Nigeria must end child work to stop sexual abuse

In 2025, new research shed light on the urgent need of Nigeria to strengthen the protection of minors in line with international standards. The firm, recently completed by a Nigerian legal scholar, examines the gaps in current legislation and asks for reforms that align with the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child (CRC), the African Charter on the rights and well -being of the child (ACRWC) and on the Nigeria Child Rights Act (2003).

The future of Nigeria’s children is stolen in plain sight. Poverty pushes millions into a street hawk and home servitude, where exploitation is common and abuse is rampant. Behind each statistics there is a child – a six -year -old girl, Hawking Bustwet water on a highway, harassed and violated while her family depends on her poor earnings for survival.

The research shows that almost 70% of young women street vendors in Nigeria has undergone sexual abuse. This is a crisis of national consciousness, not just a social question. Yet despite the existence of robust laws; The Child Rights Act (2003), the Violence Against Person Prohibition (Old) (2015) and the ratification of the Nigeria of the key conventions of the organization of international work are inconsistent and, in many states, absent.

Nigeria leaders face a simple truth: child work feeds sexual abuse on minors. Families pushed into desperation send children to Falco and the predators exploit this vulnerability. Poverty and impunity support the cycle. Unless we confront both, the children will continue to suffer in silence.

We cannot allow the weak application and the selective taming of the protection of minors to condemn another generation. Only 25 states have fully adopted the Child Rights Act – a shame ashamed two decades after its passage. In the meantime, the judicial proceedings for sexual abuse on minors remain rare and the stigma silenced the victims.

The forward path is clear:

• Universal adoption and financing of the Law on the rights of minors in all 36 states.

• Conditional cash transfers and support programs related to school to keep children in class, not on highways.

• Community -based protection systems to report and prevent abuse.

• Quick shorts to punish offenders and break the culture of impunity.

• Public education campaigns to challenge the normalization of Child Hawking.

This is not simply a Nigerian question. With over 15 million workers of minors, Nigeria holds one of the largest populations in the world. Leaving uncontrolled, the crisis undermines global anti-trafficking efforts and erodes for human rights commitments.

Editorial advice all over the world recognize that leadership requires more than legislation. Requires political will. Nigeria has the tools, treatises and talent to protect its children. What is missing is urgency.

Every day of delay is another day when a child faces abuse on the streets. Protecting Nigeria’s children is not charity is justice, law and duty.

While Nigeria approaches 2030, the stakes are clear: unless the reforms are accelerated, millions of children will remain trapped in exploitation and abuse cycles. The credibility of the country and the future of its children are in the balance.

The question is no longer if we know what to do. The question is: will Nigeria finally act?

Godwin Aluyor is a legal scholar specialized in minors abuse