“I’m still an abnormal adult,” Taiwo Akinlami, an accomplished Lagos-based lawyer, says about his traumatic exposure to violence as a child. Half of Nigeria’s children suffer physical violence before they turn 18, according to a recently published nation-wide survey. How does this violence affect their life and being? “What you do to a child,” says Akinlami, “becomes part of the child’s soul.” The 45-year-old lawyer regretfully looks back at the times he has hurt others, replicating the violence he was exposed to as a child. Now, he is canvassing across the nation to protect children from violence. “My father was a good person”, says Mr. Akinlami, “But unfortunately he did not know how to bring up children.” He will never forget how his father flogged him as a child: “He would tie my legs and tie my hands, and he would strip me naked”. The punishment often took long. “He would give me six strokes of the cane, go and sit down, come back and give me another six strokes...
