A SURVEY OF UNDERAGE CHILDREN AS STREET TRADERS IN LAGOS STATE METROPOLIS IMPLICATION FOR COUNSELING
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
INTRODUCTION
People in Lagos and its environment today believe in number of children a family has rather than the quality of such children. Most people use this number of children to measure man’s wealth. Based on this, the life of these children is under mind due to the unstable economic power of the parent, for ends to meet and ensure prepare care of those children, these children are engaged in one way or the other in petty trading along the metropolis road, while some boys are used as or employed as bus conductors handing destinations to passengers and would be passenger. However, some intellectual have expressed their views concerning the concept these state of the underage children in Nigeria, some possible causes, and possible solution to under age children as street traders in Lagos State.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE INCREASE OF UNDERAGED CHILDREN
Children are the hope of the future. A society that is devoid of children would no distance future be a desolate land. It is in the realization of the importance of children that every society at all level has always accorded the training and development of young ones unalloyed attention.
Infact, overall welfare is always an issue of national interest, and in most countries articulate policies have been put in place as part of the overall national policy aimed at moulding the underaged children towards being responsible citizens. The posture of the Nigerian society towards the Nigerian children in recent times does not give children any cause to smiles rather there is need for every members of our society to ponder on the deteriorating state of the Nigerian children, which ahs reached an acceptable level. We abuse, debase, harass and neglect these innocent juveniles in the course of self aggrandizement.
Fafunwa (1993) listed factors that derived children to the street to include broken homes, poverty, hunger and civil strive, resulting it refuge problems, illiteracy and unemployed he also said that no matter what we do we cannot rise above our poverty level unless if we can reduce the number of illiteracy to a small portions and wipe out poverty and ignorance from the continent of Africa.
Njoku (1991) also identified negligence as one of the fact or that contributed tot eh increase of underaged children in Lagos State. He stated that to properly groom a child to be a responsible citizen it is a collective task in which presently, the society and all should have a stake.
POVERTY AND HUNGER
Murdock (1992) blamed the poor state of the nation’s economy on the standard of living in the county that is falling tremendously. Based on this many families find it hard to provide for the basic amenities of their members children of the down trodden families find it hard to get adequate facilities, that are needed to move life more comfortable for their most of them can not afford to give children three square meals a day not to talk of clothing them to school. Hunger and poverty has become order to the day in most families no wonder they don’t see anything bad in child labour.
Oluwasanmi (1994) stated inability of the family to play this primary roles, surely affect the children. He remarked that due to hunger and poverty, many families have sent underaged children to engage in street trading or throw them to streets to look for ways of getting means of live hood for the entire family. With this, many underaged children are now in the street begging for arms and scavenging dust bin for food plantations, prostitution and other labour force jobs. A drive along any major highway in Lagos confirms the sympathetic state of the Nigeria child. The sight of these children running, hawking middling among vehicle in an effort to sell petty fund like bread, ice water, chocolates, street and pop corn is an eye sore that every vicinity of Lagos should be ashamed of themselves for he children are now the bread winners of the family.
Akinola (1992) said that what many has done in Nigeria has not helped us. Money and the search for materialism has occupied the mind of the people to the extend that hey can no longer exercise their right and responsibilities in their children.
Fafunwa (1993) said in a speech derived during the launching of the street children in to the street is the civic strive that can lead to refuge problem. This is the kind of trouble crept between people either or different race e.g. driving the Nigeria civil war, many people look to the street for their own life including the children who were supposed to be under parental care.
Adebowale (1995) said that the effect of a careless marriage on a society are overwhelming as the saying goes when two elephant fight, it is the grass that suffers, marriage is a contact, it is an institution that should be cherished children and indeed that large society are the victims of broken marriage.
Brown (2001) remarked that the children of broken homes constitute a nuisance and a setback to the society in which they are born. The female children take after mother and the vicious cycle of societal instability continuous. Broken marriages should be seen as a marital stigma, which greatly inhibit the growth of any nation. As there is an increase in the number of marriage the has hit the rocks definitely there will also be corresponding increase in the number of underage children in the street. This is because separate between the father and mother will have an adverse effect on the children. If this occurs, the only alternative the children have is to take to the street and find things for themselves since life with them becomes a struggle.
Adamolekun (1996) suggested discipline must be enshrined inboth our public and private lives. Exemplary living must be our guiding principle. A common old adage often cited when discussing issue related to children of today are the leaders of tomorrow. when viewed agains the unpleasant background of our society. It is easy to conclude that this adage may not have an secured place in the Nigeria society of tomorrow. it must be said that those children can only grow to be true leaders if only the have been prepared for the arduous task of leadership. When the children are not given proper discipline there is tendency for such children to end up in the street especially in the motor parks serving as bus conductors, all these factors do contribute in one ay or the other to the use of underaged children as street traders in Lagos metropolis.
It is rather regrettable that in searching for money and materialism most parents have abandoned their responsibilities to their wars. The implication of this act is the eve increasing numbers of underaged children in our streets finding for themselves in their bid to survive they engaged in vagrant and nefarious activities such as drug abuse, pocket picking at the bus stop, thuggery, selling of pure water etc.
Essien (1994) said that the result of increase of underaged children in Lagos metropolis is the ever increasing number of juvenile delinquency teenage pregnancy, sexual abuse, child abandonment and multiple teenage crimes. The misuse of underaged children in Lagos metropolis brought about the rapid increase in juvenile delinquency since these children are free from parental care there is the tendency them to take up behavior that are not in accordance with the accepted social standard or laws of the society to which they belong e.g. many of them develop the habit of smoking at tender age.
According to Adewale (1994) another implication of the proliferation of the underaged children is the increase in teenage pregnancy many of the underaged children involves themselves in sexual practice without actually minding the consequences. They are so free and there is nobody to caution them against it. Therefore, they finally involve themselves in it at a very tender age.
Other implication of this proliferation of underaged children on Lagos State include sexual abuse, increasing teenage crime, stealing, pocket picking, street trading and reduction in the number of the country labour.
Beatrice Miconnel (2006) in her review asserts that children labour cannot be ignored, a vital factor in the present economic crisis children are leaving school and going to work at times when millions of adults are jobless, many of these children are acting as the sole support of their families because their fathers and older brothers and sisters are unemployed while it is true that the member gainfully employed children has fallen off in the past two years, this decrease measured against the decrease in all wage earning shows that child labour has only kept pace with the drop in adult employment during the depression. She stressed further that the reduction in absolute number of child workers has been the most obvious and the most frequently discussed effect of the depression on children labour. A more significant through the use of conspicuous effect has been change in type of employment and in general working condition. There as been a questionable shift of child workers to the less desirable, less well paid and less well regulated types of employment. Thus, domestic services, a type of work unregulated as to hours or general conditions of work is taking a relatively larger numbers of 14 and 15 years old girls more than in previous years. Selling magazine, candy or pencils, with boost blacking boxes and other street trading occupation as an excuses, children are struggling in ever increasing number of secure few pennies from the casual passer by industrial home work has taken on a new lease of life during the hard times and the employment of children in this most difficult to regulate types of employment has become an increasingly serious problem. In Pennsylvania, where machinery has been established in the Bureau of women and children for the enforcement of the state’s home work standards. The proportion of illegal employ children during the past year was more than double that of the preceding year. Not long age a pale little year old was found who regularly before the after school pulled basting from clothing the other members of the family has “finished” thereby adding perhaps 50 cent to the weekly home work pay.
Beatrice Miconnel (2006) concluded by asking the question that shall we continue to allow our children in pay for ht breakdown of our economic system or shall we unite a firm endeavour to give them their opportunity today to prepare for their share of tomorrow? a child’s loss of schooling of recreation, of adequate food and shelter now cannot be made up after the depression industry no longer needs and school no longer be permitted to demand the services of children of fourteen on a fifteen. No child who have left school and gone to work at thee ages is free to develop mentally or physically according to modern standards. Child labour laws should be so strengthened that the health and safety of the next other group, the sixteen year old workers are more effectively safeguards. Working homes should be shortened might ore eliminated, medical examination and employment certificate required; and employed in hazardous occupation prohibited. And according to the last census, more than half of the boys and girls of sixteen and seventeen in Pennsylvania had left school. It is fully to assure that any considerable proportion have found employment. If idleness is disintegrating for an adult, it is infinitely more, so for an adolescent these boys and girls should be either in school or at work, any movement to keep children in school places added responsibility on the school to work our school programmes for combining the cultural with the practical to meet the needs of all children in school budgets, and yet only raising the age at which children may become usage earners, setting up better safeguards for young workers and enriching the school experiences of adolescent can we protect our youth from heavier depression burdens than they can safely bear.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the methods and procedures adopted in collecting data for analysis and test of hypothesis, these methods and procedures are as follows:
- Research design
- Population of the study
- Sampling and sampling technique
- Research instrument
- Validity and reliability of instruments data analysis
3.1 RESEARCH DESIGN
This research work is designed to investigate the implications of underage children as street traders in Lagos Metropolis a case study of 4 selected Local Government Area of Lagos State.
3.2 POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The population of this study comprise solely of workers selected from within Lagos metropolis, there workers are drawn from 4 selected Local Government Area in Lagos State. The workers consists civil servants, industrial workers, hospital staffs and petty trader, 10 respondents representing each of the local government, totaling (forty respondent).
The four selected local government area include
- Oshodi/Isolo Local Government Area
- Mushin Local Government Area
- Ikeja Local Government Area
- Agege Local Government Area
3.3 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNQIUE
The sample of the population used for this research work are 40 (forty) workers representing 4 Local Government in Lagos State. The sampling techniques used in the sample random sampling 10 (ten responds were randomly drawn from the population (LGA) totally 40 (forty) respondents.
3.4 RESEARCH INSTRUMENT
The instrument used for this research work is the questionnaire design beside 2 way like a scale Yes/No to draw data from the respondents. The questionnaires is divided into two part, the first part seeks together information about bio data of the respondents while the second part consist of the items of the questionnaire.
3.5 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE INSTRUMENT
The research tool instrument is validity by the researcher supervisor who read through and correct.
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS
In analyzing of the data collected, simple percentage is used together, new data and later spearman’s ranking correlation coefficient to test the hypothesis.