The Nigerian Labour Congress has called for the stoppage of child labour across the country calling on government to find sustainable solutions to stamp out the social crisis.
In a statement signed by the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and obtained by Nigerian Tracker said the United Nations (UN) through the International Labour Organization (ILO) set aside June 12 for the annual commemoration of the Child Labour Day all over the world.
Comrade Wabba noted that the objective of the celebration of the Child Labour Day is to call the attention of heads of government, trade union leaders, employers, workers, local authorities, policy makers and civil society activists to the challenges of child labour in order to find sustainable solutions to stamp out the menace.
According to Wabba the International Labour Organization at the 87th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), precisely on June 17, 1999, adopted the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention 182.
NLC further notified that Nigeria ratified Convention 182 on the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of Child Labour on October 2, 2002 the convention, just as UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, has found local contextualization in the Children’s Rights Act passed by the parliament and signed into law by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003.
. The statement by comrade Ayuba Waba decried that Child labour includes the subjection of children under the age of eighteen years to any form of trafficking, sale, slavery, and debt bondage.
He pointed out that , the use of under aged children as child soldiers, drug mules, and articles for sexual abuse cum transactions are extreme incidences of worst forms of child labour and therefore condemnable.
The Labour body described that the said crimes are not only heinous against children but they also constitute mortal assault on the soul of humanity.
“ In the face of Covid-19 pandemic, children exposed to these abuses are more vulnerable to infection. In Nigeria, the incidence of child labour occurs in every state.” Said Wabba
The statement lamented that at least 15 million children are engaged in child labour and the number perfectly tallies with the number of out of school children in Nigeria, 10 million children who are not able to access primary education and 5 million children who dropped out of junior secondary school.
The Nigerian labour congress President also commended Northern Governors Forum for taken a decision to stamp out the Almajiranci culture from their states.
‘’We urge that the pronouncement is followed up by concrete actions to fully rehabilitate and re-integrate Almajiri children back to the mainstream of society, while joining the rest of the world in celebrating this occasion, the NLC demands the domestication of the Children Rights Act in every state of the federation. ‘’
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The President of the NLC said the labour body celebrates every Nigerian child as leaders of tomorrow and they are committed to create a better Nigeria that can be inherited tomorrow and to improve upon and pass on to future generations.
