CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Children are heritage of the cord and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hands of the mighty man, so are children of the youth happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them (ps127:3-5) that the African child occupies a strategic position in the family and in the society and in the nation is not an over statement and cannot be underplayed. The child is considered as the life. Wire of the family and the society at large to the extent that any couple that is not blessed with a child is looked upon with pity and sometimes sympathized with. There is the need to know who is a child and what is child care. In traditional and even contemporary African, various ethic groups have different concepts of who is a child while some ethic groups see one one as a child in so far as she can contribute to the development of the society some other see it in terms of one who has not yet attained the age of initiation into the age grade. Sven in contemporary Nigeria for examples Olukoshi etal (1990) posited that. There is not one acceptable age, which is considered as a worthy definition of the upper limit of child hood. The age at which a child can become capable in law for his actions or her actions the age at which childhood begins in terms of the right to vote and be voted for and the age considered by the federal ministry of youth and culture and education as being the upper limit of childhood different. Even internationally there are divergent definitions as to who is a child. Where as the international labour organization and the united nations population division refers to a child as those below 18year of age the 1989 convention on the right of the child states that a child means every human being below the age of 18year.

Even though there are divergent opinions and views as to what is the age limit of child it is the views of this author that a child is anybody between birth to completion of physiologically/ psychological and physical development. In order words anybody between ages zero of his/her birth to 18years is a child. Child care in the other hand is a kind of human acts that jeopardizes the physical psychological and the featuring of the child either intentionally or unintentionally child care is characterized on the continuum by sexual care (either cast agreed or by agreement)

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