NAN-ELS-2-
Hawking
By Justina David Auta
Abuja, Dec. 7, 2016 (NAN) Some parents resident in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), say they now engage their children in street hawking to generate additional income for their families due to the economic recession.
The parents told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja, that the current economic recession bedevilling the nation had forced them into that condition.
Economic recession is a significant decline in economic activity, lasting more than a few months, visible in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP), real income, employment, industrial production and wholesale-retail sales.
Mrs Esther Ebuka, a trader at Kpaduma market said her children had to engage in hawking of vegetables (ugwu and water leaves) to provide additional money to the perishable food business she does.
“Whenever they come back from school, they usually join me in the shed where I sell my things to hawk around so that we will make more sales,’’ she said.
According to her, even though her children still attend school in the morning, they have to stop attending extra-moral lessons to enable them hawk.
On his own part, Usman Mailemu, an orange trader decried the high cost of goods and services, which he said had forced his family to engage in various trades to enable them, generate more income for the needs of the family.
Mailemu said his wife now makes a local Hausa delicacy, “waina’’ to sell in the morning, while his children hawk groundnut.
He stated that his children had to drop out of school because he was unable to buy books and pay for their tuition fees for the new session.
Mailemu, however, said that they would resume in January after he had saved some money to provide those needs.
Mrs Joy Odey said her children engaged in hawking to provide income for their own personal use.
“My children buy and sell fruits to generate money that would enable them buy their own personal things.
“It teaches them to be independent and have their own source of income,’’ she said.
Mrs Patience Adamu, a school teacher said hawking by children was an infringement on their rights because parents were supposed to carter for the needs of the children, and not the other way round.
“ It is disheartening to see children that are supposed to be in school or playing with their peers hawking, which seems to be a normal trend in Nigeria.
“ Even if the family needs the additional income, it is very wrong to send those children out to go and hawk due to poverty,” she said.
Adamu explained that street hawking by children affects their development, education and exposure to negative vices.
“ The effect of child hawking could be seen on their education, it exposes them to molestation, sexual abuse, adoption of negative tendencies such as thuggery, kidnapping for rituals or trafficking for body organ usage, as well as contract diseases,’’ she said.
She appealed to the government to enforce stringent laws that would ban street hawking by children.
Adamu also appealed to parents to desist from sending their children for hawking as it exposes them to negative tendencies. (NAN)
JAD/TO/EEE
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Edited by Tola Okinbaloye/Ese E. Ekama