Peer-reviewed article
CHILD LABOUR IN NIGERIA: NEED FOR EFFECTIVE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK
Grace Ayodele Arowolo ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001Nigeria has signed international treaties and passed domestic laws including the Child Rights Act of 2003 and the Labour Act of 1990 that prohibit child labour. Despite this legal framework, child labour remains widespread in the country. This paper argues that the laws are poorly implemented, contain insufficient and contradictory provisions, and are therefore ineffective at controlling child labour. The authors examine legal provisions and implementation challenges to identify inconsistencies and suggest improvements to the legal framework.
Key points
- Nigeria is party to several international instruments prohibiting child labour
- The Child Rights Act of 2003 is the most comprehensive domestic child protection law
- Child labour remains common in Nigeria despite existing laws
- Laws lack adequate implementation and contain contradictory provisions
- The paper identifies areas of legal inconsistency and implementation challenges
Limitations
This is a legal analysis paper that examines policy and legislation rather than empirical data on the scale, causes, or effects of child labour in Nigeria. It does not provide evidence of what specific interventions would reduce child labour or assess the effectiveness of proposed legal reforms.
Abstract
Nigeria is a party to several scores of international instruments that prohibit child labour. At the domestic level, the Child Rights Act of 2003 which is currently the most comprehensive child right protection law and the Labour Act of 1990 prohibit child labour in Nigeria. In spite of these laws, however, child labour is a common phenomenon in Nigeria. This paper argues that these laws lack adequate implementation. The provisions are insufficient and highly contradictory and are therefore, unable to control child labour effectively. This paper, therefore, examines some of the provisions of major international and domestic laws relating to the control of child labour in Nigeria in order to identify the areas of inconsistency in the laws and the challenges to the effective implementation while suggestions are made for an effective legal framework.