Out of 400, 000 children who arrived at various camps in Maiduguri, Yobe, Gombe, and Adamawa at the ages of 8,9, 10 many had dropped out of school to either marry, used as suicide bombers, or were forced into labour.
Since 2009, the terrorist organization has launched a series of attacks on education; over 1000 schools have been destroyed in the northeast and about 2900 teachers and students affected
Abuja-based Clinical Psychologist Folajaiye Kareem explains the various ways children who experience conflict react to a post-traumatic stress disorder.
"They have outbursts from crying to becoming rebellious," and with COVID-19 lockdown where routines were disrupted, "this consequence created a double dose of vulnerability to children on lockdown, and then with no parents to shield them." For the children in camps, Covid risk is amplified many times over.
Hilda Lawerence, a secondary school teacher at Malkohi said she noticed the children from the camp often band together and withdraw from other kids in school mainly because they could not communicate in English. In response, the teachers had to devise a one-on-one focus teaching approach per child.
"You will notice some days they showed up, some days they won't. I ensured one boy who was sent to Lagos by his father to hustle was brought back to school after I threatened to report the case to the state government."
In 2003, Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo signed the Child Rights Act into law, to preserve the rights of children and protect them from exploitative labor. 17 years later, the Child Rights Act is yet to be fully enforced expressly held back by factors such as conflict, poverty, illiteracy and religious prejudice and most recently the rise in unemployment rate propelled by the Covid-19 lockdown.
The National Bureau for Statistics' recent data reveals that Nigeria's unemployment rate has climbed to 27.1%, showing that 13.9 million Nigerians lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
Some young boys have taken up farming as a means of livelihood besides education. 15-year-old Abdurahman Abba earns about N15,000 equivalent of $38 a month.
He and his six siblings have to work as labourers in farmlands to get paid enough to provide daily meals for the family while his mother supports with sales from her small business.
Abdurahman arrived the camp at age nine together with his family, including his father who left the camp and moved to Lagos in search of greener pastures. He later passed on. The news of the death came just before the lockdown was announced. So, they did not have the chance to say goodbye.
While children in Lagos State public schools were provided alternative learning approaches using TV, Radio, and smart devices. Although some families unsuccessfully benefited from the Lagos State government due to lack of the necessary resources to ensure their children connected to their digital classrooms. This was not the same for forcefully displaced children living in crowded camps with parents who are uneducated – This has added to the plight of displaced children during the Covid lockdown who were completely out-of-school for 6 months.
"During the lockdown, outside of the Covid sensitization programme, some children were engaged in skills acquisition training to keep them busy until school resumes," says the National Emergency Management Agency, Head of Yola Operations, Midala Anuhu.
He attested to the growth and development of the children since they were registered in camp four years ago. "Some couldn't speak English when they arrived, now they can communicate. We are a witness to their development."
