By Augustine Omilo
While the fight against vices such as armed robbery, kidnaping, terrorism and insurgency are raging in Nigeria, the authorities appear to be losing sight of the growing army of children waiting to take over from defeated criminals who are presently making life uncomfortable for Nigerians at home, in the farms, at security formations and on the nation’s highways. These seemingly new recruits can be found at strategic locations in the cities across the country.
All the states have their fair share of this category of Nigerians. In Asaba, Delta state, for example, they can be found in places like Summit junction, Shoprite area and Mariam Babangida junction by Okpanam Road.
Wherever they are found, their origins are traceable to similar sources. They are children of Nigerian parents or those from neighbouring countries who have been neglected in one way or the other. They fend for themselves due to the forced independence their parents have led them into.
The sources of livelihood of the kids include introductory prostitution, unsolicited cleaning of vehicle windscreens at traffic jams, alms begging and stealing. The more fortunate ones are hired to work as house helps in homes where they are often treated like slaves.
At Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta state, activities of some of these children was recently noticed around Ewuru junction, Agbor. They are known for normally going about in small groups in search of help from perceived well-to-do individuals in Agbor communities. On a good day, they can get, not just enough for themselves but also for the parents who abandoned them to fate.
However, in the month of June, a set of this group of children, aged between eight and twelve and normally move in a group of four walked into what later became ‘gold mine’ for them. They have been visiting a particular house they considered belonging to a ‘big man’ for some time without meeting with him. Each time they knocked at the gate, the security man on duty would turn them back. But they persevered and continued their visit to the place until a day came when the owner of the house asked the security man to allow them in. The young security operative did exactly that.
The owner of the house turned out to be a retired American professor of Educational Leadership, John Alizor who came to reside in the area about seven years ago after relocating from the United States of America where he lived and worked for many years until he retired from paid employment.
As customary with Professor Alizor, he handed over the children to his wife, Chief (Mrs.) Jennifer Alizor for questioning. The woman, a trained teacher, philanthropist and the Odaze of Ejeme Aliogor in Aniocha south local government area of Delta state was shocked to discover that the children were actually responsible girls in search of help, having been neglected by living parents who are overwhelmed by self-inflicted poverty. She reported her findings to her husband, Professor Chief John Alizor who is also the Ogbaji Igwe of Ejeme Aniogor.
On further investigation by the professor, it was discovered that the children were also drop-outs from school but willing to go back if help was available. Two of the children, Faith and Joy (real names withheld) happened to be of the same parents and indigenes of Agbor living in Ewuru while the other two, Uche and Chika (not real names) are of the same parents from Imo state.
While the parents of Faith and Joy live in Ewuru town, those of Uche and Chika abandoned them alongside their 21 year old sister at Agbor and relocated to Imo state with six of their siblings. They were all fed for that day and asked to come back the following day. After confirming the sincere willingness of the girls to go back to school, the Otolokpo-born Deltan offered immediate promise to return them to school.
In line with the promise, the girls are presently re-enrolled at Dein Secondary School with school uniforms, books and fees completely paid for. Alizor has promised to continue to do what he can towards overseeing the welfare of the children. He, however, appealed to the government and other well-meaning individuals in the state to also show concern for the children for a better care. According to him; “I am a retired teacher and also have many other students in tertiary institutions and widows who presently benefit from a welfare charity foundation that God Almighty has helped my wife and I to set up”. Indeed, leaving abandoned children to their fate poses danger, not only to them but also to the society at large.
Meanwhile, Jamiu, Ahmed, Sule (not real names) and others at Summit junction are not as fortunate as the four children being catered for by Mr. and Mrs. Alizor. They cannot talk the English language. Even getting them together for a group photograph was difficult. A few of them only agreed to continue their conversations with this reporter after being ‘settled’ with N500 each.
The case of these children and their likes in many parts of the country is more pathetic and worrisome. They are more dangerous to the society. These young boys and girls belong to the group that can easily be swayed into becoming bandits or bokoharam proponents in Nigeria. According to them, the whereabouts of their parents are unknown and they pointed to an uncompleted building around the area where they pass the night daily with other older homeless fellows.
For these children, begging for alms is a way of life. And most of them are below ten years of age. Apart from the uncompleted buildings where these parent-made orphans live, they also find solace in areas like underneath the popular Inter Bau Bridge and drainage channels in Asaba, Delta State, especially during the dry season.
At the Mariam Babaginda junction, the class of children there is unique. They are mainly from a particular area of the country. Their own type of alms begging comes with swag. The minors seldom ask people for money. Instead, as soon as the traffic light ‘flags’ vehicles down, they rush to the motionless vehicles and begin to offer unsolicited helps such as cleaning of the windscreens and side mirrors of people’s cars and commercial tricycles, also known as keke. In return, some of their ‘clients’ would pay them amounts ranging from N200 t0 N1,000.
They only stretch out their hands for alms when their ‘hustling’ for the day appear to be fruitless. In a chat with journalists recently, one of them, who simply introduced himself as Ugochukwu confirmed that he once lived with his parents in a farm settlement in Ugbolu, a suburb of Asaba, but had to leave home when it became obvious that his parents could not take care of him and his other nine siblings with the meager income from their peasant farming activities.
To worsen the plight of these independent minors, those of them that are females are often lured into illicit sex in their make-shift abodes and areas where they act as humans especially at night by male adults.
This is one factor among many that give rise to unwanted pregnancies that in turn result into children abandonments in drainages in many cities in Nigeria.
In 2024, the Businessday newspapers put the number of out-of-school children Nigeria at about 18.3 million and according to them, this places the country as one with the highest number of out-of-school children in the entire world. According to World Bank, over 80% of these are found in the Northern part of the country. The females among them are known to mostly get involved in early marriages without skills or visible means of livelihood.
The story is not different in most African countries where the suspected master-minds of insurgency in Nigeria are believed to hail from. Mali, Chad and Niger republic fall into this category of countries that are mostly accused of being breeding grounds for young criminally-minded persons. Though recent findings point to the fact that Mali’s once Emperor, Mansa Musa was the first richest person in the world after the likes of King Solomon and the Lord Jesus Christ, the country is today, one of the poorest ten in the globe.
The 2024 report of the United Nations Children Education Fund, UNICEF on Mali indicates that over half of her children between the age 15 and 24 are illiterates while about 2 million of the children are completely out of school. The country has a total population of about 23.77 million as at 2023. And about 47.19 of these are children of the of 15 years and below.
In the case of Chad, UNICEF, in 2024 put the figure of out-o-school children at about 2.6 million out of her total population which stood at about 18.44 million in 2024.
Just similar to the aforementioned nations, over 50% children between 7 and 16 years in Niger Republic are out-of-school. Theirs is a country where about 49% of total population of about 26.16 million is children, according to 2023 report by UNICEF.
Some of the factors adduced to be responsible for this challenge include; poverty, insecurity, poor infrastructure and cultural norms.
Curbing the menace of out-of-children therefore requires that the federal and state governments in the Northern part of the country re-commence the almajiri programme for the out-of-school children in the area while its equivalent should equally be established in the south with a view to ensuring that no child is left out of school before the attainment of certain ages.
Though population has its own role in a nations’ developments, time has come for the federal government to re-enact the call for Nigerian couples to limit the number of children they bear to a maximum of 4 as was canvassed by the administration of the former military president of the country, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida.
Those who cannot even cater for this number can still go down to three or less, just as the ones that earnestly seek to have plenty children with adequate means to cater for them should not be coaxed into limitations. This is where the orientation agencies will have roles to play.
Again, governments at all levels have the onus to ensure that education is completely free and compulsory for residence of Nigeria up to certain ages as it is practiced in developed societies such as the UK, USA, Canada and others.
America offers complete free education to children from year 5 until a child completes his or her 12th grade (equivalent to post primary school level in Nigeria). Canada on the other hand provides free education at elementary and high school levels.
The Nigerian government can equally intervene in the war against the scourge through the use of negative income tax system wherein certain income bracket earners are paid certain amounts of money in addition to their income from a nation’s social investment fund.
Well-to-do individuals and the Non-Governmental Organisations, NGO with focus on the welfare of the poor and the vulnerable members of the society must prioritise helping the needy. Additionally, the government of Nigeria owes the citizens an obligation to ensure that her borders with other countries are properly manned by security operatives and their implements of duty towards warding off the influx of criminal into Nigeria.
Enforcing the measures against the menace may end as an effort in futility without a collaborative effort between the governments of Nigeria, Chad, Mali, Niger republic and other countries with high propensity for child negligence in Africa.
In the meantime, state governors in Nigeria can obligat0rily help to sanitise the system by collaborating with each other by allowing children with no parental care but reside in states other than theirs are properly repatriated home for capture in the distribution of indigenous dividends of democracy in form of states’ welfare schemes for citizens. As the adage goes; ‘a stitch in time saves nine’.
