Who Protects Nigeria’s Working Children? The Urgent Test Of Government Accountability

By AMINA USMAN ABDULRAHMAN

A Childhood Interrupted by Survival

AT busy junctions, crowded markets and roadside trading points across Nigeria, children work while others their age sit in classrooms. Some sell sachet water between moving vehicles. Others carry heavy loads, push wheelbarrows or hawk goods to earn money for their families. Although these activities may appear ordinary in a society accustomed to economic hardship, they reveal a deeper national problem: too many children must struggle to survive before they can begin to pursue their dreams.

For 11-year-old Usman, selling sachet water around Deidei on the Kubwa Expressway is not a preferred occupation. Rather, it is a response to circumstances that leave him with few alternatives.

“It is not my choice, but I have to survive,” he said, explaining that he considers selling water preferable to begging.

His words expose the painful choices confronting children whose families cannot adequately meet their needs. While some children spend their days learning, playing and developing friendships, others calculate daily earnings and worry about returning home empty-handed.

Consequently, poverty does more than deprive children of material comfort. It can also rob them of time, security, education and the freedom to experience childhood.

Nigeria must therefore confront a difficult question: how can a country protect its future when some of its youngest citizens must sacrifice their development to meet the demands of immediate survival?

When Poverty Pushes Children into Work

The circumstances surrounding child labour are complex. Some children undertake limited tasks after school without losing access to education or exposing themselves to danger. Others work for long hours, miss classes or leave school entirely. Still more face hazardous environments, exploitation and inadequate adult protection.

These differences matter because an effective response must distinguish between age-appropriate responsibilities and work that threatens a child’s health, safety, education or development.

Nevertheless, the underlying economic pressures cannot be ignored. When household income falls short of basic needs, parents may depend on their children’s earnings to buy food, obtain medicine or meet other essential expenses. In such situations, a child’s labour can become part of a family’s survival strategy.

Unfortunately, what begins as a temporary measure may gradually become a permanent burden. A child who misses lessons to work may struggle academically. As learning difficulties grow, the attraction of earning immediate money may become stronger. Eventually, the child risks becoming trapped in a cycle in which poverty limits education and limited education reinforces poverty.

The experience of Audu, a boy who rents and operates wheelbarrows at Madala Market in Suleja, Niger State, illustrates this dilemma.

At 7am, he joins other boys waiting to obtain wheelbarrows for the day’s work. The money he earns helps feed his family and buy medicine for his sick mother, Aisha, who cares for six children without support from their father.

Although Audu understands the value of education, his responsibilities leave him confronting a painful choice between attending school and meeting immediate household needs.

“I am not proud of it, especially when I see some of my mates who are privileged to go to school. But what can I do? Survival comes first,” he said.

His predicament should challenge policymakers who view child labour solely as a matter of parental negligence or individual behaviour. In many cases, the problem also reflects weak household incomes, inadequate social protection and limited access to essential services.

Understanding these pressures, however, must not become an excuse for exploitation. Rather, it should inform interventions that protect children while helping families secure more sustainable livelihoods.

The Numbers Behind the Human Stories

Individual accounts reveal the human consequences of poverty, while national data help establish the scale of the challenge.

Nigeria’s Child Labour Survey 2022, conducted using data collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, examined the relationship between children’s work, schooling and wellbeing. The survey covered a nationally representative sample of 16,418 households.

Among children aged five to 14, the findings indicated that 35.3 per cent attended school while also engaging in work. Another 11.2 per cent worked without attending school. Among children aged 15 to 17, 21.9 per cent worked without being in school.

These figures highlight the difficult intersection between economic necessity and educational opportunity. They also demonstrate why policymakers must avoid treating every working child as though the circumstances were identical.

For a child who combines manageable responsibilities with regular school attendance, targeted family support may prevent the situation from deteriorating. By contrast, a child exposed to dangerous work or excluded from education may require immediate intervention, protection and sustained assistance.

Furthermore, removing children from the streets without addressing the pressures that brought them there is unlikely to produce lasting change. If a household still lacks food, medicine or reliable income, another child may take the same place, or the child already removed may return to work.

The real test, therefore, is not simply how many children authorities remove from markets or roads. It is how many they help to enter or remain in school, escape hazardous conditions and live in safer circumstances.

Government Policies Must Deliver More Than Promises

Nigeria has taken steps towards strengthening child protection and addressing child labour. The validation of the 2024 National Child Labour Survey in July 2026 marked another effort to improve evidence-based policymaking. The integration of a child-labour module into the Nigeria Labour Force Survey is also intended to support more regular data collection.

In addition, the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labour, 2026–2030, is expected to guide interventions involving labour inspections, education, social protection, vulnerable families and responsible business practices.

These measures are important because governments cannot respond effectively to a problem they fail to measure consistently. Reliable information can help authorities identify high-risk communities, direct resources towards vulnerable households and assess whether interventions produce meaningful results.

However, data collection is only the beginning. Reports, policy documents and official meetings cannot protect a child who spends each morning dodging traffic to sell goods or carries heavy loads because the family cannot afford food.

In his 2025 Children’s Day address, President Bola Tinubu outlined measures intended to strengthen protection against violence, improve reporting systems, support safer schools and expand educational pathways for Almajiri and other out-of-school children. The government also highlighted school feeding, child nutrition and social-protection initiatives.

Yet the existence of these programmes does not automatically establish that they reach every child who needs assistance. Their impact depends on adequate funding, effective implementation, trained personnel and transparent monitoring.

Accordingly, federal and state authorities must demonstrate how much they spend on child protection, which communities receive support and what outcomes their programmes achieve. They must also strengthen cooperation among education authorities, social welfare agencies, healthcare providers, labour inspectors and law enforcement.

Where responsibilities overlap, agencies should establish clear procedures for referrals and follow-up. Otherwise, vulnerable children risk falling through institutional gaps even when several programmes ostensibly exist to protect them.

Families Need Support, Not Just Warnings

Parents and guardians have an important responsibility to protect their children. Nevertheless, public policy must recognise that some families face severe economic pressures that warnings alone cannot resolve.

Aisha’s account illustrates the vulnerability of a household in which a mother struggles to provide for six children without the support of their father. Her experience should prompt a wider discussion about access to healthcare, affordable education, social assistance and opportunities for adults to earn a decent income.

When families cannot meet basic needs, governments should provide targeted assistance that reduces their dependence on children’s earnings. Depending on local circumstances, such interventions may include cash or food support, access to healthcare, school-related assistance, vocational training and employment opportunities for adults.

At the same time, authorities must investigate and address situations involving neglect, abuse, trafficking, forced labour or other forms of exploitation. Poverty may explain why a child enters work, but it does not make every form of work acceptable.

A balanced approach must therefore combine compassion with accountability. It should support struggling families while holding exploitative employers and other culpable adults responsible under the law.

Moreover, interventions must consider children’s own experiences. Their voices can help social workers and policymakers understand why they leave school, what dangers they face and what kind of assistance would make a return to education realistic.

Education Offers a Route Out of the Cycle

Education remains one of the strongest tools for reducing the long-term consequences of poverty. However, the promise of education means little to a child who cannot afford transport, school materials or meals, or whose family depends on daily earnings to survive.

Consequently, enrolment campaigns alone cannot resolve the problem. Governments must also help children remain in school by addressing the practical barriers that drive absenteeism and dropout.

Accessible schools, qualified teachers, safe learning environments, school meals and targeted assistance for vulnerable families can all contribute to better attendance. Where children have missed substantial periods of schooling, flexible learning arrangements and reintegration support may help them catch up.

Bello, a former street child who returned to school, offers a reminder that circumstances can change when children gain access to education and support.

He recalled growing up on the streets with a knife at his side and facing the daily risk of attack. Now, he says, education has given him a different purpose: to advocate for and protect other children living in similar conditions.

His experience challenges the assumption that a child’s present circumstances must determine the rest of their life. With appropriate assistance, children who have experienced hardship can regain opportunities, develop their abilities and contribute meaningfully to society.

Nevertheless, such stories should inspire stronger systems rather than allow governments to depend on individual resilience. No child should have to overcome dangerous conditions alone before receiving the protection and education that ought to be available from the beginning.

A Shared Responsibility for Child Protection

Government agencies cannot address child labour and child vulnerability in isolation. Employers, market associations, transport operators, community leaders, civil society organisations and members of the public also have responsibilities.

Businesses must not employ children in hazardous conditions or exploit their vulnerability. Community members should report credible concerns to appropriate protection services, while schools and healthcare facilities should establish referral pathways for children who need additional assistance.

At the same time, members of the public must avoid humiliating or criminalising children simply because they are poor. A child selling water at a junction may be exposed to danger, but public ridicule does not remove that danger or resolve the household circumstances behind it.

Instead, communities should help connect vulnerable children with legitimate support while encouraging authorities to investigate cases of exploitation and neglect.

Child protection must also include sustained follow-up. Removing a child from an unsafe environment is an important first step, but lasting progress requires safe accommodation where necessary, family assessment, educational support and monitoring to prevent further harm.

Without these measures, interventions risk becoming temporary exercises that leave the underlying problem untouched.

Nigeria Must Make Childhood a Right in Practice

The child who dreams of becoming a lawyer wants to fight the injustice witnessed on the streets. That aspiration deserves more than sympathy. It deserves an opportunity to develop through education, safety and sustained support.

Ultimately, Nigeria’s response to child poverty should be judged by outcomes rather than announcements. Are fewer children missing school because of work? Are vulnerable households receiving timely assistance? Can children exposed to exploitation access protection services? Are rescued children returning to education and remaining there?

These questions should guide public spending, programme evaluation and institutional accountability.

A nation cannot build a secure future while leaving children to shoulder burdens that adults and public institutions have failed to address. Nor can it claim meaningful progress when policies exist on paper but vulnerable children remain beyond their reach.

Nigeria must therefore move from recognition to implementation, from temporary interventions to sustained protection, and from sympathy to measurable action.

Every child deserves the chance to learn, play, develop and dream without having to earn the right to survive. Protecting that chance is not merely an act of charity. It is a public responsibility and an investment in the country’s future.