Stemming the Tide of Child Abuse: Theatre as a Communicative Tool

Every adult was once a child. Hence, the journey of a man starts from childhood. Roimi aptly describes it with this phrase, “the struggles of a man begin at birth…” (Rotimi 1981). All over the world, the issue of childcare and protection has always been salient. Almost every parent is concerned with the well-being of his/her child especially during the dependent years. Even, governments and organizations come out with policies concerning this issue. International organizations such as, the African Union (AU), the United Nations for Children and Educational Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) etc, as well as Non-government organizations (NGO’s) in Nigeria are always in the forefront defending the rights of the child. This simply implies that everyone who in any way comes in contact with a child has the responsibility of ensuring the safety of that child. Despite this fact, an average child stands the high risk of abuse even by those adults expected to oversee them. Little wonder then that this evil trend against children poses almost a difficult problem to overcome. Worthy of note is the fact that, ‘Children are products of the society and cannot but be influenced by the society in which they find themselves’ (Adeniyi 2007: 48). The first social contact a child has is the family. Right from infancy into adulthood a child is often exposed to diverse experiences and concepts such as, self-dependence, honesty, integrity, equity, fairness, justice, openness, trust, and fair play. The import of this is that the intellectual, psychological, and physiological development of any child is greatly determined by his/her experiences as he/she grows into an adult. This in turn determines the personality of a child–turned adult, and his/her contributions to the society he/she finds him/herself, whether positively or negatively.

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