Street Children Phenomenon in Nigeria: The Challenges and Way Forward

Abstract

The key root cause of most social problems in many of the developing countries around the world, including Nigeria has been identified to have their foundation in the prevalence of abject poverty. Its effect on development is multifaceted, especially on human development and formation. Due to the present economic and social situation, the family institution is in great difficulty of coping with its function of child rearing and upbringing of its young members. The inability of the family to perform its function in this regard has led to the uncoordinated activities of children, out extreme starvation and lack of parental care fleeing homes to fend for themselves on the streets, an act, which has generated several armies of children and youth on the streets. This problem appears to be increasing daily, which requires immediate attention towards addressing the issue. Against this background, this paper focuses on the challenges of street children phenomenon in Nigeria and also did an international comparison of countries around the world.The paper x-rayed governmental and non-governmental responses to the phenomenon of street children and also analyzed the expected roles of other stakeholders in the life of children. The paper revealed that the root causes of street children phenomenon as being embedded in the characteristics of the failure of families, communities and governments in their roles and responsibilities generally towards societal functioning on the one hand, and particularly towards care for children. It is therefore the maladministration of governments and the carefree attitude of families, the communities and the governments of developing and underdeveloped countries that should be blamed for the misfortune of street children, rather than in the children themselves. Following this, the paper suggests some pragmatic approaches towards alleviating the problem, among which the religious and societal based remedies of social and social-economic restructuring and reformations, that places child care in a position of priority, are recommended. Others are the implementation of the Nigeria Child Rights Act promulgated in the year 2003, which could improve the standard of practice presently obtainable in Social Welfare Department and in other government agencies such as the Nigerian Police Force, and the adult/child rights relationship management. The study also recommended the need to provide more financial supports to the NGOs already supporting street children. The government should encourage more NGOs to include the provision of support, welfare and reformation to street children in their programmes, while new NGOs focusing more on this area of social welfare should be encouraged and supported by governments, organizations and well spirited individuals. This is important because the number of NGOs providing support to street children presently are indeed very few and the participation of more NGOs in the provision of supports will help to take more children off the street.