Baby Dumping in Nigeria as A Form of Violence Against Children: Lessons from Yoruba Indigenous Education

Abstract

An injury to a baby is an injury to a future parent and the society as the baby of today is a parent tomorrow. A child dumped for whatever reason is left at the mercy of pigs, snakes, worms, ritualists and the like for devouring. This act which may deny the child the right to life is an infringement on the right of the child as enshrined in the United Nation`s Child Right Act. Employing Erikson's Psychosocial Theory as the theoretical framework, this paper analyzes the vexed issue of baby dumping phenomenon in Nigeria as a form of violence against children, selecting Yoruba indigenous education as a model for checking the ugly trend. Poverty, family values degeneration, health and immorality are some of the reasons responsible for baby dumping in Nigeria. The model society ? Yoruba traditional society employed diverse strategies against baby dumping which include stringent family values, communal living, self-employment and morality which are suggested as incorporable values of checking the issue of baby dumping in contemporary Nigerian societies.