prevention and projection against child abuse and neglect (ANPPCAN) (1986) defines abuse as the intended, unintended as well intended acts and the endanger the physical, emotional, moral and educational welfare of the child.
THE INFLUENCE OF BROADCAST CAMPAIGN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE IN ITU LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA