On a chilly, cloudy morning in Amaba, Abia State, when his children were afraid to go to the river, his mother called Chibuike Chukwu for a heart-to-heart talk.
“Chubby,” as his mother affectionately calls him, was confused about what his mother was doing. “Mom, what do you want us to talk about this morning?” he asked, curious as to why the sudden emergency meeting.
“I want you to collect your dirty clothes and go to the stream to wash them, because in two days I will be traveling to the city to live with my uncle,” she said, hoping that her son would respond. He explained with a smile.
Chibuike’s maternal uncle, Chijoke Emenike, who lives in Lagos, had just gotten married and was planning to return to the city with his new wife.
In Nigeria’s south-eastern region, parents are willing to place their children in foster care with siblings or relatives, which also serve as apprenticeships for skills acquisition.
Chibuike’s mother, Erinma, promised to enroll him in school once he arrived in the city, as she promised to ensure that Chibuike completed his primary education and also sponsored him to attend a tertiary institution.
However, on reaching Agege Lagos, Chijioke took the boy to his shop, made him participate in the sale of some rather old clothes, and introduced him as his new salesboy.
Chibuike was forced to abandon his education at the age of five to pursue a career in trade. Chibuike represents thousands of young people in the southeast who have been forced to abandon their education because their foster parents would not enroll them in school.
In the Southeast, it is common for families to informally adopt children as a way to ease the financial burden on parents and give children from poor families a chance to improve their lives.
Also read: Nigeria’s 20 million out-of-school children a ticking time bomb – Shettima warns
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) child labor survey, approximately 24.6 million children (39.2 percent) between the ages of 5 and 17 are engaged in child labor in the country. 60.8 percent (14,990,674) of children engaged in child labor belong to the age group 5-11, 20.8 percent (5.1 million) belong to the age group 12-14, and 18.4 percent (4.6 million) belong to the age group 12-14. Belongs to the 15+ group. 17 year old group.
“The South East has the highest child labor rate at 49.9 percent,” the report shows. This study was conducted by NBS to assess child labor and forced labor in Nigeria in 2022.
Officials in the region described the situation as a cultural one, where children are taught entrepreneurship and common ways of bringing people together.
Engineer Ike Chilaka explained that foster care is part of people’s lifestyle. However, he maintained that it was not necessarily aimed at child labor.
“Sending children to live with relatives to learn a trade is not child labor in our culture. It is an apprenticeship mode to learn a trade.
“We have a community system, so foster care is allowed, but in some cases it is not intended for child labor. Economic hardship is behind the rapid increase in foster care, and therefore child labor. I think there is,” he pointed out.
Friday Elhaboor, director of media and strategy at Markrenes Limited, said it would be ideal to distinguish between the two types of child labor that are incorrectly used today.
“The first type are children who help their parents with their interests outside of school hours. That’s perfectly fine. Some of us go to the farm to help our parents after school, or Some people did this when they had to sell their falcons for their own sake.
It didn’t affect my school performance at all. Rather, it shaped our future lives. What I frown upon is the situation where children are not in school and have to earn a living for their parents or foster parents. This is not only evil, it is criminal and prevents children from attending school as they are deliberately kept out of school and made to work to earn money for their parents. “It’s something,” he said.
Experts say many parents mistakenly embrace foster care as a way to provide their children with a quality education.
“But whether this adoption is beneficial or harmful depends on how much host families are willing to support and invest in their adopted children,” they say.
Research shows that there is a link between foster care and school attendance, with children raised by foster parents less likely to attend school than children who are not raised by foster parents.
Children who were cared for by wealthy families were least likely to attend school compared to children who were not cared for. Experts say this disparity is fueling inequality in education.
And if not nipped in the bud, it will become an obstacle for countries aiming to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, which aims for equitable education. The African Union has declared 2024 the Year of Education, further emphasizing the importance of ensuring that all children on the continent have access to school.
Charles Ogwo
Charles Ogwo, Head of Education Desk at BusinessDay Media, is an experienced and proactive journalist with over 10 years of reportage experience.
