Mr Rotimi Olawale, the Executive Director, Youth Hub, on Tuesday, urged the remaining 10 states yet to pass the bill on the Child Rights Act into law to do so.
Olawale made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
He said that 26 states had passed the Child Rights Act into law, stressing that the rights of every Nigerian child needed to be protected.
Youth Hub is a Civil Society Organisation (CSO) involved in advocacy projects on the domestication of Child Rights Act in states.
He listed the states yet to pass the bill into law as Sokoto, Adamawa, Bauchi, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Borno, Gombe, Yobe, and Zamfara.
Olawale said there was a misconception about the Child Rights Act in some of these states yet to pass the bill.
”From our findings, some of these states do not really understand what the Child Rights Act is all about.
“They think it means the child will now have the right to stand up against their parents, arrest them, talk back at them and so on.
“They link it to religion and tradition, thinking it will affect their religious and traditional beliefs like at what age a girl can marry and so on.
“But the longer we delay the marriage of a girl child, the better and most likely she will get an education.
“As concerned civil society organisations and citizens, the growing risks faced by children due to the delayed passage and implementation of the Child Rights Act in these states cannot be overemphasised.”
Olawale thanked Kaduna and Jigawa state governments for recently passing the bill into law and called on the other states to emulate them.
He, however, noted that Kaduna State had named its bill as “Child Welfare Protection Bill” removing the “Rights”.
Olawale said the CSO had ongoing advocacy projects on the Child Rights Act in Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, and Kaduna states.
In 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Rights Act to domesticate the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Child Rights Act 2003 was created to serve as a legal documentation and protection of children rights and responsibilities in Nigeria.
Although, this law was passed at the federal level, it is only effective if state assemblies can domesticate same.