TRAJECTORIES OF CHILD RIGHTS SECURITY: SEXUAL HARRASMENT AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA (2019-2021)
Background: Evidences show that sexual harassment amid the COVID-19 pandemic was on the rise in Lagos state with strong links to abuses of girl child rights and security. These challenges are due to lack of improper policies implementation which leads to the violation of girl child fundamental human rights. Despite several policies, laws and agencies in Nigeria for the protection and safe keeping of its citizens especially children as found in the “1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended”, several sexual harassment cases got increased drastically from 62% to 95% during the lockdown period in March 2020. The seriousness of this girl child abuses was examined in this research for national security and Nigeria’s image in the international arena. Methodology: The study adopted primary and secondary data towards achieving the set objectives. The population of the study comprised 250 residents of Ikorodu Local Government of Lagos state. Out of the 250 questionnaires administered, 204 copies were returned, indicating a response of 81.6%. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis were also used to analyze the data, while human security approach was adopted as its theoretical framework. Findings: show that girl child rights and security in Lagos was threatened due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Also, the inability of government to properly dispatch justice on culprits was a major factor that encouraged such behavior. Conclusion: Study therefore concludes that there is need for improved regulation of activities of child development, efficient supervision of those in charge of rehabilitation of sexually harassed victims in Lagos state in order to ensure that rules and regulations are followed, and provision of strict punishment for the sexual harassment offenders.
Child rights, Security, Sexual harassment, COVID-19 pandemic