Innocence is one of the six attributes of childhood, we have identified must be preserved as one of the legacies of childhood.

By innocence we mean the preservation of the child’s sense of goodness and trust in people and society. It is our well considered opinion that once innocence is attacked in childhood, trust also becomes an immediate and automatic casualty. Once trust lay defeated, we raise commitment fearful children. To be commitment fearful is to lack any fibre of dignity, honour, moral and emotional decorum to make meaningful commitments and when one is made there is no grit to hold on to the very end.

One of the casualties of Child Labour is Innocence. How? Well, let me attempt to define child labour by borrowing from Wikipedia ‘Child labour refers to the exploitation of children through any form of work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and is mentally, physically, socially or morally harmful.’

You see, when a child is denied of childhood he/she is denied of innocence, among other things. Child labour corrupts childhood, truncate a divine order of physical and emotional development and set up the child to begin to win bread when bread is supposed to be won for him/her. So the child has grown in responsibilities, without growth in his/her mental balance.

Africa is a host to a horde of child labourers. What is the cause? ‘International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests poverty is the greatest single cause behind child labour,’ submits Wikipedia.

The solution as also propounded by ILO is Social Protection. What is Social Protection?
According to Wikipedia, :Social protection consists of policies and programs designed to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting efficient labour markets, diminishing people’s exposure to risks, and enhancing their capacity to manage economic and social risks, such as unemployment, exclusion, sickness, disability and old age.’

I think I will rest my case here in the spirit of the rest being enjoyed by workers, who have been given today to rest from their labour and worthly so, particularly in Africa, where most workers take-home pay does not take them home. But permit me to conclude that a nation or continent has no rest, whose future is denied of required and divinely designed rest in the name of child labour and other forms of morally, emotionally and physically debilitating abuse.

We must therefore arise as African STANDARDS BEARERS and do battle against every force of darkness and their astute agents who are committed to enslaving the PRECIOUS children of Africa ‘by all means necessary,’ in the words of Malcolm X. ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ warns Martin Luther King Jnr.

Do have a SOBERINGLY INSPIRED Worker’s Day.

Yours in THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PRECIOUS AFRICAN CHILD,
Taiwo AKINLAMI
The Preacher