While every Nigerian, regardless of social class, suffers from the government’s inadequacies one way or another, children also bear the brunt. With limited rights and decision-making abilities, they are subject to the dictates of their primary caregivers and other authority figures. Over the years, multiple reports have attempted to understand how Nigeria’s hostile climate has affected the average adult. Still, no one is ever asking, “Are the kids alright?”
Health
Children are a protected class, but in Nigeria, that’s not the reality. A lot of kids are exposed to harsh realities from the moment they are born. Ranked as one of the worst places to give birth, many newborns are delivered into unsafe and unsanitary conditions because of the sorry state of medical facilities, personnel shortage, and limited care. Of those who make it out of the delivery room, 1 in 9 children will not celebrate their 5th birthday.
To put that into context: In 2022, around 835,000 Nigerian children under five died from malnutrition, lack of access to vaccines, and preventable diseases like malaria, pneumonia, and diarrhoea.
How does the government tackle this? The Maternal and Newborn Mortality Reduction Initiative (MAMII) was launched in 2024 across 172 local governments, giving over 32,000 women and 1,700 newborns access to obstetric and maternal care, according to the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare.
While some would applaud this symbolic gesture, the government’s decision to allocate a sparse fraction of the 2026 national budget to healthcare shows its true intentions. Meanwhile, the Bauchi State House of Assembly plans to ban home births, with the Executive Chairman of the Bauchi State Primary Healthcare Development Board (BSPHDB) suggesting fines or jail time for women who fail to attend antenatal or give birth in a healthcare facility. This genius idea is supposed to reduce the state’s high maternal mortality rates — one of the highest in the country, by the way.
Nutrition
When it comes to the state of nutrition in the country, especially as it pertains to children, we should all be alarmed. Food and safe drinking water have now become a luxury that an increasing number of citizens can no longer afford. Once again, Nigeria does not fail to appear in this statistic, leading with the second-highest number of stunted children globally. Only 18% of children aged two and under receive the minimum acceptable diet, with Northern Nigeria most affected by malnutrition, particularly stunting (low height for age) and wasting (dangerously low weight for height).
Food inflation is higher than ever, and countless families cannot afford a healthy meal, causing them to skip meals or go without food entirely. This means several children go to school on empty stomachs, unsure where their next meal will come from.
Protein deficiency is also a grave cause for concern; meat, eggs, milk, fish, and other protein sources are beyond the reach of the average Nigerian. A 2021 report showed that 92.7 million Nigerians eat without protein in a day, and 1 in 3 children are at risk of protein deficiency. These numbers alone have devastating consequences for the nation, as issues like poor physical growth and delayed brain and cognitive development are bound to be prevalent. When children have to grow up in challenging situations such as these, the future appears bleak.
The nutritional composition of the food children eat, and our regulatory standards, should also be called into question. Heavily marketed products such as Milo, Cerelac, and Indomie have outrageous amounts of sugar and sodium that are dangerous to our young population. Although brands like Milo conveniently state that the product is unsuitable for kids under 6, 52.2 g of sugar (per 100 g) in a 1.2kg pack is an overgenerous amount for children to consume regularly.
Cereals are also made up of troubling amounts of sugar, which is highly discouraged in breakfast foods for kids. For instance, Nestle’s Golden Morn has 23.7g of sugar per 100g, meaning that a single sachet (45g) has 10.7g of sugar; Golden Penny’s Amaizing Day’s 45g sachet contains 11.9g of sugar per 45g portion; Kellogg’s Coco Pops and Moon and Stars consist of 37.12g and 40.31g of sugar per 100g, respectively.
What this means is that millions of Nigerian children consume approximately 3.6 teaspoons of sugar for breakfast, bearing in mind that a good number of them will consume multiple sachets in one sitting to be fully satisfied or supplement the meal with more sugar.
A recent study examining 76 biscuit brands (often consumed by children) reported the average sugar content as 30g and advised against marketing to children. Juice boxes, a staple in almost every lunch box, are not in the clear. Though many of these are said to contain additives and concentrates rather than fresh fruits, a cursory look at Chi Happy Hour, Chi Exotic, and Ribena products shows 15g, 10.3g, and 11.1g of sugar per 100ml.
Lax regulatory oversight is rife, and consumers are not properly educated on the nutritional composition of the food products they purchase. As a result, kids are at risk of obesity, diabetes, tooth decay, and other long-term physical and behavioural health concerns that are linked to excessive sugar consumption. To solve the problem of malnutrition and food inflation, the government shares rice periodically — a futile effort that leads to zero results.
Education
Access is the first problem children encounter when the time comes for them to receive an education. Whereas all 36 states are mandated to offer free compulsory basic education, over 18 million children are out of school, with girls being disproportionately affected.
Education in Nigeria is grossly underfunded, and the very few schools that can boast of being up to standard are only accessible to the elite. Our infrastructure is abysmal: classrooms and buildings are dilapidated, tables and chairs are broken down or absent, basic amenities are scarce, sanitation facilities are next to nothing, and the lack of perimeter fencing makes schools vulnerable.
Children are supposed to be the future, but Nigeria keeps its own in the past. A UNICEF report from 2022 notes that 70% of children in the country cannot read with meaning or solve simple math problems. Young learners are unable to adapt to digitisation because of outdated curricula, little to no computer facilities, and a shortage of trained teachers.
Inclusive education is a pipe dream as physical and learning disabilities remain an afterthought in the educational system. School instructors lack training to identify or support children with special needs; there is insufficient testing for pupils already in the system, learning resources are largely unavailable, and discrimination remains a persistent challenge. Even though select schools already cater to the needs of children living with disabilities, a staggering number of children are left behind.
In today’s Nigeria, excellence isn’t something children are trained to aspire to. JAMB’s cutoff marks have steadily declined over the years, with recent policy changes—such as exempting Agriculture and Education courses from the exam and removing Mathematics as a compulsory requirement for certain programmes—that convey the wrong message. These ailing standards declare that good grades are not that important for academic progress, and signal that some courses are more important than others. If students don’t need a vital subject like Maths to enter the university, then there’s no need for them to take it seriously. Moreover, exempting applicants from certain courses from a compulsory nationwide examination reflects a total disregard for the standing of those fields, implying that they may not require highly skilled or intellectually strong professionals.
How has Nigeria fared in educating its next generation? Rather poorly.
Insecurity
Nigeria has experienced insurgency for over 15 years, and children have been greatly affected. They are killed, sexually violated, enslaved, maimed, and left with emotional trauma that stays with them for the rest of their lives. If they manage to escape, they are left as orphans and relegated to camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs). In the past years, insurgent groups like Boko Haram have turned children into sex slaves and forced them to become suicide bombers and soldiers.
Since the Chibok girls went missing on national soil in 2014, school abductions have become the order of the day. Over 1700 students have been abducted in the past decade, excluding the 82 recently kidnapped students in Oyo and Borno states. In these grim situations, children are tortured and put through inhumane conditions that cause one’s mind to churn.
Another form of insecurity children face is human trafficking and child labour. Children are trafficked from rural areas to cities, and even across states and borders, where they are exploited in brothels and “baby factories,” or made to work as domestic help—a practice that is still widely accepted in society despite being a criminal offence.
The physical consequences of insecurity are devastating: children experience sudden loss and separation from parents or caregivers, and are forced to abandon school and regular play altogether. They are exposed to preventable illnesses and harsh living conditions where basic needs such as food, clean water, safe shelter, and emotional security are lacking. These disruptions remove the stability and normalcy expected in childhood, replacing them with fear and neglect.
The psychological impact is equally severe and often lasts over time. Children who grow up in insecure environments are repeatedly exposed to traumatic events like gunfire, destruction, displacement, and the death or disappearance of loved ones. Constant violence can result in post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, and emotional distress. Toxic stress can also interfere with brain development, affecting learning, memory, and emotional regulation, with cognitive challenges and mental health difficulties that extend into adulthood.
Nigeria has laws and regulatory agencies like NAPTIP to protect children from exploitation and trafficking. Yet, more efforts need to be put in place to ensure that fewer children fall victim. It is easy to doubt where the nation stands sometimes when we marry off orphans instead of educating them.
In its drawn-out battle against insurgency, Nigeria seems to be drowning. Despite foreign intervention, tactical changes, and endless promises, more regions keep falling to terrorism. Unfortunately, it is innocent citizens who pay the price, children included.
It is an extremely tough time to be a child in Nigeria. As a collective, we cannot in good conscience say we love and want children around while failing to protect them from the dysfunction that is Nigeria.
