By Sylvia Akpan
The Executive Director of Basic Rights Counsel Initiative (BRCI), Mrs. Eseoghene Ibor, has made a passionate plea for a kinder approach to children, describing them as the “purest manifestation of love and divinity”.
She made the call during the Foster Care Quarterly meeting held in Calabar, Cross River State, on November, 27, 2025.
In her opening remarks, she welcomed participants to the meeting and said it is the responsibility of the organization to train new foster carers.
Addressing foster care givers, she posited that “If you genuinely have love, you will overcome everything. The children you are fostering and adopting should not be packed into one room but rather, they should be given a family setting as it makes them feel loved.”
She reminded foster carers of the need to have compassion as some of these children could be grieving the loss of their parents.
The ED stressed that BRCI is only complementing the efforts of the Ministry of Social Welfare, noting that they are the primary ministry saddled with the responsibility of providing oversight function to oversee what is done in BRCI.
According to her: “We are just complementing the efforts of the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development. They are the primary ministry that is supposed to provide oversight function and oversee what BRCI is doing. But due to the complexities in government ministries in terms of funding and capacity, it makes it very challenging for them. So, BRCI is the primary ministry responsible for foster care in Cross River State.
Emphazing on leniency, Mrs. Ibor tasked foster parents to be lenient when dealing with the children as some could be very rude while warning that any discipline that causes physical discomfort should not be introduced to them.
She shared her experience from the disciplinary measures she adopted in her family that worked without necessarily flogging a child.
A foster parent who pleaded anonymity said that “Patience and love are needed in fostering a child not administering punishment as it may worsen the situation.
“If you do not have the love and patience, you cannot foster a child. She added that the weapon she used in making her adopted child responsive was telling her that when it was time to pay her school fees, she will not pay”. She revealed that her action triggered the child to be of good behaviour. She noted that African parents believes in beatings not knowing that it hardens the child more instead of helping to mold them.
Mrs. Nwosu Onyeka revealed that sometimes it is even better to applaud a child when he or she does something right than to verbally abuse when wrong. A habit she says helps to improve the child
Also speaking, a Lawyer, Victomera Ebiti Esq., in her presentation on Fostering and Adoption as key strategies to child’s protection, averred that fostering is a temporary care placement while adoption is a permanent care placement. She stressed on the need to foster a child before adopting.
The lawyer noted that foster parents must have the earning capacity to be able to foster a child and warned that any applicants with questionable integrity such as criminal records should not be allowed to foster a child.
Representative from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Community Development, Williams Arikpo assured that the ministry will render assistance in their own capacity adding that the challenges faced are much.
He averred that there are some government facilities meant for these adopted children that have been taken over by some politicians and will require a lot of efforts to retrieve these properties. He said it is out of selfish interest by some politicians.