期刊名称：The Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa (JSDA)
电子版ISSN：1520-5509
出版年度：2010
卷号：12
期号：5
出版社：Institute of Sustainable Development in Africa
摘要：The prevalent of child laborers in Nigerian urban centers has remained a very intractable problem. Over the years, this
phenomenon has changed both in form and characterization covering a wide range of work activities, such as domestic
service, bus conducting, industrial work, street hawking, and child trafficking, with enormous adverse consequences both for
the children and the nation, at large. The implication of this dynamism for sustainable development has not adequately been
explored and analyzed by the scholars. Locating the dynamism of child labor in Nigeria within the theoretical context of
poverty hypothesis, the paper argues that the engagement of children as laborers to supplement the family income is not only
an aberration in a richly endowed nation, like Nigeria, but amounts to compromising the future development of these children
and the nation. With this precarious situation, the paper argues that Nigeria will undoubtedly continue to be a backbencher in
her quest for sustainable development among the comity of nations because of her present lack of investment in the future of
these children trapped in child labor activities.
