ORIGINAL: Children on the Streets of Ibadan Nigeria: Neglect of Children's Rights

West African Journal of Medicine 2024 March; 41(3): 265-276 PMID: 38787763

Abstract

Background: The Nigerian Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) 2008 enacted prohibitive laws against child streetism. However, in metropolises like Ibadan, there is a growing epidemic of street children, particularly the category with existing family ties known as "children on the streets". Children on the street come from home daily to engage in economic-oriented activities on the streets and return home to their families at night time.

Objective: We focused on perceptions of formal responses to the problem of child streetism in Ibadan.

Methods: This was qualitative research. Participants were selected from each of the five urban LGA of Ibadan, purposively and by snowball technique. In-depth Interviews (IDI) were conducted, audio-recorded and transcribed. Framework analysis of data was supported by ATLASTi version 22.

Results: Fifty-three (53) interviews were conducted including IDI with ten (10) child-welfare officers, ten (10) street shop owners, eleven (11) children on the street, and ten (10) pairs of parent-child dyads. Two themes emerged including governmental shortcomings with six subthemes and suboptimal governmental interventions with four subthemes. Child streetism in Ibadan is a consequence of the State's failed education systems, inadequate children's vocational and rehabilitation programs, lax child welfare laws, lack of empowerment of skilled children, and poor implementation of the policy on ideal family size. Interventions that were existing but sub-optimal included communitybased child welfare programs, parental poverty alleviation, public sensitisation and child welfare monitoring programmes.

Conclusion: There is an urgent need to update, enforce laws, and amalgamate efforts against child streetism in Ibadan.