Emmanuel Ukudolo I Tuesday, Sept. 01, 2023
LAGOS, Nigeria – The United Nations Children Education Fund, UNICEF has sealed a deal with four Nigerian superstars in the creative industry, music and film for advocacy on protection of children rights.
The superstars working with UNICEF unveiled at a media parley in Lagos include Kate Henshaw, Ali Nuhu, Aituaje Vivian Ebele Iruobe, better known as Waje and Cobhams Asuquo.
All four were unveiled to the media by UNICEF representative in Lagos, Christian Munduate who called on the ruling elite in Nigeria to prioritise the welfare of children, stressing that placing priority on children is prioritising the welfare of the country.
She said the four superstars were carefully chosen to inspire the needed change. They are all expected to deploy creative styles unique to each of them in advocacy to make the needed change.
Munduate said the challenges confronting children are in millions both at the secondary and primary school level and that stakeholders at all level have a role to play in protecting the rights of children and securing the future.
Speaking at the event, Waje said she is very intentional about what people around her watch as part of an effort to protect them and that she is super excited to be one of the drivers of advocacy for change.
Cobhams said as a musician, he recognises that his platform is a tool for social change, social engineering for awareness apart from entertainment. He said Nigerian music has taken central change but that it will be a big disservice if music can go out and do all the exploit without consciously using it to shape culture and to influence the young people in Nigeria.
He said it is a travesty if all he could do is pay his bills with his music without influencing the generation that relies on his platform.
He said that it is the attention, care and love given to him in his formative stage as a blind person that shaped his personality and what he is today, adding that he has a responsibility to give back what has been given to him while growing up.
Kate Henshaw said she is passionate about what she has been doing in terms of advocacy for the rights of children and she woundn’t stop talking. She said if children are not prioritised how then do you determine succession. She explained that children are so vulnerable especially in Nigeria and that all they need is special care and focus.
She said no country should be in a position where children are vulnerable and that Nigeria needs to be more intentional about child education, nutrition and the environment where they are raised.
She said the mindset of religious barriers when it comes to childcare needs to be changed and that she and the three others are being used by UNICEF to make the society better and that everyone is involved including journalists.
She alluded to an experience involving herself and Ego Boyo in company of Oando Foundation helping to build a school that was hitherto in a poultry pen without toilet facilities and others and handed over to a community as part of effort to inspire change.
Ali Nuhu also spoke about his passion for children, growing up in the ghetto where live has to go on. He said there has been a mixed perception that he grew up in the South and not North as a result of poligamy in the North.
He said as a parent with just two kids, he knows what it means to take care of children and that having him on the platform is exciting since it gives him the opportunity to fight for the rights of children.
He alluded to children begging in Northern Nigeria, adding that the development is upsetting. He said it is the right of the children for parents to provide for them. He intends to take the message to the north in the local language using the mass media and the social media to pass the message to ensure that the children are not vulnerable.
