Gift Barry-ObaIn spite of the global outcry against child labour and its adverse effects, a concerning surge in forced and child labour is observed among cocoa farmers in Ogun State, located in the south-west region of Nigeria, as reported by OgunWatch’s Gift Barry-Oba.
The prevalence of forced and child labour remains a significant challenge on a global scale, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, with Nigeria being no exception. According to the United States Department of Labor’s list highlighting goods produced through child or forced labour, cocoa production in Nigeria involves the use of both forced and child labour.
Furthermore, the UNICEF Situation Analysis of Children in Nigeria Study Report (2022) indicates that over 14 million children, approximately 32.8 percent of those aged 5โ17 years, are engaged in some form of child labour. Globally, the International Labor Organization (ILO) reports that about 218 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 work as child labourers, with 70% of them employed in the agriculture sector.
This picture is just an illustration
Despite the Nigerian Federal Government’s demonstrated commitment to addressing this issue through the implementation of frameworks such as the National Policy on Child Labour (NPCL) and the National Action Plan (NAP) on the Elimination of Child Labour (2022โ2025), challenges persist. Additionally, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) established the National Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights in Nigeria in 2022, incorporating the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights, approved by the federal government.
However, despite these initiatives, investigations reveal that forced labour remains pervasive, systematic, and frequent in the cocoa industry in Nigeria. The gap between policy frameworks and on-the-ground realities highlights the urgent need for effective enforcement and further measures to eradicate forced and child labour in the country’s cocoa sector.
ABANDONED SCHOOLS, HOMES FOR COCOA FARMS: Unveiling the Dark Side of Child Labor
In Ogun State, instances of forced and child labour have come to light as teenagers were discovered working on cocoa farms across different parts of the state. They were compensated with N10,000 Naira ($13.6) per month or N120,000 Naira ($163) per year.
Some of these young individuals have been trafficked from Taraba State, Cross River State, and Benue State, facing pressure to consume substances resembling “India hemp” to endure non-stop work, as revealed by the findings.
The majority of out-of-school youths observed laboring on cocoa fields and plantations fall between the ages of 14 and 18. Cocoa farm owners engage their own children in these exploitative practices on their farms and plantations.
At a state stakeholders’ forum on the Campaign Against Forced Labour in Cocoa Industry in Nigeria Programme held in Abeokuta, Ogun State, a book was released following an intensive investigation by the African Law Foundation. The book, titled “The Scourge of Forced Labour and Child Labour in Cocoa Supply Chain in Nigeria: The Research and Investigation on Forced Labour and Child Labour in the Cocoa Industry of Nigeria,” delved into the menace in Ogun, Ondo, Oyo, Osun, and Cross River States.
The investigation specifically focused on local government areas of Ogun State, including Ijebu North East, Ijebu East, Ijebu North, Ikenne, Odogbolu, Remo North, Yewa South, Odeda, and Ipokia. Shockingly, the findings revealed that cocoa farm owners subject their employees to various forms of abuse, including bullying, threats, wage withholding, segregation, prohibition from leaving the farmland, physical and sexual violence, confiscation of identity documents, debt bondage, harsh living and working conditions, and excessive overtime.
One poignant case involves a sixteen-year-old cocoa worker trafficked from Cross River State at the age of fourteen by an agent to labor on a cocoa farm.
In communities like Eyin Osun, Togunlowo, and Lapini in Ijebu North East, investigators encountered teenagers working on a cocoa farm. Individuals named Peter, Solomon, Monday, Jude, Matthew, Dada, and Joy, a teenage girl, disclosed that they were being paid N12,000 monthly as child laborers on the farm.
These young workers face challenging conditions, working on isolated and hard-to-access farms, such as the one across the River Osun. One of the youths, Monday, revealed that they not only work on their employer’s cocoa farm but also engage in long hours on his palm oil farm, as stated in the book.
During the stakeholders’ forum, organized by the African Law Foundation (AFRILAW) in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), and the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN), experts deplored the prevalence of forced and child labour in the cocoa industry.
The Executive Secretary and Chief Executive of the National Human Rights Commission, Chief Tony Ojukwu, represented by Mrs. Olayinka Odibe, the Ogun state coordinator of the NHRC, explained that Article ’32’ of the Convention on the Rights of the Child obligates state parties to recognize the child’s right to be free from economic exploitation and to be protected from work that could endanger their health, interfere with their education, or negate their rights.
She added that the Ogun state administration has also signed the child’s rights law, providing free and mandatory education for children who do not wish to be compelled to work, who want to be safe and healthy, and who want the integrity of their morals to be preserved and respected.
EXPERT SEEKS INVESTIGATION, PROSECUTION BY GOVT
The African Law Foundation’s founder and CEO, Barrister Okereke Chinwike, urged the state government and other organizations to look into and prosecute cases of child labor and forced labor in the sector and to find solutions for the issues facing cocoa farmers and workers.
โThey need to investigate and prosecute cases of forced and child labor within the industry, create awareness of the problem of forced and child labor among cocoa workers and farmers, and they should also end all conduct and practices that constitute or result in forced and child labor by all cocoa farmers in Nigeria.
โThey should also be ready to assist victims of child labor and forced labor.
โA collaboration with the business sector on the development and implementation of supply chain management systems that prevent and detect forced and child labor is also needed.
CHILD LABOUR IN COCOA FARMING IS PERCULIAR – DIRECTOR
The Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment’s Director and State Controller in the state, Nnamdi Enuah, told OgunWatch in an interview that “the farmers that engage in child labor in that sub-sector is a peculiar one because it is linked to historical antecedents linked to family, father, mother, and children’s work.”
“So, while talking about them, we are very careful to distinguish what causes this because children can help their parents with farm work or other domestic workโnon-harmful work that does not stop them from going to school or hamper their pursuit of education and does not affect them negatively, mentally, physically, or emotionally.
“When talking about child labor, one has to be careful when going there to enforce because if you go and remove them by force, they may end up being violent, and at the same time, you may affect the family’s livelihood.”
He gave his word that regular labor and factory inspections are just one way the ministry is actively addressing the threat. He continued by saying that the ministry controls and acts swiftly in response to such reports and the discovery of forced or child labor taking place in any kind of workplace.
โThe ministry is already working hard on the issues of forced labor and child labor; they are not new developments; they have been ongoing; in fact, they are global issues and arenโt limited only to Nigeria
“Already, we are on top of the situation through our routine labor and factory inspections. We regulate and also take serious actions wherever and whenever we are confronted with or get reports of forced labor and child labour in any workplace,” he said.
The state deputy coordinator of the Child Protection Network in Ogun State, Adeleke Abosede, emphasized that one of the threats facing children is child labor, and the network is making every effort to protect them.
โAs a child, the law that covers them says that anything that does not give them good health or wellbeing is against them. The right that protects children is against forced labor; it does not help a child develop his or her potential but rather lowers their self-esteem.
โBecause when they are supposed to be in school, they are on the farm, and this affects their self-esteem and makes them feel less like their peers.
WE’LL EDUCATE OUR MEMBERS, COCOA FARMERS’ CHAIRMAN
Apostle S. T. Williams, the chairman of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria for the state of Ogun, stated that his organization does not frequently see child labor among its members, but he also promised that the body would provide farmers in the various villages with education.
โWe shall go back to our various villages and do the campaign. I assure you that it is not common in our association because we have been telling our farmers that they should not use their children but instead spend their resources on educating them.”
He also blamed the government for some of the challenges in the industry.
โWhat is happening is primarily caused by the state government because they are not helping the cocoa farmers in terms of funds and all the necessary equipment to work. At the end of the day, after processing the production, they are left with little or no funds left for them. As a result, instead of engaging laborers, they prefer to use their children to minimize costs.
โBut like I said, it’s not common in our association. I want to call on the government to come to the assistance of cocoa farmers in terms of finance and other necessary things,” he added.
WE WILL GO AFTER PERPETRATORSโOGUN GOVT
In an interview with Ogunwatch, the state commissioner for women’s affairs and social development, Adijat Adeleye, gave assurances that the government would track down and bring charges against those responsible.
โThe government is doing everything possible to eradicate child labor. Of late, we sensitized people at the site, both at the farm and where we could find these children. “Sometimes once our team gets to the site, they hide all these children, but in September this year, we still went around the farms to talk to them.
“We would continue to intensify our efforts; you know that we cannot be everywhere at the same time. We work with information like what you are giving us now. But with this information, we need people to work with us since we cannot be everywhere.
“We would swing into action to see how to track them down, and I can assure you that if we do get them, they will surely face the law because we have the child rights law in Ogun State.”
