Agony of Nigeria Child in a bid of Surviving Amidst Poverty: Through Child Labor Lens

Child Labor can best be defined as a situation where an under age is being subjected to a task beyond their age level. This ugly trend is very common in Nigeria due to its high-level of poverty. Nigeria is rated among the poorest country in the world according to the United Nations ( UN 2016 report). Nigeria was described as one of the poorest and unequal country in the world with over 80M of the population living below poverty line. Hunger and malnutrition are rife: one third challenges of the population is lack of food. The majority of people in rural areas and mostly female head of households most likely skip their meals or reduce their intake of food which call for the majority of under age children to take up labor jobs in order to afford some foods. Often times, the under age is responsible for their elderly parents.

The phenomenon of child labor in Nigeria can be described as a tragic situation in these modern days. The situation calls for high level actions. Multiple players are to be involved in order to urgently respond to hunger and malnutrition. Children are forced to work all kind of jobs such as hawking of goods e.t.c instead of focusing on school. The response should either be in form of empowerment of the parents of the victims of child labor or creation of social safety protection intervention for the vulnerable children through humanitarian aid.