Nigerian activist, Harrison Gwamnishu has shared photos of a child who was brutalized by a couple he resides with in Abia State.
Harrison took to Instagram to share photos of the child who had visible cane marks on his body, and looked emaciated and sad.
Harrison also shared a photo of the chain used on the child.
He appealed to people who cannot take care of other people’s children, to take them back to their parents or an orphanage.
For many children in Nigeria, even before they are old enough to savour the fleeting miracle that childhood is, that most precious of gifts is savagely snatched away from them. One of the main culprits is child marriage but an equally culpable culprit is child labour.
Child labour, manifesting in its many malignant forms ensures that children stop being children even before many of them are old enough to really understand and enjoy what it means to be a child.
Child labour it is that ensures for example that children who should be in school getting equipped to take the world by storm are instead marooned in places where they are subjected to conditions alien to their age or aptitude.
The International Labour Organization recently stated that no fewer than 15 million children are engaged in child labour in Nigeria.
This is as the Nigeria Employers` Consultative Association (NECA) listed communities in Niger, Ondo, and Osun States as some of the communities where child labour is prevalent in Nigeria.
In 2021, Nigeria made moderate advancement in efforts to eliminate the worst forms of child labor.
The government validated the National Policy on Child Labor and the National Action Plan for the Elimination of Child Labor (2021–2025).
The Ministry of Labor and Employment also created a new program to provide vulnerable households with seed capital to fund new businesses in areas with high rates of child labor.
However, children in Nigeria are subjected to the worst forms of child labor, including in commercial sexual exploitation and use in armed conflict as well as quarrying granite and artisanal mining.
The Child’s Right Act has been adopted by only 29 out of Nigeria’s 36 states (including the capital federal territory), leaving the remaining 7 states in northern Nigeria with legal statutes that do not meet international standards for the prohibition of children in illicit activities.
