The Oyo State House of Assembly has expressed worry over the growing trend of children engaged in street begging across the state.
The House at its plenary on Tuesday adopted a resolution calling on Gov. Abiola Ajimobi, the Oyo State Governor, to remove all children seen begging on the streets and put them in reform homes.
This followed a motion by Mr Fatai Adesina, the lawmaker representing Ibadan South East I State Constituency.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the motion is titled :”Urgent Need to Curb the Menace of Child Street Begging in Oyo State”.
Adesina said that proper upbringing of children was not the sole responsibility of the parents but should also involve government’s input.
He applauded the previous efforts of the government to provide affordable education for all children and urged the government not to rest on its oars.
“Greater amount of money should be invested in creation of schools for this child- beggars to eliminate the mentality that begging is a profession.
“We also appeal to NGOs to contribute to government’s efforts by granting monetary support to government efforts and other assistance like scholarships for children in need.
“Reform centres should be made ready for children found roaming the streets during school hours without good cause.
“Child-beggars can never contribute meaningfully to the nation’s development if they keep begging,” he said.
Mrs Wunmi Oladeji, the member representing the Ogbomoso North State Constituency, said that child-begging symbolised the failure of a society.
She called on government to revive its campaigns on the importance of education among people at the grassroot.
“Parents and Guadians still need to be enlightened on the benefits of education for their children,” she said.
The Speaker, Mr Olagunju Ojo, said that the menace of child-beggers was more intense in Ibadan than other parts of the state.
He urged residents to embrace modern family planning methods to ensure that parents had only the number of children within their economic means.