A major way the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government can re-write the age-long narrative of child labour is to abolish the practice now. Going through major roads across the nation, especially wherever there is always gridlock in the states’ capitals, the sight of poorly dressed teenagers and young adults, male and female, hawking varied items – from perishables to household, even vehicular items – on the streets when others are in school, brings to mind the most awful possible image of Nigeria.
According to Jamie Onwuchekwa, the 3Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic), which constitute the traditional building blocks for both personal and national progress in the modern industrial world, are denied to children who didn’t go to school. Look ahead 20 or more years into the future and you find a huge gap between the lives of those children who went to school and those who didn’t—and a huge and ever-widening gap between their children and children’s children.
The socio-economic consequences of this gap are enormous. It connects with health, crime and general security for both rich and poor down to third or fourth generations. This is why the advanced nations long ago abolished child labour, and replaced it with compulsory school education, which they cruelly tax themselves to provide free of charge.
The preamble of the Convention of Rights of the Child states: “In the universal declaration of human rights, the United Nations has proclaimed that childhood is entitled to a special care and assistance. The child, for the full and harmonious development of his or her personality, should grow up in a family environment, in an atmosphere of happiness, love and understanding.”
It is concludes that the child, irrespective of sex, must not be exploited mentally, physically, or even sexually. But our today society is far from the ideal.
The International Labour Organisation says the number of working children between five and 14 years of age in developing nations is estimated to be about 250 million. With this number, 61 percent of them are in Asia, 32 percent in Africa, while 7 percent in South America.
The fall of communism increased the number of child labour in the whole of Europe. The official number of child labourers was 5.5 million in the USA (a 1999 figure). The number is on the increase all over due to the negative effects of globalisation.
According to Chira Hongladarom, director, Human Right Institute, Thailand, “Children, now part of the proactive process, are treated as economic goods rather than society future.”
Few years ago, the Lagos State government shown on TV children picked up from various streets, and were kept at various orphanages in anticipation that their relations would come to pick them up. It was learnt that most of them stayed at the orphanages for months without anybody coming for them. These are the children selling sachet water (pure water) and various articles on Lagos roads at traffic.
Was it not people that sent them to sell? Where are these people?
The truth is, these children are not staying with their parents. To be straight about it, they are all house-helps devoid of love from their guardians. If they were really loved, the guardians would have looked for them.
Consider a case that was reported at the State of the World’s Children 1997: “I am seven years old. Sometime ago, my poor parents handed me over to a rich family living in the city. Today, like every day, I got up at five o’clock in the morning. I fetch water from a nearby well. Then I prepare breakfast and serve it to the family. I was a little late in serving breakfast, so the master beat me with a leather strap… I was giving leftovers to eat – at least they were better than the cornmeal I ate yesterday.”
“My clothes are ragged, and I have no shoes. My owner has never allowed me to bathe with the water I bring to the family. Last night, I slept outside; sometime, they let me sleep on the floor. Too bad I could not write this myself. I am not allowed to go to school.”
If you feel this is not possible in our society, then try Okota and Festac areas of Lagos State, where you see children running errands from sunrise to sunset, without hope of seeing the four walls of a school. Before these children were released by their parents, there was this ‘gentleman agreement’ that they would be sent to school.
Awake magazine of February 8, 2003, also reported some cases that were most pathetic. Maria became a child prostitute when she was 14 years old. She adopted this life-style at the wish of her mother, who often told her she was beautiful and that men would like her. And as much, she would make a lot of money. In the evening, Maria’s mother took her to a motel where they made contacts. The mother remained nearby to receive the payments. Each night, Maria had sex with three or four men.
If you think this story is exaggerated, go through Isolo, Agege, Mushin, Ajegunle, Mafolukun/Oshodi areas of Lagos. From Benin City to Kano, from Sokoto to Maiduguri, they are all there. At about 9pm to midnight, go through the brothels and make-shift night clubs and guest-houses, all you will see are innocent looking children in tight jeans and extra-short bikinis, most of whom, hardly have breast to show maturity, winking their eyes to lure men passing by for patronage. The most painful thing is some do this to make extra money to augment what their parents make.
Unfortunately, these children are forced to maturity over-night, by creating a forceful illiterate sub generation. What a life?
Yet, some parents who are desperate for the money argue that unemployment and underemployment in the society are mostly responsible for this; that the small contribution the child brings, from hawking or otherwise, to the entire family income will be the difference between hunger and homelessness.
Some of these children are brought to the city by an uncle or a family relation who collects money for their services without remitting same to the parents. These same contractor uncles or relations can move a 10-year-old child between six families in four years. They tell lies to get them away from their present household promising to bring them back as soon as possible. Immediately they are released, onward to another that is ready to pay higher for their service. Several of the girls involved have suffered uncountable rape incidents without anybody seeking redress for them because the acts are not reported.
Most employers prefer child labour because they are less paid. They don’t strike back in the face of oppression, even when they work long hours for less pay, often under conditions harmful to their health. They cannot join organised labour when their services will be guaranteed. Above all, they cannot fight back even when they are physically abused. Check out some of them in factories around the Lagos international airport, Ajao Estate, Ikeja, and its environs.
In spite of this harsh reality, some of these children are no longer mindful of their acts. Right there on the streets, some are introduced to drugs; under the influence of drugs, a child prostitute or child armed robber may be subjected to situation he/she normally would never agree to. No wonder when armed robbers strike, they leave behind them throes that are beyond human comprehension.
In order to stop parents in the rural area from releasing their wards, there is need for government and private organisations to invest in rural communities to make it more attractive.
Government, irrespective of the political party, should reintroduce the free and compulsory education at all levels. When parents know they need not bother about buying books and paying school fees, they will rather want to keep their child than sending him to unknown cities. If these are not considered, the inevitable conclusion by some psychologist will become consequential.
Psychologists say, “An increasing number of people are being driven to commit suicide as society is failing to give them any hope to overcome their difficulties.”
The issue of child labour/prostitution should concern everybody. President Buhari should make a deliberate move to stop it now, because the acts described above are different forms of corruption that should be easier to stop or reduced. And if we must have an ideal society in the future devoid of fear of criminality, then the child must be taken care of now.
OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA
OSA VICTOR OBAYAGBONA is Assistant News Editor, BusinessDay
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