By Chuks NZEH
The International Labour Organization, ILO, has tasked young workers on the need to take action against child labour in Nigeria and beyond.
Speaking during a capacity building programme for young workers in Lagos, the Senior Specialist of Workers’ Activities, representing the Director of ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone, Inviolata Chinyangara, called on young workers to take action for the elimination of child labour and forced labour in Nigeria.
ILO, through its Accelerating Action for the Elimination of Child Labour in Supply Chains in Africa, ACCEL, project is working to mitigate the prevalence of child labour in Nigeria, especially in mining sites located in Niger, Osun and Ondo States.
Chinyangara noted that, the training was to empower young people to take action, speak out against Child Labour, raise further awareness on the issues around it, spread the knowledge acquired among their peers and act as a voice for the children whose rights are not respected and call on decision makers to act urgently to protect vulnerable children.
She also advocated for an integrated approach factoring in the Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, to the elimination of child labour.
On her part, the National Policy Coordinator, ILO, ACCEL Africa Project, Celine Oni, said that the ACCEL Africa Project Phase 1 commenced in 2018 to 2023 and from then the second phase began which is still running till 2028.
Adding that more than 60 percent of the global Labour force and more than 90 percent of the Labour force in developing countries are in the informal sector with little or no access to Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, FPRW.
She said according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, NBS, 4 in every 10 children in Nigeria are involved in Child Labour.
Also speaking, the Head of Education, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Muttaqa Yusha’u, tasked participants on translating the workshop gains into concrete actions.
Yusha’u urged them to foster accountability and collaboration, as well as create a roadmap for the elimination of child labour in supply chains within their communities and beyond.
He noted that the required impact of the workshop can only be achieved after the programme when participants take actions that can reach their communities and call for sustained commitment to partnerships that would lead to the elimination of child labour in Nigeria.
The workshop, with the theme: “Strengthening Youth Capacities for Advocacy on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, FPRW, and Elimination of Child Labour and Forced Labour” brought together workers from the NLC and Trade Union Congress, especially from Osun, Ondo and Niger, with other strategic youth groups for 3 days to build capacity for the task of eliminating child and forced labour.
