Why is Nigeria leaving her young behind?

Across Nigeria, the realities confronting children are far more than personal tragedies, they are systemic failures that call into question the country’s social contract and its commitment to sustainability.

As millions of young Nigerians face multidimensional poverty, hunger, insecurity, and educational exclusion, a piercing question must be asked: Where is the accountability?

At a recent media dialogue held to mark the 2025 Day of the African Child, the Chief of UNICEF South-West, Celine Lafoucriere, didn’t mince words. In all truism. She spoke of budgeting practices that treat children as afterthoughts. Her warning was clear: When budgets ignore the most vulnerable, when data is not used to guide investments and when the core needs of children are left unprioritised, we are simply postponing the collapse of our shared future.

In places like Lagos, often cited as a bonfire for progress, Lafoucriere lamented that basic education remains largely self-funded by parents and school operators. If this is the case in a state with one of the largest economies in West Africa, the question writes itself: What hope is left for the children in Sokoto, Ebonyi, or Gombe?

Again, UNICEF’s most recent data is gut-wrenching. Over half of Nigerian children are caught in multidimensional poverty. This means they are not just poor in economic terms but are also deprived of health, education, housing, clean water, sanitation, nutrition, or access to information. The figures get even grimmer in rural communities, where nearly 66 percent of children live in such deprivation, compared to just under 30 percent in urban areas.

Child food poverty is another ticking time bomb. In 2024 alone, more than 11 million Nigerian children under the age of five were living in conditions of severe food poverty, meaning one in every three was not getting the minimum diet required to grow, learn, and survive. The effects of this will echo for decades in the form of stunted development, weakened immunity, reduced cognitive ability and poorer educational outcomes.

This crisis has not emerged from nowhere. It is the result of years of underfunded social systems, ineffective safety nets, and failed governance structures that refuse to centre children in national development plans. The country’s soaring number of out-of-school children, pegged at 18.3 million in 2024, should be treated not just as a statistic, but as a national emergency. The fact that Nigeria ranks second globally in this regard should spark outrage, not silence.

Even the legal framework for child protection, the much-touted Child Rights Act suffers from patchy implementation. Although passed by all 36 states and the FCT, only 26 states have officially gazetted the law. Without this formal recognition, enforcement remains shaky, and children continue to fall through the cracks, particularly in cases of abuse, trafficking, child labour, and early marriage.

And while the law books gather dust, the streets and forests and farmlands of Nigeria tell a different story, one where children as young as eight are pushed into labour markets, fetching water, hawking wares, or toiling in fields instead of sitting in classrooms. A 2022 survey by the International Labour Organisation reported that almost one in three Nigerian children aged five to seventeen are engaged in child labour, with nearly a quarter performing tasks considered hazardous.

What deepens this tragedy is that these systemic failures continue to unfold in a country where state budgets often run into hundreds of billions. The contradiction is too stark to ignore. Governments at all levels find the funds for convoys, mega infrastructure, and political jamborees, yet somehow, budget lines for children’s welfare remain lean, contested, or buried under bureaucratic rubble.

CSR REPORTERS affirms the real work of Corporate Social Responsibility in today’s Nigeria lies in raising uncomfortable questions and pushing for real answers. It’s not enough for companies to donate school supplies once a year or organise PR-friendly health outreaches. There must be a sustained commitment to structural impact, one that aligns company strategies with the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 1 (No Poverty), Goal 2 (Zero Hunger), Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and Goal 4 (Quality Education).

Yes, the government cannot do it alone, but it must lead. Truly so. And every other stakeholder, from civil society and the media to corporate institutions and young people, must play their part. The planning and implementation of state and federal budgets must reflect the needs of children. Those budgets must be made accessible, traceable, and justifiable.

What remains non-negotiable is this: No society can claim to be sustainable when it sidelines its youngest. If Nigeria’s development aspirations are to mean anything beyond soundbites, then the rights of children must be respected, protected, and fulfilled without compromise.

Until every child, whether in a Lagos suburb, a Kaduna village, or an IDP camp in Borno can access clean water, safe schooling, nutritious meals, and healthcare, the conversation around national progress remains incomplete. And until state actors prioritise children not just in policy but in action, Nigeria’s future will remain painfully mortgaged.

The work of CSR in this moment is not about optics. It is about legacy. And the most powerful legacy any nation or organisation can leave behind is one where no child is forgotten.