THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FACING EFFORTS TO REDUCE CHILD LABOR IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT: The research is concerned with Child Labour in Nigeria, Challenges and Prospects. The most important aspect of this study is to investigate to what extent labour among children affect their moral conducts and social relationship with others because no individual person leaves in isolation, the research also aims at determining the socio-economic effects of labour in order to bring them to the notice of the people and offer possible and valuable suggestions so as to find a lasting solution to the problems which have become canker worms.

Methods: The population of this study consists of randomly selected people in the streets of Lagos and also some female child labourers while cross-sectional survey design was used through the purposive sampling technique to choose the sample size of one hundred and sixty-two (162) respondents. The validated structured questionnaire and In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) served as the instruments for the data collection respectively. The hypotheses were tested using Chi-Square at a predetermined 0.05 level of significance. The quantitative data were analysed with the aid of the SPSS (version 20).

Results: The results indicated among others that child labour had significant social implications and physical consequences on children's moral behaviour as well as health status in the study area.

Conclusion: The study, therefore, concluded that the government of Nigeria should carry out an enlightenment campaign through the media and religious institutions on the negative consequences of child labour are recommended as panacea. Also, the child right act instrument and its implementation should be strengthened in order to curb child labour in the study area.