New face of slavery · How Togolese, Beninnoise kids are used for child labour in Nigeria

By SUNDAY ANI (nichsunny@yahoo.com)

When a Briton, William Wilberforce was championing the campaign against slave trade, he did that because of his regard for the sanctity of human life. Slavery reduced humanity to nothingness. Human lives were valueless. The society was a quintessence of Thomas Hobbs’s picture of life in a lawless society– short, nasty and brutish. So, when in 1807, an Act for the abolition of slave trade came into being, it was a big relief to most African countries especially those that were under the British colony.

But today, slavery has assumed another dimension. It may not be an outright sale of a human being for cheap labour but it has the entire semblance.

Investigation by our correspondent reveals a growing cartel and network of men and women across the West African coast, which employs the services of under-aged children and ferry them across to Nigeria for various cheap labour. Most of them work as nannies, housemaids, washer men/women, hawkers, security guards as well as labourers in building sites across Lagos state.

The bulk of these innocent children are from Togo, Benin Republic, Sierra-Leone and sometimes, Ghana. Most of the times, they are willingly contracted to the merchants or slave masters by their parents, who in turn receive peanuts from the masters at the end of every month.

A large number of these under-aged children are found mostly in building sites across the state. A casual visit by our correspondent to emerging towns in the places like Satellite Town, Lekki and Ajah axis among other fast growing urban and sub-urban centres in Lagos, was enough eye opener. They mix cement and gravel and serve the mason using head pans. They also carry blocks, which they serve the bricklayers on their heads. They don’t have any permanent address. Wherever they are building automatically becomes their new abode. They look haggard, unkempt, malnourished and lethargic whenever one comes across them. Their condition is pitiable but they are helpless. They have been given away by their parents or wards in exchange for a peanut.

When our correspondent accosted one of the kid labourers during their break time, pretending as if he wanted a job, the 14-year-old boy, who identified himself as Taye, a Beninoise, advised him to check back later as their master was not at the site.

But, when he was teased and engaged in further discussion, he made some startling revelations. He said each of them receives N300 every day as feeding allowance and N3000 every month as wage. “Our Oga dey give us N300 chop money every day. When month end, E go give us N3000,” he managed to mutter in Pidgin English. Among the five of them that our correspondent gathered to chat with, he was the only person who could understand Pidgin English; others only understood their local dialect, with a fair knowledge of Yoruba language.

The house they were constructing was a three storey building located on Tokumo Street, Off Community Road Satellite Town. Although Taye and her colleagues said they received N300 each daily for feeding, investigation revealed that most of the time, they feed on bread and garri. Sometimes, they cook at the site and eat together. They bathe, sleep, wake and work at the site. Before they finish one job, their boss would have secured another building contract where they would relocate to as their new abode, while construction commences.

Investigation revealed that their influx into the construction sector has made their Nigerian counterparts to face stiff competition because they charge low, thereby cornering most of the jobs that could ordinarily have gone to Nigerians. This trend, according to a Nigerian contractor, who preferred not to be named, has been thriving because their labourers neither pay for house rent; electricity bill nor for transport fare.

Another building contractor, Tolulope Adeoye, who also renovates and paints corroborated what the anonymous contractor earlier said. Commenting on the new trend, he said: “The kids come mostly from Togo and Benin Republic. Most times, they come through a network. In fact, I refer to it as an extension of the ancient slave trade. Simply put, it is modern slavery. From the story I got from some of them, it is most often their fathers who give them out to be used as child labourer. The parents are paid token from whatever the middleman gets from whomever that is using the child. They are mostly used for manual labour, domestic chores or even street hawking. I know of a few networks in Satellite Town and Lekki axis of Lagos State. I think it has really gone all over. It is a trade that is done underground; just like slave trade.”

But some people argue that the kids are learning the art of craftsmanship. For instance, an executive member of the Tokumo Street landlords’ association, who preferred anonymity, strongly argued that the kids were only being exposed early in life to learning the skills of building and that there is nothing wrong in that. To him, it is a wise decision to start learning any craft at an early stage in one’s life so that such a person would be knowledgeable in his chosen field of craft. He praised the culture of early exposure to craftsmanship prevalent in countries like Togo and Benin Republic, adding, “That’s why you hardly see quacks among them. They start early in life to learn those crafts and by the time they would get to the age of adulthood, they would have mastered the art very well, unlike most Nigerian artisans, who would only spend two or three years to learn and they go about causing more harm than good to people. We are impatient in this country and we want to make it fast. That is our problem.”

But, Mr Adeoye would not agree with the landlord. He stressed that first and foremost, the kids are not learning any trade or craft; they are only being used as cheap labourers. He also believes that even if they want to learn any craft, they should first, get formal education, which he further argued, would help them to make good choices of what they want to be in life. “The surprising thing is that these little kids ought to be somewhere in school to get formal education first and know if their calling is the craft work or white colar job. A child should be given a free hand to decide what profession to take on in life. Their age ranges from five, six and up to 13 or 14. The main person that brought them to the site will release money to the eldest among them to provide meals to the others. Most times, they just cook beans and eat it with garri at the site. They also live on the site, sometimes in the open. They live in the houses still under construction starting from the period of foundation to the roofing level,” he stated.

According to Adeoye, “Their presence is seriously telling on the Nigerian craftsmen because most times, they bid for less than 30 percent of what people normally collect. We have bills to pay. We feed normally and pay house rent. We also pay for transport. But, because they just pay a token to use the children for manual labour, they just take anything; they take even as low as 30 percent of the standard charge.

They don’t pay these children at all; the money is paid to the person that brought them from their home country.”

Also speaking the Coordinator of Patriotic Citizens Initiative, Osita Osemene, described the trend as wicked and inhuman. He said: “This is terrible; it is wicked. It is simply man’s inhumanity to man. You can imagine recruiting children at that age usually from the age of six to 10 years, bringing them for cheap labour to work as bricklayers and all sorts of work. They are especially from Togo and Benin Republic.”

Describing how he felt when he first saw the kids at the site carrying blocks and what he did thereafter, he said: “When I saw them, I was very cold and I resolved to investigate it further. I was wondering how somebody in his right senses could give out his child to engage in this kind of work, no matter how early you want such child to be skilled. You can’t bring a child as tender as six years to start carrying blocks in a construction site. From the information I gathered, these boys are not learning to become professional bricklayers because they have their bosses who are just using them as slaves. It is like a chain; it is not encouraging because the boys are not learning anything. Carrying of blocks is not a skill; it can be done by anybody. You can’t tell a child to go and learn how to carry blocks. And look at the amount they pay them. I found out that most people don’t see this as anything wrong. They just see it that these children are being engaged to earn their living or to support their families but going deep into their world, you discover that they are being used by some people to make cheap money.”

On what can be done to arrest the ugly development, Mr Osemene said: “Already we have been trying in our own small way by collaborating with agency like NAPTIP to bring this kind of ugly trend to a stop. We have a network for the eradication of child abuse and labour. My organization is collaborating with them. It is even being supervised by NAPTIP.”

He stated that unless all hands were on deck, only his organization and NAPTIP would not be able to win the war because they cannot be everywhere at the same time. “We are working but the issue is that the work is not enough. As it is happening in satellite, it is happening in Lekki as well as in Aja and we cannot be everywhere. But the ones we can see, we will talk because people must be aware,” he said. He also advised parents to always speak out when they see such things in their environment, even as he called on the concerned authorities to educate parents on what constitutes child labour. He said: “Another thing is that parents are making things more difficult. They see these things as a means of livelihood. We need to educate our parents very well to see the evil in this business. When they know, they can complain when they see these things around their environment. We can stem it down by awareness. And the people who are into the business should be seriously dealt with to serve as deterrent to others.”

When our correspondent finally met with the man in charge of the kids on Tokumo Street, he didn’t see anything wrong in what he was doing. Instead, he argued that the kids were learning the craft of building. But when reminded that they were under-aged and should be in school instead of being at the construction site at such tender age, he said: “I did not bring them here by force. Their parents handed them over to me because they wanted them to learn this trade. So, I don’t see anything wrong in that.”

Reacting to the allegation that he uses them for cheap labour and pays them peanut, he said: “I am not supposed to pay them anything because they are my apprentice. I pay them because I want them to be happy and I want them to have little money so that they could buy things like groundnut if they want.”

He refused to comment on their living pattern, preferring to keep mum over that when asked to comment