A recent research, jointly conducted by three world bodies concerned with the promotion of children’s welfare has indicted Nigeria for not doing enough to discourage child labour and early marriage among women. According to the joint investigation carried out by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the United Nations Joint Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), disclosed that 39 percent of children aged between five and 14 years in Nigeria are engaged in child laboour, while 43% of women aged 20 and 24 are married or in union before they are 18 years old.

The research, which involved interviews with children living or working on the streets, indicated that 40 per cent of them may have been given out for such forced labour or trafficked by their parents or relations. Also, about 40% of the children do not attend primary school at all. Result from the research has also shown that out of an estimated population of 50 million children, girls, and HIV/AIDS affected children are the hardest hit, with many facing multiple forms of discrimination.

And according to the report, Nigeria was found to have the second highest burden of HIV infection in sub-Sahara Africa. Following from this, the report said the HIV/AIDS epidemic has left a growing unprecedented problem of Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) due to the death of one or both parents, adding that "while we always had child labour, increase in poverty and HIV/AIDS has driven millions of children into exploitative and hazardous labour". The report further lamented that the death of one or both parents of some of the children has also brought about rural – urban migration, thereby weakening their family safety net. It then recommended, psycho-social support, such as showing love and affection to the affected children as a form of cure.

It is indeed a sad commentary that the Nigerian child appears to have been sentenced to perpetual suffering, deprivation and wanton neglect due largely to acts of omission of commission by various governments over the years. The point is that not much attention has been given to our children by the country’s policy makers. Apart from the ravaging effects of the five child-killer diseases, which include polio, measles and whopping cough, on the Nigerian children, they also undergo some other harrowing experiences such as child labour, highlighted in the joint report. No wonder, majority of Nigerian children and others in most African and some developing countries, die before the age of five.

Although, the country has the Child Rights Act, which also seeks to among other things to protect the child against forced labour and under age marriage, only about 16 out of the 36 states in the federation have passed it into law. The common complain against the Child Rights Act is that the provisions are alien to some cultural and religious norms. It is also argued in some quarters that the Act does not reflect the present reality of life in the country. For instance, whereas the act or law makes child labour or child marriage illegal, it fails to address the fundamental underlying factors that give rise to such undesirable phenomena. We must admit that the prevailing abject poverty faced by most parents is the major factor that forces parents to send their children to hawk on the streets or to be involved in other forms of hard labour instead of allowing such children to go to school. The truth is that some parents are so poor that they cannot afford to buy school uniform and other necessary learning materials, like books for their children even though they appreciate the importance of education.

Again, there is the problem of high rate of joblessness in the country. In today’s Nigeria, a high percentage of people who have acquired the necessary education spent many years, unsuccessfully trying to get a job, any job for that matter. This in itself creates general apathy among parents, particularly the poor towards education. If in their estimation, education does not seem to pay at the end of the day, then their children are more useful as extra hands on the farm than the prospect of joblessness at the end of long and costly education. Which is why the report confirmed that about 40% of nigerian children do not attend school at all.

What the government at all levels should do to reverse this ugly trend is to put in place effective measures, which should include judicious use of public funds and the creation of economic opportunites to reduce poverty and to empower Nigerians. This will enable parents to have adeqaute resources not only to feed their children properly but also to send them to school, thus eliminating the need for child labour, such as street hawking. Governments should also as a matter of priority, resustitate the present sorry state of the country’s education sector and make it free, at least in the first nine years. In the same vein, children, parents, women and the aged should enjoy free medical services. If these measures are adopted and properly implemented, they will go a long way in giving our children good health and consequently provide a more secure future for themselves and for the country as a whole.