New episode of Professor Johnbull slams child abuse
As viewers of the most popular TV Drama Series, Professor Johnbull, sponsored by the foremost telecommunications company, Globacom, book a date with the sitcom today, they will be jolted to the reality of the dangers inherent in the unwholesome practices of child labour, child trafficking and street hawking by school-age children.
In the latest episode of the sitcom on NTA Network, NTA International on DSTV Channel 251 and NTA on StarTimes at 8.30 p.m., various ways through which children, minors and other school-age adolescents are abused are dramatised to draw public attention and make the viewers conscious of the deprivations the victims suffer.
Entitled Street School, the episode projects how these minors are lured from their homes, especially in the villages, to the cities with the promise of greener pastures and continuation of their education, only to be turned to house helps and street hawkers by their masters who renege on all the promises and subject them to all sorts of inhuman treatment.
The episode equally highlights some of the negative consequences of child labour such as exposing the children to dangers on the road, sexual and physical abuse and deprivation, which makes the victims to become inferior to their age mates who they see daily go to school while they hawk.
The lead character in the sitcom, Professor Johnbull (Kanayo O. Kanayo), is joined by his household, Churchill his son (Jnr. Pope Odonwodo) and Caro the househelp (Mercy Johnson Okojie), Chief Zebrudayah (Chika Okpala) and Olaniyi (Yomi Fash-Lanso) in condemning the ignoble practice of child labour and trafficking, which the scholar says “is at the peak of all that is wrong”.
“So many young men and women have had their dreams snatched through lies and deceits by people who promised them greener pastures”, the professor says, and counsels parents and guardians against truncating the dreams of their children and wards.
Another highlight of the episode is the cameo appearance of the popular Yoruba movie actor, Saheed Balogun, who plays the role of a child trafficker.
There will be a repeat broadcast of the episode on Friday at 8.30 p.m. on the same television channels.
Tosin Ajuwon, Akure
