Children were asked to be prepared for leadership roles at any age.

The Plateau State Governor, Jonah Jang, has challenged parents and guardians to ensure a better future for their children by giving them proper upbringing.

Mr. Jang’s statement was read by his representative, the State Commissioner for Education, Nanle Dahen, during the Children’s Day celebration at the Rwang-Pam Stadium in Jos. The theme of this year’s celebration was Our Children, Our Future, Our Collective Responsibility.

The state governor also said that his administration has made adequate provisions for the Plateau child through its enactment of the Child Right Act which was signed into law in 2005. He urged children to be prepared to take leadership roles form an early age.

“The state has made and is still making efforts to ensure that children between zero to five years are immunized, that the issue of malaria, measles and other child killer diseases are adequately addressed,” he said.

The governor said that children are blessings from God and therefore should be given maximum protection from ills that may bedevil them in life. He lamented that some of the challenges against the proper growth and development of the Nigerian child in the state were enormous but added that his administration has taken measures to tackle them.

“Quite a number of children do not have access to quality education, while five out of every one thousand die before the age of five. These data is indicative of the situation in areas where there’s a lack of the basic social amenities that children are entitled to,” he said.

The convener of the program and Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Olivia Dazyam, in her address, appealed to parents and all agencies responsible for the care of the Nigerian child to double in their efforts to make life meaningful and worth living for children of both sexes.

Five nursery schools, 13 Primary schools, 19 private and government secondary schools, and five voluntary organizations participated in a parade, with the most outstanding schools receiving prizes.