This has always been an issue I have always wanted to write about but whenever I sit down to write I just find a way to defend these people am about to talk to but going through Linda ikeji blog I saw a story concerning a six year old boy that was said to be hawking and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Here is what I actually witness, I was coming back from Palmgrove on
this very day heading to Ikotun and on getting to Ikotun (beside that conoil
petrol station for those of you that know Ikotun very well) it started raining
so I decided to take cover somewhere. It was at the back of where I was
standing I heard a female voice who spoke in Yoruba saying “E fimisi le mi o se” meaning “leave
alone am not doing”. I turned to look but I didn’t see anybody so I face front
again, after awhile when the pressure of the rain had reduce I decided to head
home but as I was about to leave I had the voice again and this time it was
louder and sounded like the female voice was crying so I said I should do small
aproko and see what was going on, thinking maybe it was those garage
girls with their lover but to my surprise it was an 8 years old girl to be
precise and this guy way I see would be around 30-35.
I was so
shocked as I stood there looking like I saw my great grandmother ghost but
somehow I had this confidence to talk even though I knew if I should miss
yarn the guy will definitely kill me and nobody will find me till the next
day because it was dark but that didn’t stop me, to cut the story short I was
able to rescue the girl from what would have been sexual abuse. After helping
her get away from the guy I had a chat with her and that was how I knew her age
and some other things about her, like what led her to the guy in the first
place. She sells minerals and bottle water at that Ikotun round about and that
very day she had sold all her goods and went home early around 8pm so she said
but sadly for her she missed part of the money (N1000 to be precise) so when
she got home and explained to her mother, her mother started beating her and
chased her out of the house to go look for the money if not she wouldn’t
allow her sleep in the house that night, so the mother threatened and that was
what brought her back to Ikotun all the way from Ijegun to look for the money.
The guy saw her crying at one corner so he walked up to her and asked why she
was crying, the girl explained why she was crying and the guy said he was going
to give her the money, he told the girl to follow him so he could give her the
money and that was how they ended up at the spot where I saw them.
Like I said I was able to rescue the girl that night I even have to give
her the money but when I got home I started thinking of how a mother could be
so heartless and senseless (pardon me for using such word) to chase her 8 years
old daughter out of the house at the time of the night because she misplaced
N1000 and that got me thinking about this “who is suppose to provide for who?”
“Is it your kids that are suppose to put food on the table for you?
In Nigeria we have seen it as a normal thing for a child to come back
from school and the next thing she/he does is to go hawk for their parent who
might probably be sleeping at home. Parent are suppose to be the ones to take
care of their children, they are the one that is suppose to hawk so their child
will be able to eat night food and not the other way round. Children were not
giving to you for hawking or even for trading by the road side because I have
seen many so called mothers that will put their child by the roadside to sell
for them. This is a very wrong idea and it something that should stop, if you
know you can’t take care of your child please give them out to those that are
capable and willing to or better still don’t even get pregnant because to me I
can’t understand how a woman will go through all those pains during labour and
yet you chase your daughter out at night because of N1000, to me that
just pure craziness (pardon me again for using such word) or can you people
explain to me how come after nine months of carrying your baby in the
stomach and the child never reach
anywhere you are already expecting her to be the one to provide for
you?
It is my personal opinions that if you know you are not capable of
taking care of your children then don’t get pregnant because once you decide to
pregnant then it is your full responsibility to take care of the child and not
the child taking care of you.
Feel free to share your opinion
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