Every African child has right to a good education, quality healthcare, shelter, a balanced diet, and the rest, just like every other child in the western world. But here in Africa and third world countries like Nigeria, what I see almost on a daily basis is the violation of the child’s rights when they are supposed to be protected. I have seen male children below the age of twelve on several occasions being used as conductors, an employee who takes money for tickets on a bus or streetcar, all in their attempt to earn their daily pay.
Other children sell and hawk many things on the streets where they become exposed to abuse: physical and sexual. Some are captured for child trafficking or used for money rituals, while many of the girls become victims of rape. Many of these children as I have observed do not go to school as they begin work as early as 6.00 am and retire to the place where they live around 8.00 – 9.00 pm. In fact, some of them don’t even have homes to go to, so they look for empty mechanic workshops that the owners have left during night hours, or abandoned vehicles, to lay their heads till morning when they start again to fend for themselves. The boys sometimes end up becoming thieves while the girls end up becoming prostitutes.
Parents are supposed to go to work and earn money to take good care of their children, but the reverse seems to be the case for many poor families as they depend on their children’s income to survive. Some families take begging as a profession and a way of living. The parents of children born to these families take their children to very busy locations where they are made to beg for alms while the parents themselves sit under a shade and watch the children make money through begging under the scorching sun. The condition in which these children beg is unhealthy and could be potentially fatal for them.
Many children are taken away from the succor and protection of their families to serve as house helps in very hostile conditions all in the name of helping poor families take care of children. Perhaps, income earned by the children is given to their immediate family members to enhance their survival. The majority of these children are always females who are maltreated by the families where they have been hired as servants. More often than not, they are not sent to schools like the children of the families hiring them. Their rights as children are being violated by the private employer’s family - the right to have quality healthcare, education, and the freedom to play – with nobody to defend and protect them. Many suffer sexual molestation from adult males in the employers' families where they are maids. I think this is a modern, disguised form of slavery that should have already been abolished many years back. It breaks my heart to see some Nigerian children still suffering spiteful masqueraded form of slavery our forefathers already suffered.
It will be all right if we put the blame on the parents, but unfair to totally think that they are actually the real cause of child labour. If we look on the bright side, these working children are essential for the survival of their immediate family. But if as a result of industrial revolution and economic boom in Africa, there are enough job opportunities for the parents and increases in their wages that they could afford to send their children to school instead of work, child labour will not be an issue. So I think the real cause of the problem is political. Most African countries have leaders who rule their country for reasons that best serve their own desire or interest instead of the desires of the citizens.
To reduce child labour, because I doubt it can be stopped totally like slave trade, all hands must be on deck; hands which include those of the government, the parents, the private agencies, NGOs, the media, and even the children themselves. They all must work together as it is the sole responsibility of everyone to protect and defend children against the dehumanizing slavery of child labour caused by poverty.
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