No fewer than 15 million children are involved in child labour, says the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Kachollom Daju.
Daju said the government has been fighting against child labour and forced labour to reduce it to the barest minimum.
She noted that children, as future leaders, ought not to be exposed to labour at tender ages, but rather shown love and cater.
Daju said: “Child labour is a multi-dimensional development concern. It cuts across various lines: economic, social, religious, cultural and regional divides.
”The worst forms of child labour constitute exploitation and gross violation of human rights for both boys and girls, causing physical, emotional, and mental consequences for the child. Such violations take place at the household level, community level, institutions, and business areas.
“In Nigeria, child labour has become a scourge. Several children find themselves on the streets, forced to make a living, with others employed in industrial complexes and hazardous environments.
“This is attributable to various factors, such as poverty, ignorance, unemployment, absence of social security for the vulnerable, misinterpretation of cultural and religious beliefs and weak institutional framework.
“Statistics reveal that there are no fewer than 15 million child workers in Nigeria. This is according to the ILO, with the UN warning that the absence of mitigating strategies could see an exponential increase in the number of children engaged in child labour.”
This, of course, will certainly have massive implications for the future.
Similarly, the ILO laments that about 160 million children were actively engaged in child labour globally.
The Director, ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Ms Venessa Phala, who stated this at the stakeholders’ meeting, said children had a right to better lives than engage in forced labour practices just to shore up income on behalf of their parents.
Phala said: “We all know that the number of children engaging in child labour has risen to 160 million worldwide, which is represents an increase of 8.4 million children when compared with the last report.
“In eradicating the scourge of child labour and force labour in Nigeria, concerted efforts are required from all stakeholders, part of which is the development of monitoring infrastructure to determine and measure its magnitude, distribution, dimensions and characteristics at the national and sub-national levels.”