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CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Nigeria. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.
HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE
Students
If you are looking for
material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on this
page and others to see which aspect(s) of street life are of particular
interest to you. You might be
interested in exploring how children got there, how they survive, and how
some manage to leave the street.
Perhaps your paper could focus on how some street children abuse the
public and how they are abused by the public … and how they abuse each
other. Would you like to write about
market children? homeless children? Sexual and labor exploitation? begging? violence? addiction? hunger? neglect? etc. There is a lot to the subject of Street
Children. Scan other countries as well
as this one. Draw comparisons between
activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line.
Teachers
Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website.
***
FEATURED ARTICLES ***
Digital Diary: Nigerian street children tell their
stories of life without security
Christine Jaulmes, United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, New York, 26 December
2007
www.unicef.org/infobycountry/nigeria_42282.html
[accessed 28 June
2011]
Isaiah has spent 5
of his 15 years living on the streets of Lagos,
Nigeria, the second
largest city of Africa. Like hundreds of
other children, he spends his days and nights in this sprawling metropolis
trying to fend for himself. “It is not easy living on the street but
what can I do?” asks Isaiah, one of 25 children who have told their stories
on Nigerian national radio through a UNICEF-supported project. “I have two sisters that I have not seen in
five years, I have smoked Indian hemp like other boys of my age, got beaten
by bigger boys, robbed of my money, took my bath in the canal and slept under
the bridge,” Isaiah says in one broadcast. “The good thing is that I am
alive!” Given the opportunity to go to school, Isaiah says he would
like to become a lawyer. “I want to be defending people,” he explains.
Sorry Story Of
Nigeria’s Street Kids: Wasted by poverty in the land
Chioma Anyagafu
and Fred Iwenjora, OnlineNigeria,
February 04, 2006
nm.onlinenigeria.com/templates/?a=6865&z=12
[accessed 27 June
2011]
Their outlook
paints a vivid picture of their state of helplessness. They appear unkempt
and totally hopeless of what the future holds. In their tattered clothes,
they find homes in the most filthy and awkward places like abandoned
buildings, under overhead bridges and school premises. Usually, they
retire to these “abodes” at dusk and dash out early in the morning before
the prying eyes of security agents or the rightful owners of the
structures turn out for business.
The cries of the
next generation, the conscience of hope
weblog by adefemi
adefemiisrael.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/the-cries-of-the-next-generation-the-conscience-of-hope/
[accessed 27 June
2011]
While unethical
fetish cultural practices are abolished in some parts of Nigeria,
eight-year-old Uduak was said to possess
supernatural powers and was declared a witch by a prophetess at a vigil in Eket, Akwa Ibom. His mother had
to take him to the church for “spiritual deliverance”, that was the beginning
of Uduak’s tortuous road to living as his mother
publicly disowned him. More troubles awaited the child the next day at home.
His father splashed acid at his face, leaving him with blisters, and chased
him out of the family’s one room apartment.
Uduak now finds shelter among
other abandoned children at the Eket Sports
Stadium. But he still dreams about home, and pleads with anyone who cares to
hear his story to take him home to his parents. “I want to go back to my
parents; I want to go back to school, but I am scared of the prophetess”.
***
ARCHIVES ***
Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on the
Worst Forms of Child Labor
U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs, 2005
www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/nigeria.htm
[accessed 13
December 2010]
INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - In urban areas, children work as domestic servants,
street hawkers, vendors, beggars, scavengers, shoe shiners, car
washers/watchers, and bus conductors.
Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices
U.S. Dept of State
Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006
2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61586.htm
[accessed 10
February 2020]
SECTION
6 WORKER RIGHTS
– [d] Economic hardship resulted in high numbers of children working to
enhance meager family income. Children frequently were employed as beggars, street peddlers, bus conductors, and
domestic servants in urban areas. Little data was available to analyze the
incidence of child labor. The National Modular Child Labour Survey Nigeria
conducted the only survey available between 2000 and 2001. The survey
reported approximately 15 million children working in the country. Of these,
more than six million were not attending school and more than two million
were working 15 or more hours per day.
Concluding Observations
of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC)
UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 28 January 2005
www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/nigeria2005.html
[accessed 13
December 2010]
[69] In view of the
increasing number of children living and working on the street and street
families, the Committee regrets the lack of information about specific
mechanisms and measures to address their situation.
[73] The Committee
notes with appreciation the State party’s ratification of the ILO Convention
No. 138 concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and the ILO
Convention No. 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the
Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor in October 2002. However, it
remains concerned at the significant number of children in Nigeria working as
domestic servants, in plantations, in the mining and quarrying sector, and as
beggars on the streets.
Nigeria: Abia 15 And Endangered Children
Sonnie Ekwowusi,
This Day, 5 October 2010
allafrica.com/stories/201010060483.html
[accessed 27 June
2011]
Aside child labour, Nigerian children are victims of legal injustice.
For example, many Awaiting Trial Inmates (ATMs) languishing in our various
prisons are children below the age of 16. Many them are children caught
loitering in the streets and dumped in prison for no reason. Some of them are
tortured and abused in prisons. The juvenile court system seems to have
collapsed. A few times I have visited the prisons I have been shocked by the
huge number of young persons and children loitering around the prison
premises without hope of getting justice.
Nigeria: What to Do
With Street
Funmi Ogundare,
This Day, Lagos,
9 January 2008
allafrica.com/stories/200801100295.html
[partially accessed
28 June 2011 - access restricted]
He said the Child
Rights Act as enacted has given the government some powers to prosecute
parents or guardians who maltreat children by sending them to beg or hawk on
the streets when they should be in school. Badru
added that such children, after some time, are forced into armed robbery or
even become tools in the hands of robbers who used them as gun keepers
because they are underage.
"For example,
in Lagos, people come from all parts of the country to 'hustle'; it is now
getting to an alarming stage where you see underage children come on their
own. So when this happens there is no where to stay except under the bridges.
They join bad gangs and many other vices and armed robbers use them as an
opportunity to keep guns because they are under aged", he said.
Some other
children, the special adviser also noted, aside running away from home
because the guardians or parents are maltreating them, some parents even send
them to be used as house helps elsewhere by collecting money.
"For those
children, when they are maltreated there, they run away and knowing fully
well that if he goes back home, he would be taken back there or to another
place for the same purpose", he said.
Nigeria: First
Ladies - To Be Or Not to Be?
Tayo Agunbiade,
This Day, Lagos,
27 September 2007
allafrica.com/stories/200709280307.html
[partially accessed
28 June 2011 - access restricted]
Recently, the first
lady of Bauchi State , Hajia Yagudu
spoke about the plight of the Almajiris (street
children). This is an issue that has
been on for so many years in most parts of northern Nigeria . Plenty of lip service
has been paid to it but the problem still persists. The implications are all
too telling. Thousands of school age children are out of school on the
streets begging for alms.
Sisters Unite for
Street Children
Hilda Okoisor, This Day, May 10, 2007
streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2007/05/10/sisters-unite-for-street-children/
[accessed 28 June
2011]
Ibrahim Tijani, a
young boy of 17 said that he used to sleep under the bridge in Oshodi sometimes under a car or a bus or inside a dry
gutter. He does not know his parents as he was left alone by his parents when
he was three years old. He started
attending the Foutain of Life Church, Oshodi where they took a particular interest in him
because they thought he was well behaved. He worshipped with them every time
especially on Fridays for the night vigils and Sundays for worship. They accomodated him and promised to help him settle
down. Eventually, after two years of which he did not run away, a member of
the church took him to the Child Life Line Centre, Ibeshe
vilage, Ikorodu where he
currently resides. Since he is an old boy, he is learning the art of welding
while the Centre takes care of his other needs.
For Street
Children, What Kind of Future?
Godwin Haruna, This Day, October 4, 2006
streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/10/04/for-street-children-what-kind-of-future/
[accessed 28 June
2011]
The problem of
street children in several cities in Nigeria,
especially, Lagos,
the commercial nerve centre of the country, appears to have defied every
solution. However, a private initiative, geared towards empowering their
parents and enrolling the street kids in schools may resolve the age-long
practice, if supported by the citizenry.
PCF: Giving succour to street children
Pupils of Precious
Childcare Foundation, 14 August 2006
streetchildrennews.wordpress.com/2006/08/14/pcf-giving-succour-to-street-children/
[accessed 28 June
2011]
“In some cases,
their parents sent them out to go and bring money in; in fact, they had
become bread winners for their parents and some are just abandoned children
right from childhood. So I went through these experiences and I felt that
something should be done to take care of this category of children,” she
explained in an interview with the Nigerian Tribune.
Therefore, Princess
Adetokunbo Wande Abimbola established a non-governmental organisation called Precious Childcare Foundation (PCF)
in 1995 with the objective of educating and empowering the abandoned and
neglected children as well as highlighting the social and health problems
facing this group with a view to finding solutions to them.
It is a big mistake
to be barren and not adopt
Jemi Ekunkunbor,
The Vanguard, Nigeria,
May 29, 2006
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
For many years, the
state of the Nigerian child has never been one of good tidings. In spite of
public and private efforts geared at alleviating the sufferings of the
Nigerian child, the reality stares us in the face with children still
hawking wares on the street, many too numerous to estimate not being in
school and many at birth abandoned to fate on street corners and on rubbish heaps.
Those who are lucky among these categories of people have landed in the
padded arms of Rev. Mrs Dele George and hubby, co
founders of the Strong Tower Mission who for years, have been on a mission to
rescue abandoned children.
What are the issues
that make people abandon children? Of course the issue is poverty. I
would say that the national income per head in this country is still very low
compared to Europe or US in spite of the fact that Nigeria is very blessed with
material and mineral resources and even
manpower.
Area Boys -- A Growing Menace On The Streets Of Lagos
UN Integrated
Regional Information Networks IRIN, LAGOS,
13 July 2005
www.irinnews.org/report/55442/nigeria-area-boys-a-growing-menace-on-the-streets-of-lagos
[accessed 10 March
2015]
For the past two
decades, the 13 million residents of Nigeria's biggest city have run
the gauntlet of several thousand delinquent youths who roam the streets
extorting money. Known as Area Boys --
although a few are female -- they sprang up in the early 1980s. To begin with they were just small bands of
bullies who roamed the slums adjoining the central business district. But
since then their numbers have burgeoned, fed by the steady flood of
unemployed people that migrates constantly into Lagos from elsewhere in the country. The Area Boys are now rampant all over the
city. Their favourite hangouts are bus stops, major
highways and markets. In broad
daylight, they levy tolls on bus drivers, they demand bribes from market
women wanting to set up stalls for the day, they
patrol potential car-parking spaces and demand illegal fees from shoppers.
They even threaten ordinary passer-bys, demanding "donations".
Consortium for
Street Children
Consortium for
Street Children
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
Children work as
vendors or hawkers, beggars, shoe shiners, car washers and watchers,
head-loaders, scavengers and bus conductors. The majority are boys but there are
a few girls. Street families, a variant of street living, are also becoming
prominent
Dateline Nigeria —
Tomorrow Can Wait
Adesola Orimalade, The Globalist, February 07, 2005
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
The entire urban
landscape of Nigeria
is filled with beggars and street children. Asking, begging, appealing for
aid in daytime — and becoming aggressive, dangerous and violent in the cover
of night.
NGO Periodic Report
for Nigeria [DOC]
The African Network
for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect ANPPCAN
Child Rights Monitoring Center, November 26, 2004
www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.38/Nigeria_ANPPCAN_ngo_report.doc
[accessed 28 June
2011]
The number of
children who live and sleep on the streets has been on the increase in most
major urban areas in Nigeria.
There are so many locations in which children are found to be living on the
street. Street families are also becoming prominent in certain urban slum
areas. These destitute families can be found living under bridges, in public
toilets and in markets. Their children too are in extremely precarious
condition and urgently require intervention and assistance.
Information on the
Child Welfare League Of Nigeria [PDF]
Child Welfare League
of Nigeria, October 1995 -- presented at the 13th Session of the UN Committee
on the Rights of the Child CRC, Sept - Oct 1996
www.crin.org/docs/resources/treaties/crc.13/Nigeria_CWL_Info_Report.pdf
[accessed 28 June
2011]
[page 1] In Lagos
alone there are liver 100,000 boys and girls living in the streets. Under very harsh condition, they live
virtually in slums, market places, bye refuse dumps and under fly over
bridges, while some abandoned ones at the tender age of 4 and above are kept
in cells. The consequence is the
daily increase in crime waves, drug addiditional-prostitution
and destitution. Hence today, haunted
and living in cages like birds, we all live with fear of violence perpetuated
by the same children once neglected and abused to become kid armed robbers,
area boys and destitutes. Condemned they grow up with hatred for
Society that detest them. Killing at will they
molest and rob people of their hard earned investments.
Social correlates
and coping measures of street-children: a comparative study of street and
non-street children in south-western Nigeria
Aderinto AA, Department of
Sociology, University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria, 2000 Sep 24 -- PubMed, U.S.
National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, PMID: 11057706
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11057706?dopt=Abstract
[accessed 28 June
2011]
OBJECTIVE: This paper sought
to achieve two objectives: First, to identify the social correlates
attributable to street-children in south-western Nigeria as well as predisposing
factors to this behavior; second, it also tried to uncover the survival
mechanisms of street children.
A community based
study of patterns of psychoactive substance use among street children in a
local government area of Nigeria
Morakinyo J & Odejide AO, Department of Psychiatry, University College
Hospital, Oyo State, Ibadan, Nigeria, 2003 Aug 20 -- PubMed, U.S. National
Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, PMID: 12927648
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12927648?dopt=Abstract
[accessed 28 June
2011]
The nature of
continuous exposure to the street and its associated lifestyles make street
children vulnerable to the use of psychoactive substances.
Youth Get A Second
Chance
Remi Oyo, Inter
Press Service News Agency IPS, LAGOS,
Jan 29
www3.unesco.org/planetsociety/sp/spune/articles/DEVO03/dev06.html
[accessed 28 June
2011]
1000 youth have
been identified for an agricultural project under the ''Good Boys and Good
Girls'' program. The youth will be placed on allocated land where they will
farm cassava and maize, two of Nigeria's staple foods. They also
will receive training in livestock breeding.
VSA Arts of Nigeria
goes awakening the creative of the less priviledged
Children
VSA Arts of Nigeria
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
In a
major drive to bring reformations and opportunities to these so called
"Street Children" VSA arts of Nigeria has embarked on an
Art awareness project at the Juvenile Remand & Rehabilitation center in
Ibadan, Oyo state.
Self Help Effort
Education for All
EFA 2000 Assessment Country Reports - Nigeria
www.unesco.org/education/wef/countryreports/nigeria/rapport_3_1.html
[accessed 28 June
2011]
12.2.9 RESCUING, REHABILITATION AND RETURNING STREET CHILDREN - The
Street Children phenomenon in Nigeria
is gradually assuming alarming proportions, particularly in urban areas. The
immediate cause of this phenomenon appears to be deeply entrenched poverty
Nigeria CSEC Overview
ECPAT International
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
It had been stated
that in Nigeria children as young as four or five years old were sometimes
taken into families as domestic helpers because their parents were poor or in
debt. These children are prone to sexual abuse and exploitation. When ill
treated, they run away and end up in the streets where they are vulnerable to
commercial sexual exploitation (CSEC).
Lagos is reported to have the largest
number of such street children in Nigeria.
Nigerian
“Shade Tree Theatre” with Street Children
Salami, Irene and Henk van Beers, Children, Youth and Environments 13(1),
Spring 2003. pp. 23-47
www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/13_1/Volume13_1FieldReports/ShadeTreeTheatre_Salami_vanBeers.htm
[accessed 28 June
2011]
Shade Tree Theatre
is a project with working children in the streets of Jos, Nigeria.
It aims at enabling children to analyze problems they encounter and to come
up with practical solutions to deal with them.
Street Children's
Experiences In The Injustice System [PDF]
Interagency Panel on
Juvenile Justice
www.unicef.org/tdad/PART202%282%29.pdf
[accessed 12 October
2012]
Amongst the list of
practices that street children in Nigeria complained of in relation
to the police was the enforced stripping of clothes even for female children.
Pre-trial detention
of children has been found to last as much as one year. Some criminal cases
are just left unattended to while children languish away on remand. Children
in the homes feel the police have forgotten them there.
Children are not
given the chance to speak or defend themselves; Children are held in
handcuffs; Sometimes children become hopeless and feel like they want to die;
Children do not reply to the police statement.
4. Addressing Child
Labor and Promoting Schooling
U.S. Dept of Labor
Bureau of International Labor Affairs
www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/Advancing1/html/nigeria.htm
[accessed 28 June
2011]
lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=4275652&fileOId=4275654
[accessed 26
December 2016]
a. Child Labor
Initiatives
UNICEF
has established a series of programs for street children in Nigeria and launched
a collaborative project with ILO-IPEC specifically aiding the almajirai children. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) funded a study on
street children in 1995, which was implemented by the Child Life Line, a
local NGO. The Child Life Line opened centers to rehabilitate street children
in Lagos
based upon its findings, and in 1999, hosted a workshop to help other NGOs
set up effective street children focused programs. Many other NGOs, such as
the Child Project, Galilee Foundation, Kingi Kids,
the Friends of the Disabled, and the Samaritans are also involved in efforts
to rescue and rehabilitate street children.
Street Children and
the Juvenile Justice System in Lagos
State of Nigeria
Human Development
Initiatives, Committee on the Rights of the Child CRC -- Publisher:
Consortium for Street Children , 2004
At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 28 June
2011]
Report discusses
the framework for the juvenile justice system in Lagos State
and explores the challenges and problems of street children.
All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Street Children - Nigeria", http://gvnet.com/streetchildren/Nigeria.htm,
[accessed <date>]
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