Chinedu Anyanor, A pastor
As a pastor, I will want to say that parents have a huge impact to make in terms of the upbringing of their children.

Even the Bible stated that we should train up a child so that when he or she grows up, he will not depart from the internal lessons that have been passed down by the parents. Children are gifts from God. Parents should be encouraged to put in their best for their children by ensuring that education is made a priority for them. The right to education, as stated in our laws, should be implemented. Government should put action in place in partnership with the various state governors to see that children are not allowed to roam the streets. These children are our future.

I know it is not all the time that everything can be provided for them. But the fact remains that we are seating on a time bomb for not giving them the best in terms of awareness in values in education. If a child is properly trained, will he or she take up arms against society? I don’t think so. We must not rest on our oars. This is the time to wake and face the challenging pains we are sitting on that might come back and consume all of us including those who put us into this crisis.

Why should children not be in school? What will parents or the government gain from not putting them in school? This is a dent in what we have stood for as a people over the years. Why should our future not be taken care of before we find ourselves in trouble? Should the government be begged or parents before doing the needful? I thought at this stage of our lives, we should be talking of something more interesting not this basic right of our children.

Once something is basic, no one toys with it. The time to act true to action is now by ensuring that our children are made to see the good in education by all means possible.

nothing is being done about it? This is appalling to say. Even with five naira or ten naira, these vulnerable kids can be recruited to carry out attacks anywhere. He or she can do anything he is paid to do. So, the government should wake up and do the needful. That is the simple logic there.

Sanni Nurudeen Tijani, A graduate of Banking and Finance

The challenge has been that parents are not doing enough for these kids. Why should a child be given birth to and be abandoned? What do they expect such children to turn to or become in the future? It is saddening that today, we are battling with all manners of crimes. Some of these kids have grown to be notorious because of the exposure they have been led into. They don’t see anything strange again. They are wild and fearful at times. Society dreads them because there is no care for them, they see crime as the only way forward for themselves.

Imagine, walking the streets of Nigeria and you find children either selling on the roads or sitting idly doing nothing when they are supposed to be engaged for productive time. What sort of society are we breeding these children into? I regret to say that parents have failed in this regard. I don’t see any reason why any child should be allowed to suffer or wander aimlessly in the streets. Some of these children don’t have parents most times. But, these ones with parents, how are they being taken care of? It is a sad reality in my honest view. The right to education should be strictly enforced so as to take these kids out of the streets.

The problem is not limited to any region, but is a challenge across the federation. But it seems in my view our various governors are aware but failed to take decisive action. They are not committed to giving these kids what can make them be patriotic once they grow up tomorrow. That is why Boko haram is taking up arms against the government due to some of this bad attitude shown towards them. What does it really take to put hope in the faces of these children? Children with better hope tend to do well than those facing immediate needs. It is fact. And, the parents are aware of this bitter truth.

Daniel Bature, Member, Advance Youth and Community Initiative
Based on this analysis on who is to blame – whether the government or the parents. Both institutions are to be blamed or shared responsibility for it. But, most importantly, it is the parents.

There is no need to give birth to a child that you know you are supposed to take care of, but you are not doing that. And you are leaving the child wayward or he or she comes back or he or she goes to school and you don’t ask him what he is being taught in school. Or not hearing anything from the child. When you leave such child recklessly, sure you should expect that he will go astray.

The child was not taught what life is about. Or how he can manage resources. Whatever he sees, he uses the way he feels. And, where the parents are not alive, what happens? Nobody can see or take care of such a child. Uncles, aunts, or guardians are nowhere to be found. You should expect such a child will find it hard to sustain life. On the part of the government, they are not creating an enabling environment for these children, even though they are wayward. We have a social welfare department.

What do they do to assist these kids roaming the streets? Are they putting skills in place for these kids to learn from whenever they are evacuated from the streets? What skills are available for them to learn? None. Because some of these skills are not available, they become willing tools for easy manipulation. Government and parents have a role to play in the life of these children.

Saliu Bello Simpa, A civil servant

Other children in other countries are developing very in different ways while we are here destroying our own by exposing them to a bleak future. During school hours, you see children walking picking, selling, or doing menial jobs when they are supposed to be in school learning what will assist in shaping their life.

There should be a national policy on education that any parents who leave his or her child wandering around will be arrested. I believe that with such a policy, parents will sit up properly. This anomaly is becoming a terrible act that affects us. The herders that are into banditry and other forms of kidnapping were not supported to see education as the best form of legacy.

They were not catered for and I am sure that is why we have lots of small arms and ammunitions everywhere in the midst of these kids. Ask me, how do they get hold of them? At a tender age, some of these children are already doing what adults are scared of doing, and it can be very challenging trying to stop them. Let the government and education stakeholders start investing massively in the education of these children.

Churches and mosques should not be left out. We cannot continue like how we have been doing things because we will all face the consequences someday. Education is too vital to be trifled with.

We must show genuine concern for these kids. God gave them to us for trust. If parents are failing due to hardship or financial challenge, should government watch and allow them to turn into a nuisance?

Engr. Simon Ayinoko, IT Consultant

It is unfortunate that we are in a modern age and our leaders don’t see any need to assist children who are supposed to be in school. They rather prefer that these children keep wasting away in their various communities. Go to most of our local government councils and see how little children who are willing to go somewhere to learn don’t have the opportunity.

Kagara parents thank God, govt for release of students

Agreed that parents might not have the wherewithal, but should the government have abandoned them? Certainly, you know that if they are left like that, they are coming back to become a serious menace to society.

For too long, governments at all levels have not shown sufficient commitment on how to lift them out of the streets. I recall that during the administration of the then President Goodluck Jonathan, schools were rebuilt for these kids.

But, since he left, not even a governor or President Buhari has considered it fit to add blocks of the classroom for these children. What sort of future generations are we raising as a people? Mind you, those we failed to create a future for will grow up and become a negative albatross to us.

The kidnapping we are seeing today grew out of a root, and it is sad that we are being confronted with the reality today. Let us use technology to drive the urge for these kids to learn in a conducive atmosphere.