Marcus Nkire
No sensitive human being will get use to sight of a child in tatters, roaming the streets devoid of hopes of quality education, while carrying commodities they intend to sell to make ends meet under the scorching sun of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
Research by the International Labour Organization (ILO) showed that in Nigeria nearly 14million children between the ages of five and 14 are involved in one form of economic activity or the other.
With poverty level in the country hitting new heights in recent times, many parents are forced to send their under aged wards to hawk food items on the streets of Kaura an area popularly known as games village, a housing estate in the area. Children within ages six to 12 years are seen carrying food items such as cashew nuts, bananas, potatoes, groundnuts and oranges on their heads.
Spotted regularly at the major road leading to games village junction, these kids ingeniously take advantage of the traffic lights to quickly make sales before the red light turns green and cars begin to move. Their marketing skillset is undoubtedly persuasive as it appeals to the conscience of their customers.
While it is easy to blame the country’s poor economic status, the guardians of these children must shoulder some form of responsibility for crossing the moral threshold by risking the lives and security of tomorrow’s leaders which according to respondents in the area is the most pertinent factor to be considered.
Investigation revealed that some of these children do not live with their biological parents, leaving them vulnerable to abuse and ill treatments from their so-called guardians.
A resident of Games Village, Tolu, opined: “It is quite disheartening because you see young kids on the street perambulating, instead of going to school. I know that these are hard times but I don’t understand how at this day and age parents who claim they love their children would put them through such hardship.”
Another resident, Uche Amadi, 24, blasted the government for paying more attention to political issues than dealing with matters of higher sensitivity: “In this country our government only cares about politics and politicians. People are dying everyday and no one cares. These kids should not be on the streets, it is the government’s responsibility to create and initiative to take them off the streets.”
Halima, an 11-year-old girl selling cashew nuts narrated her ordeal: “I stay at Gudu with my mother. Everyday around 12noon I come out to sell cashew nuts. My mother says if I don’t make sales we won’t have food to eat. By the evening time I’m back to sell roasted corn.”
On how much she makes daily: “I have the one for N100, N200 and the biggest is N500. If I am lucky I can make up to N3000 a day and then I come back and give it to my mother. Sometimes when I come back tired and angry, asides from the food she prepares for me to eat, she would give me N100 for snacks.”
Halima refused to talk about her father. She has never attended any form of school and is fluent in Hausa and Pigeon English.