SARAH Ibikunle was a bright teenager- outgoing, hard working and full of promise. After school each day, Sarah joined her aunt, Mrs. Omolafe, to tend to the latter’s business.

Sarah’s aunt is a good woman. She has brought Sarah to Lagos from Ondo State years before and now depends on her fish- selling small family business now more than ever. The location of the business could not be more excellent- right across the road from a large, commercial bank branch on the prestigious Admiralty way in Lekki, Lagos. Well-heeled residents would stop by on their way home from work and do some quick and convenient shopping.  What could possibly go wrong?

A lot, apparently. One sad afternoon, a team of daredevil robbers hit on the bank across the road, shooting sporadically and mindlessly in their bid to make a getaway. One of their stray bullets hit Sarah, felling her in the flower of her youth. It was fatal.

Lagos state governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, was soon to make a public statement. As any responsible leader would, he identified and analyzed the context, articulating the cause and the effect. It had been in the thick of the presidential elections campaigns, and a good many police men- 2,123 to be precise, according to the governor- had been diverted from their duty posts to secure a visiting powerful candidate from Abuja.

Powerful candidate

The robbers had got away, literally, with murder. Other commentators merely blamed the misdeed on fate, arguing the possibility of anyone being hit by stray bullets even in the safety of one’s home.

In the old traditional African societies, it was the norm for children to help their parents on the farms/markets, and so on. In a fast moving cosmopolitan city such as Lagos, can the same rules really apply?

This is somewhat at variance with the statistics. According to a study financed by the Covenant University Centre for Research and Development (CUCERD) which interviewed 3873 street traders in the cities of Aba, Lagos, Port Harcourt and Kano, there are two important types of occupational  hazards in street trading activities in Nigeria namely: (i) injuries sustained from road traffic accidents and (ii) harassment of traders through indiscriminate arrest, seizure and confiscation of merchandise and occasional incarceration of sellers in police cells. The study, titled Occupational Health and safety of Street Traders in Nigeria and published in the International Journal of Economics and Finance, discovered that not less than 25% have suffered injury, while 49.1% have experienced harassment from public authority officials. Sarah was put in harm’s way and unnecessarily so.

Why children work: Another study in Nigeria says children work for a variety of reasons, the most important being poverty. Children work to ensure the survival of their family and themselves even if not well paid. According to a 1991 study, only 8% of children make their own decisions to work. Children in Nigeria contribute more time to their household than they deplete as compared to their counterparts in developed countries.

Governor Fashola said it all when he said in his statement: “(the) President is entitled to every protection but the question to ask is; when you were being traumatized, where were these 2,123 men, because you are also entitled to be protected? The reason why the President gets all that protection is so that he can protect all of us!”

Existing legislatures

Laws already exist in Lagos State to arrest the ugly phenomenon that street trading by minors has become. November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

The convention was later adopted by the assembly of Heads of States and Governments of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, now African Union (AU) as the African Union Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child (CRCW) in July 1990. Nigeria has signed both the International Instruments and had ratified them in 1991 and 2000.

Both protocols reflect children as human beings and as subjects of their own rights.The bill was eventually passed into law by the National Assembly in July 2003.

It was assented to by former President Olusegun Obasanjo in September 2003, and promulgated as the Child Rights Act 2003. Regrettably, only 24 of the country’s 36 states have passed the Act

The Child Rights Law in Lagos State, which came into operation on May 28, 2007, defines a child as any person below the age of 18 years. It states, amongst other things, in paragraph 14—(1) that Every child has the right to free, compulsory and universal basic education and it shall be the duty of the Lagos State Government to provide such comprehensive education…

…Subject to this Law, no child shall be—(a) subjected to any forced or exploitative labour or (b) employed to work in any capacity except where he is employed by a member of his family on light work of an agricultural, horticultural or domestic character approved by the Commissioner; or (c) required, in any case, to lift, carry or move anything so he or family environment or family environment.

Matching laws: The trouble arises mainly from matching existing legislature with cases such as Sarah’s, and prosecuting offenders; and prosecuting offenders meets several hitches.

Cultural factors are amongst the most prominent. In the old traditional African societies, it was the norm for children to help their parents on the farms/markets, and so on. In a fast moving cosmopolitan city such as Lagos, can the same rules really apply?

A Public Relations Officer at the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender (OPD) who pleaded anonymity claims there is no official breach of Sarah’s right to an education, as      had been on holidays as at the time of the unfortunate incidence.

In any case, according to him, it is a police matter rather than within the purview of social matters. As far as he knows, the police have continued with their investigations and have vowed to bring the culprits to justice. He does not really see anything wrong with Sarah peddling fish in the streets, getting in harm’s way. The bank in question has carried on with their business, as usual.

It is important that we do not create another  Sarah Ibironke: beautiful, hopeful, full of dreams. And dead.