‘We found 380 Nigerian children roaming in neighbouring countries’

Abdulganiyu Abubakar is the director of Save The Child Initiative (STCI), which coordinates organisations in the north for the West African Network for Protection of Children on the Move (WAN). In this interview he revealed that child-protection organisations have found 380 Nigerian children loose across 15 West African countries.   Tell us briefly about West African […]

Abdulganiyu Abubakar is the director of Save The Child Initiative (STCI), which coordinates organisations in the north for the West African Network for Protection of Children on the Move (WAN). In this interview he revealed that child-protection organisations have found 380 Nigerian children loose across 15 West African countries.  
Tell us briefly about West African Network for Protection of Children on the Move (WAN)?
 WAN is a network of child protection advocates across 15 West African countries, including Mauritania – just reintegrated. It has a common standard, a transnational mechanism for the protection of children who are moving across borders in these West African countries, for whatever purpose.
The network is to ensure children on the move irrespective of the cause of movement or migration are adequately identified, counseled, protected and if possible reintegrated back into their families and communities or alternative placement in the case where the home front they are coming from is not conducive for the proper growth and development of the child.
In Nigeria, we notice a drastic increase in the number of children who are on the move, particularly with the security situation now.
The plight of children on the move, and the need to identify, return and reintegrate them is a new front for groups working in child welfare.  
What you are saying is that up to 5,000 have been detected and returned by the network to date?
The network is 11 years old now. Since 2005 when the network began, over 5,000 children have been identified, counseled, protected and fully reintegrated across the region. And not just reintegration, they have also been empowered educationally, economically and otherwise. A lot of them are doing well now. Some are masters of their own who also have apprentices under them; some have graduated from various tertiary institutions in Nigeria. 
Is 5,000 a reasonable number for WAN, or is it just what it’s able to do? There must be hundreds of thousands of children on the move.
We have a single mechanism of operation available in the 15 countries. Whenever any child is identified – from identification to reintegration – the child is followed up for two years. After the child is reintegrated, the family evaluation is done; a project is established for the child – either economic or educational. From that point, it takes a minimum of two years to ensure he is adequately monitored. It takes a whole lot of time. That’s why we ensure we give quality care to these children. We follow to ensure they don’t get back into the same situations that led to their leaving in the first place.
The proportion of children on the move, is it increasing across West Africa, has it become a trend?
Cases of children on the move have always been on the increase, fuelled by different factors. We had a pilot project from April to September and for those five months, we found and reintegrated 380 children of Nigerian origin and returned 80 children from other countries in the sub region. In Nigeria, we notice a drastic increase in the number of children who are on the move, particularly with the security situation now. A lot of parents have been displaced, communities destroyed, and you have children moving on their own or in company of parents who themselves are vulnerable. 
STCI coordinates the network in the North, and Girls Power Initiative coordinates the South. What’s the situation in both regions?
In the North, we are confronted more with street children, almajirai, children from other countries of the sub region – Ghana, Togo, Benin – who were brought into Nigeria in the name of house help to work in restaurants and as food vendors. We also have children from the South who have intention of travelling to some West African countries as a transit in preparation for travelling to Europe and other parts of the world.
Sometimes because they do not have the resources charged by their traffickers or benefactors, they stop over in places like Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, to work in beer parlours and restaurants. Some are even used for sex purposes to be able to raise money to support their trip to wherever they want to go.
What’s the proportion of boys to the girls?
We have more girls than boys. We discover in the course of work, that a lot of these children are actually trafficked or lured into this irregular migration for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
What do you expect for WAN steering committee?
We look at what we have done for the last 11 years, and then we refocus. The standards we have used for the last 11 years have been reviewed and we are learning new things.