By Rose Oranye/ Ogochukwu Eze
The Anambra State Commissioner for Information and Value Reformation, Dr. Law Mefor, has decried the rising cases of child abuse in Anambra State, particularly those perpetrated by women, describing the trend as cruel and requiring urgent study.
Mefor spoke on Friday, September 18, 2026, when he received the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK) Child Rights Committee, led by its Chairman, Dr. Obiorah Edogor, who paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Awka.
He lamented that the frequency and cruelty of child abuse cases in Anambra raises questions about societal values. “You see a defenceless child under seven whose faculties are not developed and you use razor, hot iron, wire on them. Our men are not half as cruel as our women are now turning out. I grew up in Anambra. Our mothers were not like this,” he said.
The commissioner, a social psychologist, said while he believes in “spare the rod and spoil the child,” punishment must be commensurate with a child’s age and humanity. “There is a disarticulation between our appreciation of life and what we do to others, particularly children,” he noted, adding that some people treat fellow human beings as objects.
He advised that anyone who cannot love a child should not keep the child, and called for intervention around the domesticated Child Rights Act, including setting up a task force, and attributed part of the problem to impersonalism and the erosion of Africa’s communal support system where any adult could correct a child.
He disclosed plans for a one-week workshop with teachers and parents on the place of punishment in modern education, which would involve experts from tertiary institutions, stressing that punishment cannot be abolished but must be modified.
The commissioner assured the committee of the ministry’s partnership, noting that the ministry’s new mandate on value reformation is aimed at addressing wrong behaviours replacing virtues for which Onye Anambra is known — wisdom, hard work and fear of God.
Earlier, Dr. Edogor said the Vice Chancellor mandated the committee to organise a national summit bringing together all child rights stakeholders in Nigeria, noting that the Ministry of Information and Value Reformation is key to their mandate considering the value reformation drive of the Soludo Government which children and youths must imbibe.
He formally sought the ministry’s partnership and invited the commissioner to the summit.
Other members of the committee are Dr. Gloria Nneka Ono, Dr. Njide Ezeonyejiaku and Dr. Henry Anaekwe.
