Children’s Literature as a Cultural Tool For Combating Insecurity in Nigeria

Abstract

Children by definition are persons under the age of 18 and they face a lot of security threats such as terrorism, kidnapping, rape, child trafficking, child abuse, and other forms of criminality that affect the peaceful coexistence in Nigeria. This paper believes that an alternative to this insecurity is of imaginative arts in the 21st century, and children’s literature is readily available to do just that. To achieve this, the paper discusses the insecurity in Nigeria as it affects children, children’s literature, and activities that can be employed by parents, teachers, and the elderly in educating, enlightening and informing children on these forms of criminalities. These activities include the use of stories such as storytelling, story reading, folktales, drama, oral literary traditions, etc. The paper recommends, among others, that government, through the mass media, should educate the children on security threat as it affects them by organizing programmes such as drama, children’s stories and so on. Teachers should endeavour to teach their pupils to be aware of threats to their security by selecting appropriate stories to tell in the classroom and above all, parents, especially the elderly, should enlighten the children through the tales and other night –stories on the menace of these threats and how they can take care of themselves in case of any attack to their security, among others.