Child offenders: The challenge of reintegration

Atolagbe Tawakalitu and Babalola Mujeeb in Lagos

Broken infrastructures, lean family economy and child rights abuse have rendered children vulnerable to crime and criminal activities nationwide and, in place of formulating policies that should protect the child and provide healthcare, educational and career-focused facilities and programmes to aid and guide the child into adult life, government made haste to provide remand homes and rehabilitation centres, aimed at remolding behaviour of child offenders, otherwise known as juvenile delinquents. This is a sad example of putting the cat before the horse.

It is instructive to note that Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode has decided to revisit and enforce the Child Right Act of 2007, after many years of neglect. The Chief Justice of Lagos State, Justice Oluwafunmilayo Olajumoke Atilade, recently released some large number of supposed “delinquents” from prison custody.

But laudably as the act is, stakeholders in the society have expressed reservations over a situation whereby the children may slide back to crime – after spending some years in the remand homes.

Basis of the problem

At a rendezvous with Child Guidance Counsellor, Mrs Biola Ogungbemi, in Lagos, The Daily Times team learnt of some reasons under-aged children are convicted for offences as severe as murder.

Ogungbemi said, “Some children suffer abuse from their parents and this triggers them to try such abuse on other children leading to infliction of injuries or death.

“In most cases, it is possible that these children’s parents have once suffered abuse from their own parents and thus, the abuse becomes inherent in offspring and continues from generation to generation and I can tell you, it would take divine intervention to break the evil circle.”

Ogungbemi recalled the case of one 16-year-old Ibukunoluwa who renamed himself ‘Spider’ when he got into the streets. “Ibukun turned out to be a victim of child torture just as his mother was a victim of domestic violence. When he was brought to me, I was able to deduce that anytime he made a simple mistake, his father would torture him with horsewhip; and after beating him, he will apply grounded pepper on the boy’s wounds to deepen his pain.

“The boy fled from home and ended up stealing to feed himself. Not long, he was caught while picking the pocket of a man. Thank God that a Good Samaritan saved him from the hands of an angry mob that wanted to burn him alive. It was the same man that saved him that brought him to me for counselling.”

Because of his growing up experience that hardened his heart, Ogungbemi learnt firsthand that Ibukunoluwa developed the habit of bullying other children in the streets. “Bullying became natural with him, and I found also that even his father was himself a victim of child abuse during his growing up years which experience made him bitter towards his wife and son. So you see, it is a case of merry go round abuses,” she said.

In a separate interview with The Daily Times, an official at the Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development Alausa, Ikeja, who spoke in confidence, said most of the children found in remand homes lack parental care, love and training.
He said, “Sadly, this makes them seek refuge from over exposed adults who mislead them into crime and may sometimes use them as puppets in carrying out robbery operations.

“Sometimes, they are told to knock at people’s gate without having knowledge of why they are knocking at the gate. Thereafter, the robbers storm the house and if luck is not on their side, the child may be caught as an accomplice together with the robbers by the police and then lands in a remand home because he/she is underage.”

The official stated that many children found in remand homes are from poor families whose parents tell to go out and find their way in the streets. “Of course, without proper guide, these children may decide to engage in pick-pocketing, and from there they graduate into house or shop break-ins and brazen robbery, where they are caught in action because they are still amateurs in the act, unlike their older counterparts,” he added.

Reintegration: Stakeholders uncomfortable

The Daily Times investigation revealed that stakeholders comprising parents, social workers and the minors themselves are not at ease on the issue of total reintegration to normalcy of the minors back into the society.

Expressing the desire to see a platform that would empower the minors already exposed to crime by teaching them a trade, a form of skill, then providing them with durable equipment to give them a stable start when they are released from remand homes, a parent and social worker, Mr. Shola Adeoye, advised both state and federal governments to see it as a responsibility to prepare the young ones to handle their future with some confidence.

He said, “If you take a minor from the streets and put him in a remand home, it is proper the child is groomed in a trade and given a skill to depend upon when he or she is released. Not only that, it is human also for authorities to give all children released from government confinements enough money to start a business enterprise they have learnt. This way, it would take the devil himself to persuade such a child to go back to crime.

“I implore the Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to engage in youth empowerment campaign where they educate youths on the dangers of crime as an image destroyer because the government cannot do it alone.”

Child Guidance Counsellor, Mrs Biola Ogungbemi told our correspondents that reintegration should begin while the children are still in the remand homes.

“In trying to reintegrate the children with the society, I will advise the remand homes to employ counsellors who should have separate sessions with each child, try to draw out information concerning his/her problem and create ways to help him/her while they are still in the home. This will help build the child’s self-esteem among his/her mates when they are released from custody and it will also make the child forget about committing any crime that will land him in custody again.”

Ogungbemi frowned at the practice where minors are subjected to intense pain in remand homes, as corrective officers are known to do.
She said, “This cannot solve their problems; rather, it will harden them to a point whereby the child will no longer fear the rod and this may push them into further crime.

“Also, I implore religious bodies to work hand-in-hand with the remand homes to turn the children’s heart away from crime by telling them what punishment they would receive from God if they continue with their ways.”

The role of government

Since the Child Rights Act contains exclusive rights of the Nigerian child, the consensus of stakeholders is that the Act should serve as blueprint and guide for governments, corrective homes, NGOs, law enforcement agencies – and the society at large because everybody has a part to play in redeeming the life of those children.

Disclosing what plans the Lagos State government has for the newly released children, a top official at the Ministry of Youth, Alausa, Ikeja, said that the state government did not need to give the children anything except money because the government has already provided them with lifelong skills when they were still in the remand homes.

She noted that most of the children are skilled in hairdressing, fashion designing, carpentry, welding, bricklaying and the likes, coupled with their academics and this will help them to be able to stand on their feet when they get back into the contemporary society.
She also revealed that government is responsible for sponsoring the education of those that want to go further up to any level and thus have produced thousands of successful people who were once members of the delinquents’ family.

The Daily Times gathered that these successful people are invited to the remand homes periodically, to give lectures so that the children can see them as good examples and learn from them.

It was further gathered that the Oregun Juvenile Corrective Home in the Oregun-Ikeja area of Lagos State – formally called the Special Correctional Centre for Boys, works in collaboration with the Ministry of Youth and Social Development Alausa, Ikeja.

Further investigation showed that the Oregun Juvenile Home is a coordinated remand home for minors in crime where the children undergo training in computer education. Besides guidance counsellors that are always there to talk to them and help them solve their problems, NGOs – especially religious bodies constantly visit the home and conduct Sunday School and counselling programmes with the children.

These collective efforts are geared towards helping the children to integrate with ease into the society upon their release and become morally upright and resourceful in the society.