CHILD labour has remained a major source of concern in Nigeria in spite of legislative measures taken by successive governments to discourage such.
Researches show that child labour is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful to children and deprives them of opportunities for schooling and development.
According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the number of working children under the age of 14 in Nigeria is estimated at 15 million. The high level of diverse and tedious jobs that children execute in dangerous circumstances is alarming. These jobs include street vending, begging, car washing, shoe shining, e.t.c..
It is also on records that child workers display poor educational achievements. It is, however, worse with the girl children as they start working at an earlier age than boys, particularly in the rural areas.
They also suffer the triple burden of house works, school chores and works out of home, whether paid or unpaid for. One of the most common practices is the use of children as domestic helps.
The children, who work in this capacity, suffer from fatigue, irregular attendance at school, lack of comprehension and motivation, improper socialisation, exposure to risk of sexual abuse, high likelihood of being involved in crime, among other hazards.
In Akwa Ibom State, InsideNigerDelta observed that despite free and compulsory education policy of the outgoing administration and the Child Right Act in operation in the state, a large number of children are still out on the streets of towns hawking all manners of items even during school hours.
Items, mainly on display, as they go along the streets and at traffic points, are sachet water, fruits, bitter cola, simple motor spare parts, sweet, key holders, among others.
It is even better when the children do such jobs with some level of pleasure and ease due to ignorance but worse when, in some cases, they are forced or stressed beyond their capabilities. InsideNigerDelta was forced by conscience to accost two children who were hawking on Udo Street, about one kilometre to Akwa Ibom State Government House during school hours.
What attracted InsideNigerDelta crew was the huge load carried by each of them.
Rebecca Edet and Moses Edem are between the ages of eight and ten years, respectively, and are serving one mistress, Aunty Mabel, who sells spiced pomo in one of the adjoining streets off Willington Bassey Way leading to the Hill Top Mansion.
Each of the children carried a bucket containing 34 sachets of water and were expected to hawk for as long as it would take them to exhaust the contents in the buckets. The children looked sick and under fed. Interaction with the two children revealed that they were both pupils of Christ the King Primary School located on the same Willington Bassey Way and had to stay back from school on that day to make money for the Aunty.
According to them, each of them sells a minimum of three buckets of sachet water in one day, and for not less than two days in a week, and do stay away from school to make money for Aunty Mabel.
“If we don’t go to school, we will sell three times, but if we go to school, we sell two times and we make between N700 and N1000 daily from our sales”.
What was more devastating to know was the fact that the kids hardly eat cooked food before going out to sell with such heavy loads.
Rebecca confided in InsideNigerDelta that she only sipped garri till about 12 pm daily and when she was offered food by a good samaritan, Prince Mfon Okon, whose wife runs FUNICATES Restaurant on Udo Street, she refused to take it.
Prince Okon took it upon himself to buy off the whole 68 sachets of water from the two children even as he took the pains of taking them in his car back home to interrogate the said aunty and educate her on the Child Right Law instituted by the state government.
Okon told InsideNigerDelta that he was moved by compassion to buy off the water to free the children, at least, for the day. “I insisted on taking them back home to see the aunty because I knew if I had left them to go back with empty containers, it would have been an opportunity for the woman to make them sell four times today. I needed to educate her on the Child Right Law first and told her that even if the children must sell to augment her finances, she must not give them such heavy loads to move about. I will make sure she is arrested when next I see these children with heavy loads like today.” Okon explained.
When InsideNigerDelta visited Mabel’s pomo shop in company of Prince Okon and others who took pity on the children’s predicament, she was seen sitting with neighbours and was, however, jittery when she saw the group.
Explaining why she had to send the children out during school hours, she claimed that she owed a bank and was given ultimatum to pay in two days or face sanctions; hence her decision to deprive them the opportunity to learn for the day. She also claimed that the children loaded the buckets themselves.
At that point, the two children, who had said earlier that their aunty had given them the load, could not say a word for fear of what might be their fate when the team left.
InsideNigerDelta gathered from neighbours that Mabel has over seven of such children whom she sends out daily to sell sachet water and pomo.
According to the source, she picked those children from the interior parts of the state and from poor parents or orphans.
InsideNigerDelta reports that Mabel is not the only person in this business as there are many others, both men and women, who bring poor children from villages just to abuse them and worsen their situations in the city centres around the country and beyond. A case study on the issue of child labour and its economic implications carried out by some final year students of the state from different institutions of higher learning shows that as an emerging economy in the country and indeed Africa, Akwa Ibom has witnessed massive population growth since 2007. This increase in population has forced many families to be engaged in inhuman activities to avoid destitution, scavenge for existence that could best be described as child labour.
A stratified random sampling was carried out on 1000 respondents who are found to be involved in child labour through interviews, issuance of questionnaires and focused group discussions.
The data obtained from the field were analysed using Simple Percentages (%) and Chi-square (X2) to test the level of significant difference. The analyses revealed that over 60 per cent child labour is currently practised in Akwa Ibom State. The study also showed that there is a significant relationship between child labour and poverty, unemployment and school dropout at 0.05 level of significant. This indicates a negative effect on economic growth in Nigeria as the future of the country is at risk.
Source:Tribune
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