Today, May 16 marks the International Day of the Boy Child. As I think back over the past few years of my advocacy journey, I’ve realised that, despite widespread assumptions that the gender gap is narrowing due to social movements and efforts for gender equity and balance as well as the creation of a better world for girls, the situation of boys is falling short of expectations.
In the course of my work, I’ve found that many boys are dropping out of school, many more are doing poorly academically, many others lack guidance and positive role models, and many are turning to crime and drugs. We’ve all been so immersed in closing the gender gap and creating better opportunities for the girl child that we’ve forgotten that boys are not pre-programmed from the womb to be perfect, but need to be properly taught, encouraged, positively mentored and made aware of the importance of their roles in society.
Growing up and even now, I’ve had a lot of training on how I can be a great woman in society, how I can be a perfect wife and mother and how I can make my marriage successful. Most of the projects and conferences I’ve seen advertised are targeted at women and girls. And, while I’m really glad that women like me are doing great in our various fields, I find myself thinking, what about the boy child? What about men?
What happens if a woman who is empowered enters society and encounters a man who is viewed as deficient? A deficient man is a man who is denied assistance due to the prevailing belief that he is “the advantaged one” and who has little or no opportunity to acquire the necessary skills to become the kind of man that society wants. Some men fear showing weakness and being judged as a weakling for not being able to handle fundamental duties. What unfolds when an empowered woman decides to get married and start a family? Will she meet a man who shares her ambition and success? We don’t seem to have realised yet that a neglected boy will probably grow up to become a broken man, and you can’t expect a man like that to contribute positively to society.
Have you seen the recent surge in the rate of male school dropouts? Have you noticed the large number of homeless children that live on our streets, the majority of whom are boys? Have you observed that boys commit crimes at a high rate? We complain about our boys and men but do we give any thought to the underlying issues?
Through my interactions with boys, I have discovered that the desire for easy wealth and a lack of motivation are the main causes of school dropouts, truancy, and a general lack of interest and engagement in education. This phenomenon is influenced by societal expectations that a man must always have enough money to maintain his dignity and relevance in society. The entertainment industry’s representation of cybercrime—commonly referred to as “Yahoo Yahoo” in Nigeria—as something trendy and typical for young men to partake in has an impact on their ambition to become wealthy rapidly. These boys will frequently claim that they think cybercrime would make them wealthy and that they cannot attain their goals through school or gainful employment. This, in my opinion, necessitates an evaluation of the educational system and a need to create more valuable and enjoyable curricula that will make boys desire education and positive empowerment.
In Nigeria, two main issues that impact males are child labour and streetism. Boys make up at least 80 per cent of the children and adolescents who live and work on the streets. These boys run the risk of being enlisted into criminal gangs, sexually assaulted, exploited as illicit drug traffickers, and utilised as political thugs. Society is eventually forced to deal with the repercussions of their unfortunate circumstances. Are they to blame, though? Or are they merely the victims of dysfunctional families and flawed systems?
We have seen how for several years now in the northern parts of Nigeria, boys are abducted from schools and recruited into terrorist groups. Others like the Almajiris(children originally supposed to be undergoing Islamic Education in Northern Nigeria but who end up begging for alms on the streets), are particularly vulnerable. Children who have been denied basic care and needs, disregarded by society, who are scouted by groomers (ranging from institutional criminals to bandits and terrorists) are told that they can be useful for something; that they can attract the government and the world’s attention, that they can have a full stomach and exact revenge on the society that has neglected them. It is evident that without addressing the issues of streetism and neglect of the boy child, terrorism, crime, thuggery and domestic violence may never end in our societies.
Therefore, on this day set aside to celebrate the boy child globally, I wish to call on the government and relevant stakeholders in all sectors to create equal opportunities for boys and girls to thrive, to make and enforce laws against the abuse of boys, to create mental health support for boys and men, to support initiatives targeted at helping boys and men, to address the problem of streetism, to intensify the fight against crime, particularly cybercrime and terrorism, and protect children in schools. I also call on the government to increase investment in education, science and technology and skills acquisition for young people and support development projects aimed at making our young people incredible assets globally.