Nigeria’s Forgotten Children
By Comfort Pius
At a busy roadside in Maiduguri, a young boy no older than 10 stood under the scorching afternoon sun balancing a tray of groundnuts on his head while children in neat school uniforms walked past him. Instead of holding books, he held crumpled naira notes from customers. Instead of preparing for examinations, he was struggling to survive another day on the streets.
READ ALSO: Nigeria, Israel Seek Stronger Cooperation in Agriculture, Security, Technology
That single scene captures one of Nigeria’s most dangerous but least discussed tragedies the growing crisis of out-of-school children.
According to UNICEF, Nigeria has one of the highest numbers of out-of-school children in the world, with millions of children, particularly in northern Nigeria, still denied access to basic education. Behind those statistics are real children whose dreams are gradually being buried under poverty, insecurity, neglect, and government failure.
Across Nigerian cities and villages, the signs are impossible to ignore. Children who should be inside classrooms are instead seen hawking sachet water in traffic, begging at motor parks, washing plates in restaurants, pushing wheelbarrows in markets, or wandering the streets during school hours. In many rural communities, some schools operate without enough teachers, chairs, toilets, books, or safe classrooms. In certain cases, children still sit on bare floors under leaking roofs to learn.
Yet society has become dangerously comfortable with this abnormal reality.
The tragedy of out-of-school children no longer shocks many Nigerians because it has become part of everyday life. We see these children daily, but we rarely stop to ask ourselves what kind of future awaits a nation that abandons millions of its young population to hardship and illiteracy.
A nation that neglects its children is quietly digging the grave of its own future.
Poverty remains one of the major forces driving this crisis. Across the country, countless parents now struggle to provide even basic meals for their families. With rising inflation and worsening economic hardship, education has become a luxury many poor households can no longer afford. For some families, survival comes before schooling.
This is why many children now trade education for labour. Instead of classrooms, the streets have become their workplaces. Instead of notebooks, they carry trays, wheelbarrows, and tools for survival.
In northern Nigeria, insecurity has made an already terrible situation worse. School attacks, kidnappings, violent conflicts, and fear have forced many parents to withdraw their children from school entirely. Some schools have been abandoned, while thousands of children remain trapped at home without access to learning.
The girl-child also faces additional burdens. In some communities, early marriage, poverty, and harmful cultural practices continue to push young girls out of school prematurely. Many bright futures are cut short before they even begin.
But beyond poverty and insecurity lies another uncomfortable truth government negligence.
For years, leaders have repeatedly promised educational reforms, yet many public schools remain symbols of abandonment and decay. Politicians deliver speeches about youth empowerment while classrooms collapse silently across the country. Budgets are announced, committees are formed, and promises are made, but the daily realities facing ordinary Nigerian children rarely improve.
Ironically, many of the same leaders whose policies affect public education do not trust the system enough to use it for their own children. Their sons and daughters attend expensive private schools or study abroad while children of the poor struggle in overcrowded classrooms with little hope.
That contradiction exposes the deep inequality within Nigeria’s education system.
Education should never depend on the social class of a child. A poor child deserves quality education just as much as the child of a politician or wealthy businessman. When access to education becomes a privilege instead of a right, society creates divisions that eventually threaten national peace and development.
The consequences of ignoring this crisis will not remain silent forever.
A classroom closed today may become a prison filled tomorrow. Children denied education today may become frustrated adults tomorrow. No nation can successfully fight insecurity, poverty, unemployment, extremism, or crime while millions of its children remain outside school.
Education is more than certificates and uniforms. It shapes thinking, values, productivity, innovation, and national stability. Countries that invest seriously in education invest directly in their future prosperity. Countries that neglect education eventually pay heavily for that failure.
Nigeria can not continue building political structures while neglecting human development. Roads, bridges, and campaign rallies can not replace classrooms. A nation’s true wealth is not measured by political promises but by how well it protects and educates its children.
The responsibility of solving this crisis must not rest on government alone. Parents, religious leaders, traditional rulers, communities, civil society organisations, and private institutions all have roles to play. Society must stop normalising child labour and begin defending the dignity and future of Nigerian children.
Governments at all levels must move beyond speeches and take deliberate action by increasing education funding, rebuilding public schools, recruiting qualified teachers, improving school security, and supporting vulnerable families. The fight against out-of-school children requires urgency, sincerity, and political will.
Every child forced out of school is not just a personal tragedy; it is a national failure.
Today, the streets are gradually becoming classrooms for hopelessness while the future Nigeria claims to desire slips away daily before our eyes.
History may forget many political slogans and campaign promises, but it will never forget whether this generation of leaders chose to save Nigeria’s children or abandon them to the streets.