TOPIC:

AN APPRAISAL OF CHILD LABOR IN NIGERIA

FACULTY OF LAW CHUKWUEMEKA ODUMEGWU OJUKWU

UNIVERSITY,
IGBARIAM CAMPUS, ANAMBRA STATE.

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD

OF MASTERS DEGREE IN LAW (L.LM)

PRESENTED BY:
OKONKWO CHRISTIAN IFECHUKWU

REG NO:
2022142014

LECTURER:

DR. C. ILOKA

DATE:

FEBRUARY, 2024
INTRODUCTION

Defining the term “child” lacks consistency which poses an issue within the legal framework of
Nigeria, encompassing both the definition outlined in international child rights law adopted in
Nigeria and domestic laws.

An attempt was made in Article 1 of the Convention on the Rights of a Child, 1 which defines a
child as “every human being below the age of eighteen years, unless, under the law applicable to
the child, the majority is attained earlier.”

This definition of who a child is leaves a lot to be desired, 2 as it lends an even higher degree of
complexity to what child labour really is. This is because the lack of a definite age distinction
blurs the lines on circumstances that can be characterized as child labour. For instance, Child
labour is often described as the employment of children in work that is detrimental to their
physical and mental development, interferes with their ability to attend regular schools, and is
often mentally, physically, socially, or morally harmful3. Noting carefully that who a child is has
not been clearly identified, it can be concluded that this definition can be employed in an evasive
context.

These uncertainties regardless of various interventions, spanning several decades, have been
carried out to curb child labour and exploitation. Foremost amongst these is the legal framework
put in place to fight against this menace that threatens the welfare and development of a child.

LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST LABOUR

AND EXPLOITATION

The legal framework addressing child labour and exploitation in Nigeria is quite extensive,
comprising both domestic legislation and international treaties to which Nigeria is a party
includes; the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As Amended), Labour Act
Cap L1, LFN 2004, Factories Act Cap F1 LFN 2004, Industrial Training Fund Cap 19 LFN 2004
(As Amended), National Health Insurance Scheme Act, Cap N42, LFN 2004, National Housing
Fund Act, Cap N45 LFN 2004, Pension Reform Act 2014, Personal Income Tax Act Cap P8 LFN
2004, Trade Dispute Act Cap T8 LFN 2004, Trade Unions Act Cap T14 LFN 2004, Nigeria Data
Protection Regulation 2019, amongst other relevant legislations as well as decisions of the court
otherwise known as case law. Particular focus will be on the Labour Act which provisions cover
employees engaged in both white collar jobs as well as menial jobs. For the sake of this paper,
we shall be considering the following:

CHILD RIGHTS ACT 2003

1
Convention on the Rights of a Child, 1990 available at
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-child#:~:text=PART
%20I-,Article%201,child%2C%20majority%20is%20attained%20earlier. Accessed on 18/12/ 2023.
2
Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling & William Myers, “What works for working children” (1998) Stockholm Rädda barnen,
Florence, UNICEF. Pg. 930
3
Janet Hilowitz, Joost Kooijmans, and Peter Matz.. “Child Labour: A Textbook for University Students.” International
Labour Organisation, (2009) 19.
Passed in 2003, this Act serves as the main legislation for the protection of children and young
adults in Nigeria and it establishes the legal framework for the protection of children’s rights in
Nigeria. The Act prohibits the engagement of children in any form of labour that is detrimental to
their development, setting the minimum age for employment at 15 years. 4 It however provides
that children of 14 years can be engaged provided that it does not interfere with the children’s
education.5

The Act further provides that no child shall be exposed to any form of exploitative labour,
employed as a domestic help, or even be involved in carrying anything too heavy for his physical
physique.6 This provision in the Child Rights Act is quite comprehensive, as it also envisages the
possibility of industrial employment. Going by this provision, all forms of labour capable of
impeding the development of a child are prohibited by this law. This begs the question of the
effectiveness of this Act as the most common form of domestic help services are rendered by
children younger than 14.l7

THE LABOUR ACT8

The Act defines a child as a young person under the age of 12 and less than 18 years as the age
for a young person.9 The Act prohibits child labour but further provides that a child of less than
14 can be employed on the basis of the daily wage or on a day-to-day basis, provided that such
labour does not preclude the child from returning to the place of residence of the parents or
guardian.10 Consequently, any labour preventing the same, including night shifts, is completely
prohibited by this Act.11

The Act further provides that no child below 16 should be expected to work underground or on
public holidays. This various classification of acceptable labour with varying age brackets has
made the implementation of this Act and specific interpretation of this provision of the Act
conflicting.

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS ON CHILD LABOUR

4
Section 29 of the Act makes applicable to children under the CRA, the provisions of Section 59 of the Labour Act.
5
Section 28 and 29 of the Child’s Rights Act.
6
Section 28 of the Child Rights Act
7
See Samantha Decker, “10 Facts about Child Labor in Nigeria” (2020)THE BORGEN PROJECT available at
https://borgenproject.org/child-labor-in nigeria/#:~:text=Estimates%20determine%20that%20the%20current,child
%20labor%20in%20Western%20Africa accessed on 18/1/2024
8
Cap. L1 LFN 2004
9
Section 91 of the Labour Act
10
Section 59 of the Labour Act
11
Section 60 of the Labour Act
The legal framework for the protection of children against child labour and exploitation in
Nigeria is largely dependent on international conventions and treaties to which Nigeria is a
signatory. Some of the key international instruments Nigeria is party to include:

Convention on the Right of a Child:

This is the primary legal instrument that is targeted towards safeguarding children’s rights. It has
received ratification from nearly every nation globally, including Nigeria. It encompasses the
safeguarding of every aspect of a child’s rights, encompassing their civil, political, economic,
social, and cultural rights. This convention provides in Article 32(1) that;

“States Parties recognize the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and
from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child’s education
or to be harmful to the child’s health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral, or social
development”.

It is important to note that this provision stipulates that, for a work to be recognized as
exploitative, it must be harmful to the welfare and wellbeing of the child and be considered
hazardous. It should be further noted that this article is vague and leaves the ambit of the
interpretation to be stretched as far as possible or shrunk as little as state parties desire.

Article 32(2) provides guidance to state parties on the proper mode of implementation of the
provisions of this instrument, including the enactment of domestic legislation and putting
measures in place to safeguard the welfare of a child.

It’s important to note that despite these legal provisions, child labour remains a significant
challenge in Nigeria, particularly in informal sectors and rural areas. Enforcement of these laws
and raising awareness about the importance of education and child protection are ongoing efforts
in the country.

The Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973:

The Convention addresses the omission in Article 32 of the Convention on the Rights of a
Child, which does not specify the age at which children can start working. It specifies that the
minimum age for starting employment should not be below the age when compulsory schooling
ends and, in any circumstance, should not be under 15 years of age. 12. It also established a
minimum age of 14 years for developing countries.13

Additionally, the Convention stipulates an age range of 13 to 15 years for children engaged in
light work, even though the Convention does not provide a specific definition for what
constitutes light work.14 It however grants the authority to Member States to replace the ages of
13 and 15 with 12 and 14 concerning engagements in light work, and the age of 15 with 14 for
children who are participating in education or training programs approved by the school
authority.15

12
Article 2 (3) of The Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973
13
Article 2 (3) of The Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973
14
Article 7 (1) of The Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973
15
Article 7 (4) of The Minimum Age Convention No. 138 of 1973
TOP OF FROM

Convention on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No. 182 of 1989:

The Convention is concerned with the prohibition and immediate action for the elimination of
the worst forms of child labour. In its preamble, it calls on States’ Parties to prohibit and
eliminate the worst forms of child labour as a matter of urgency while setting the age of
participation in hazardous work at 18 years.16

African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (ACRWC):

The Charter prohibits economic exploitation and the engagement in hazardous labour that might
disrupt a child’s physical well-being or mental development. It curiously leaves out the age that
falls under the class of a child.

SETBACKS TO THE PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST CHILD LABOUR AND

EXPLOITATION

In a country such as Nigeria, plagued with gross multiplicity of laws in several areas inclusive of
child protection laws, the lacuna of uniformity in the definition of who can be classified as a
child and what nature of labour is allowable remains a growing concern. Hence, the reason for
the need to clearly distinguish who qualifies as a child is to sufficiently protect this class, which
is globally recognized as vulnerable.

The general position adopted in Nigeria owing to the Child Rights Act is 18 years. While this
might seem like a uniform provision, it is worthy of note that just 24 out of 36 states in Nigeria
have ratified this Act.

The continuous existence of these complexities is also evidenced by conflicting legal positions.
For instance, Section 2 of the Children and Young Persons Act defines a “child” as a person
under fourteen years, while “young person” means a person who has attained the age of
fourteen but is below the age of seventeen years. The Labour Act also defines a child as a
person below 12 years old.17

Furthermore, Section 59 of the Labour Act permits the employment of individuals under the age
of 14, as long as it’s on a daily wage or day-to-day basis, and they return to their parent’s or
guardian’s residence each night, with the exception of children engaged in domestic service.
Consequently, this provision allows children below 14 to work, including in domestic service,
which contradicts Section 28 of the Child Rights Act, which expressly forbids children from
being employed in domestic service. This makes one wonder whether the lawmakers did not
envisage that the allowance granted by this provision is very susceptible to abuse. The result of
the disparity between the two laws is that it creates complexity and confusion when determining
the minimum ages that are applicable for specific types of employment within the country.

Another major issue is the definition of the scope of engagement that constitutes labour. It
becomes a slippery slope when an attempt is made to distinguish between activities that can be
16
Article 2 of Convention on the worst forms of Child Labour, No. 182 of 1989. The Minimum Age Convention No.
138 of 1973, S. 3 (1) (defines hazardous work as any type of employment or work which by its nature or the
circumstances in which it is carried out is likely to jeopardise the health, safety or morals of young persons.
17
Section 91 of the Labour Act
regarded as acceptable and those regarded as exploitative. According to the International Labour
Organization (ILO), when children or adolescents engage in work that does not harm their well-
being or education, it is generally seen as a positive activity and is not categorized as child
labour. This might tend to imply that just because a worker is a child, it, does not immediately
translate to child labour but includes any work that robs children of their childhood, hinders their
potential, compromises their dignity, and has adverse effects on their physical and mental
development, affecting their educational advancement.18

Poverty, unemployment, population, inflation, and the high cost of living are the major causes of
child labor in Nigeria, and the legal framework merely attempts to treat the syndrome while
leaving the sickness unattended to. The effect of this is that while it looks bad on paper, child
labor is still very much attainable, and minors are still being exploitatively engaged as parents
and even children explore the same as a means of livelihood when faced with grim alternatives. 19

RECOMMENDATIONS

There is a need for all states of the Federation to adopt the Child Rights Act, as this is the first
step towards eliminating child labor and exploitation in Nigeria. There should be uniformity in
the age classification of a child to properly interpret and implement the protective provisions of
the law. There is also an even greater need to attend to the root cause of child labor by improving
the standard of living of members of society, providing free basic education for children and
increasing the minimum wage to ensure that adults can better provide for their children. 20

CONCLUSION

Despite efforts evidenced by the legal framework analyzed above, child labor remains a
significant issue in many parts of the world, particularly in regions with high poverty rates and
limited access to education and social services.

It can therefore be duly conceded that child labor and exploitation might not end in a day, but it’s
a journey worth embarking on as children, which form a class of people generally described as
vulnerable, deserve to be protected.

Snippet: The general position adopted in Nigeria owing to the Child Rights Act is 18 years.
While this might seem like a uniform provision, it is worthy of note that just 24 out of 36 states
in Nigeria have ratified this Act.

18
Janet Hilowitz, Joost Kooijmans, and Peter Matz.. “Child Labour: A Textbook for University Students.”
International Labour Organisation, (2009) 19.
19
Eric Edmonds. “Defining Child Labour: A Review of the Definitions of Child Labour in Policy Research.” (2009)
International Labour Office, International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), 5
20
International Labour Organisation, Ending child labour by 2025: A Review of Policies and Programmes, 8-14,
International Labour Office (ILO), (2017).