General News
A child rights advocate, Ms Joy Oladejo, has called on the Oyo State Government to establish a joint identity registration system to ensure children in institutional care get legal identities.
Oladejo, who is also a counselling psychologist, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Thursday.
She said the joint registration system should involve the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Inclusion, the National Population Commission (NPC) and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).
Oladejo said the absence of coordination among the agencies had left many children in orphanages and welfare homes without birth certificates and the National Identification Number (NIN).
“This is even after spending years in care.
“Although many orphanage operators make efforts to cater for the welfare of children despite limited resources, they should not bear the responsibility of securing legal identity documents alone,” she said.
According to her, the process should begin immediately a child is transferred to a welfare home by the Ministry of Women Affairs, the family court or the police.
“If these agencies work together from the point a child enters an institutional care, the burden of obtaining legal identity documents will no longer rest on orphanages,” Oladejo said.
She also faulted the implementation of the Oyo State Child Rights Law, 2006.
She noted that although the law guaranteed every child the right to a name, nationality and birth registration, its enforcement had remained weak.
The child psychologist alleged that there were no sanctions against institutions that failed to register children, nor any mandatory framework compelling identity documentation for children admitted into welfare homes.
She, therefore, recommended that the state government introduce an ‘Exit Identity Package’, under which no young person would leave institutional care without a birth certificate or attestation of birth and NIN.
She also advocated periodic identity documentation audits across registered childcare institutions and the deployment of mobile birth registration and identity enrollment services to welfare homes across the state.
Oladejo said the reforms would ensure that a child leaving institutional care possessed the legal identity required to access education, healthcare, employment, banking and other government services. (NAN)
W.U
July 9, 2026
Tags: Ms Joy Oladejo National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) National Population Commission (NPC)