By Idris Kamal
Khadijah Haruna, a 17-year-old girl who hawks rice and spaghetti at the gate of Itas Motor Park, had the worst experience of her life, in early August, a supposed customer turned predator. A middle-aged driver, whom she can only identify by his face, ordered a plate and requested she serve him in his bus parked at a serine corner. She obliged.
“I took the food to him and left. A few minutes later, I returned to get my money and plate from him but refused to give me. Instead, he asked that I return after Asr – afternoon prayer – a time when people begin to desert the park.
“Unaware of his treacherous plan, I did exactly as requested. I had the worst encounter of my life – he forcefully dragged me onto the bus and began to fondle me. I screamed for help, a singular action that terrified him to abandon his mission,” she recalled in a trembling voice.
Since the incident, Khadijah who is in SSII and aspired to become an accountant, developed fear and began to isolate herself from her peers. She added, “I became terrified and trusted no one. Oftentimes, I locked myself in the room and cried. I never wanted anyone to know about my story because, if it becomes public knowledge, my community will discriminate against me.”
Despite her horrible experience and a nagging fear, Khadijah could not avoid hawking. She supports her parents in meeting their financial family obligations and sponsors her education.
“The worst aspect of it all is that I am afraid to speak out and seek justice,” Khadijah said. She added that most of the teenage girls hawking around Itas Motor Park have several untold stories of harassment and abuse. She regrated that they don’t have anyone to confide to.
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Sadiya, a teenage orphan, was lured and defiled in an uncompleted building building in the inner city of Itas. She ended up being raped by one Shafi’u Idris, a staff of Itas-Gadau local government, after she escorted one of her friends to collect N100, a token amount the alleged rapist owed her.
Sadiya’s mother told Hama Media that on that fateful day, her daughter frequently complained about stomachache after the incident. “She refused to narrate what happened to her. She retired into an unusual solitude life and looks fearful.,” the mother said.
She added, “Some of her friends who were together then told me that the suspect promised her N1000 if she obliged his demand.
“I whipped her after I noticed some changes in her. But a day later, Sadiya’s nature of complaint changed – she started grumbling about difficulty passing urine. At that time, we decided to take her to hospital.
Hama Media learned that efforts to get justice for Sadiya proved abortive. Friends and relatives of the perpetrator, through a communal approach, persuaded victim’s parents to drop the idea of filing a court case.
Although they are separated from both Khadijah and Sadiya by a distance of about 25km, two teenage girls – Fatimah Musa and Safiya Jama’are were bound by a common destiny – they are all victims of sexual harassment within Jama’are town.
Safiya, a school dropout, poverty exposed her to hawking different seasonal eatables – maize and groundnuts – at various joints within Jama’are. She views this dangerous trade which rendered her vulnerable to sexual harassment as a way to contend with the poverty that denies her access to education.
“I trek to the city from community, Dako-Dako, daily to hawk and return home late evening. This has been the norm for most of my life. I don’t attend school because my parents cannot afford to sponsor my education.
“I have had experiences of harassment from a lot of me who normally disguise as customers interested in my products but ended up being predators in their attempt to satisfy their lust.
“In some instances, they try to stop me on my way home forcefully and this puts me in constant fear,” she said.
On her part, Fatimah Musa, a resident of Hanafari community in Jama’are, narrated her darkest evening. Last year while returning from a local market, Zubuki, assaulted her after he blocked and dragged her to a nearby bush. Despite the incident, her parents continue to demand that she hawk, a development that keeps disturbing her.
In January 2023, police arrested a 50-year-old man along with four other middle-aged men for gang-raping a 12-year-old girl in Yayu, a community in Katagum local government. Ibrahim Abdullahi, 27, a resident of Itas, had in May 2023, defiled a seven-year-old girl in a school toilet and, at the same time, Danladi Ibrahim, 33, raped Nadiya Ibrahim, 10, in Nasaru, a community in Ningi local government; in another incident, Babangida Buba, 35, along with three other accomplices, assaulted a 12-year-old girl hawking soya bean cake in Jalam, Dambam local government.
Bauchi domesticated the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act (VAPP). The VAPP Law provides for a death penalty on any perpetrator found guilty by a court of competent jurisdiction.
Findings reveal that forced financial dependence compels teenage girls who hawk different items to raise money for both personal and family demands and continue to suffer harassment and assault unabatedly despite VAPP Law.
The VAPP Law
Bauchi State Government enacted the Violence Against Person Prohibition Law (VAPP Law) in 2022, the first of its kind within the realm of state laws that provide holistic protection and maximum remedies for victims of and punishment for offenders.
For instance, section 3 of the law states that:
- Whoever commits rape, shall upon conviction be punished with imprisonment for life.
- A group of persons jointly liable for rape shall upon conviction be sentenced to a minimum of 20 years imprisonment without an option of fine
- A person who has carnal knowledge of a minor ( a child below 14 years) shall upon conviction be sentenced to death by hanging.
Similarly, in section 7, the VAPP Law provides appropriate punishment for economic abuse thus: A person who causes forced financial dependence or economic abuse of another commits an offence and is liable upon conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two (2) years or a fine of N500,000 or both.
Data from the Bauchi State Action Committee on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence indicates that over the last three years, about 226 cases were recorded. However, the data was silent about the number of convictions secured and ongoing cases, a pointer that, justice continues to elude victims. Ikra Foundation, a civil society organisation, compiled about 500 suspected SGBV cases. Out of the figure, about 100 were rape cases.
Minors and teenage girls in the state continue to be targeted for sexual and gender-based violence, becoming victims of a weak enforcement and regulatory framework that failed to hold perpetrators to account in line with legal provisions prohibiting hawking by children and VAPP-law that punishes rape and SGBV offenders. Similarly, victims, oftentimes, do not have access to legal services or support to get justice.
In 2020, the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice claimed that it secured convictions on six cases of rape and 18 ongoing. All the convicts were sentenced to life imprisonment.
Bauchi Law Bans Hawking
In 1985, the Bauchi State Government enacted a law prohibiting hawking by children in the state. The law enlisted under CAP58 of the 2001 edition of Laws of Bauchi State states that, with effect from the date of the commencement of this law, no parent or guardian shall allow his son, daughter or ward to hawk; display goods for sale or roam about in the street, market or any open public place in the state. However, over the years, despite the existence of this law, girls continue to hawk around major public places in the state, thereby exposing them to sexual abuse and harassment and illiteracy because most of them are not enrolled on school.
Section 3 sub-sections 1-3 of the law states:
With effect from the date of the commencement of this law, no parent or guardian shall allow his son, daughter or ward to hawk; display goods for sale or roam about in the street, market or any open public place in the state.
Without prejudice to the powers of the police under the Police Act, a sole administrator (local government chairman) shall also cause the arrest of a child found within his jurisdiction: hawking, displaying goods for sale or roaming about.
The law, which defined a child to be someone not less than 14 years old, also specified the punishments for those found guilty thus:
A child arrested violating the provisions of this law for the first time shall have his goods confiscated and:
- Destroyed under the supervision of a superior police officer if the goods are perishable; or
- Sold by the Nigerian Police if the goods are not perishable after obtaining a court order to that effect and the proceeds shall be paid into the nearest government treasury as revenue accruing into the State Government.
For instance, a visit to the Bauchi Central Market reveals that girls roam about hawking foods and non-food items despite the prohibition of such practice the law, a scenario depicting the latitude of non-implementation of the hawking prohibition law.
When asked about the law prohibiting hawking, the state Ministry of Justice, the institution saddled with the task of ensuring implementation and compliance with tenets of the law, denied its existence.
In an interview with Hama Media, Sha’awanatu Yusuf, director of Public Prosecution of the Bauchi Ministry of Justice refuted the existence of the law. “Not to my knowledge,” she insisted.
Instead, the director aversed that the Ministry of Women Affairs and Child Development, out of concern for the safety of teenage girls, is currently drafting a bill to the State House of Assembly for a law banning hawking despite another law with the same provisions and scope.
This assertion, however, depicts the extent of non-implementation of the law in the state, thereby creating a gap in the protection of girls from sexual and gender-based violence in the state.
Legal Expert’s Perspectives
Barrister SG Idrees, a Bauchi-based lawyer and human rights activist, argues that the law prohibiting Bauchi children from hawking is a ‘dead law’ inconsistent with the requirements of the people of the state.
“In jurisprudence, there are what we call dead laws. They are dead because they are not requirements of society. The lawgivers decided to make laws without putting into perspective the requirements of society. You can make laws but they end up being dead laws because they are not in tandem with the requirements of society.
“Where there is abject poverty, where state policies are not centred around employment and unemployment. There is hardly any government that will tell you that part of my achievements is that I have cut down the unemployment rate.
“How do you come and tell people how to live their lives because the major reason that would make them not allow their children to the street to be selling things in other to augment their income is the availability of jobs. So, it is a holistic issue. You cannot solve the problem of society by isolating the problems,” he said.
To Idrees, faith and societal norms and culture relative to geographical areas, reimposed and sustain hawking with its attendant effects on children. He added, “Why do I say religion? Assuming you have two poor people. This is a family of four – Christians Igbo and this is a family of four – Muslims Hausa. Everything is equal; the only difference is religious orientation and other demographics. You will likely have the Igbo woman selling Apkwa on the street to cater for the family. All the children go to school. But in the Hausa family, you will see the wife at home because the husband is protecting his wife while the children will be on the street hawking.”
He said hawking exposed children to deleterious social hazards than a grown-up woman, adding that “It is more dangerous to allow the children to roam the streets than to allow the wife to roam the streets. You are protecting a wife who is less attractive to many people but the children, when you look at them, some of them are of age. And, the parents are not concerned. And, people can more easily manipulate the children than they can manipulate the wife into whatever they are afraid of.”
He insisted that “You can hardly find someone no matter how uncultured allowing his children to roam the streets if he can afford the necessities of life. If you are talking of street hawking, certainly if there is any sign of enforcement, you will see people running whenever they sighted those saddled with the responsibility of implementing the law. But is normal. It is our normal lifestyle.”
Poverty Pushes Girls Into Hawking
Young girls braved dangers linked to hawking to help raise money for both personal and family needs. Parents in Bauchi communities turned their daughters into money-making devices, disregarding their safety and well-being.
Aishatu Aliyu, 18, a resident of Jama’are, had to embrace hawking to be able to fund her secondary education. She finished secondary school through her business – selling cooked rice at a junction along Jama’are General Hospital road.
“My parents are poor. They cannot afford to pay school fees for me,” she said. “I want to school, so, I decided to start selling rice to raise money for education and also help my financially incapacitated parents,” she continued.
Aisha told Hama Media that despite the odds, she is poised to continue to tertiary. “I am interested in furthering my education. And, I committed to doing that through hawking,” she declared.
Firdausi Ibrahim, a teenager selling spaghetti around the vegetable market, Jama’re, neither her father, who has the natural role of providing for the family, nor her mother can bear the cost of feeding the family three times a day.
She uses the little proceeds made from her venture to support the well-being of her family, saying, “My family is likely to go to bed empty tommies if don’t sell.”
Firdausi explained that her father, a mechanic, barely makes money adequate to cater for children – five – and two wives daily. Each of the wives sources food for her children.
“As a teenage girl who wants to marry and raise kids, I dislike hawking because I would not want my daughter to tore this line,” she said remorsefully.
Fatimah Abubakar and Maryam Haruna, teenagers based in Itas share a similar fate and experience as Fridausi. The dou display eggs and yam for sale at the city centre of Itass daily to contribute their quota in feeding their respective families.
The recently released National Multidimensional Poverty indices show that 71 percent of the total population of Bauchi are multidimensionally poor living on less than a dollar per day. A lack of basic infrastructure and social services further exacerbates the living conditions of families, making it difficult for them to escape the cycle of poverty.
Rural families in Bauchi State often rely on subsistence agriculture as their primary source of income, and external shocks such as droughts or floods can have severe consequences on their livelihoods.
Teenagers Alternate School Days For Hawking
At a time when schools across Bauchi are in session, many young girls of school age litter streets and junctions selling different items to make money instead of education.
For instance, when this reporter visited Jama’are and Itas in October, several girls were seen trading at strategic locations rather than being in classes.
Similarly, students among hawking girls jettisoned school each they planned to hawk, hence, resulting in elliptical attendance, low enrollment and retention rates and poor academic performance.
“Each day I have to hawk my commodity, I postponed school,” Karima Ibrahim, a teenage girl selling Okoro said nodding her head in affirmation.
Karima avoids going to school on days she hawks to have enough hours required to dispose of the produce. She has been doing this since and kept repeating it although she abhors the practice.
Government-owned schools do not charge school fees to support enrolment and access to education for all in line with the Universal Basic Education Declaration which states that “Every Government in Nigeria shall provide free, compulsory and universal basic education for every child of primary and junior secondary school age.”
Parents and guardians continue to allow children to stay out of classes for no justifiable reason. Most of the affected children, oftentimes, ended up being a burden on communities through deviant behaviours and also contributed to the high rate of out-of-school children in the state.
Data indicates that an estimated 1.2 million children are not receiving basic education in Bauchi, the highest rate of out-of-school children tenable in Nigeria. Also, Open Education Data indicates female enrollment into public primary schools in Bauchi stood at 385,905 and 73,630 for public junior secondary schools.
Similarly, Safiya Yusuf, 14, who attends a school that operates morning and afternoon shifts, sells her goods every before making her way to school.
“Sometimes I don’t even go to school especially on hey days,” she said.
Recently, the Adolescent Girls for Learning and Empowerment (AGILE) introduced a conditional cash transfer targeting teenage girls in Bauchi secondary schools to boost enrollment and retention.
Bauchi Govt, NURTW React
Barrister Sha’awanatu Yusuf, Director of Public Prosecution at Bauchi State Ministry of Justice claimed that the authorities in the state are making efforts to punish suspected rape cases, in line with the provisions of the VAPP Law, to get justice for victims.
Sha’awanatu explained since the coming of VAPP Law, the ministry secured 12 convictions on rape cases in the state.
“Some of the celebrated rape cases were able to secure convictions on include that of Yusuf Bako who was found guilty of raping a girl inside a mosque here in Bauchi metropolis. He was sentenced to life imprisonment on 27th November 2023 by Justice Sa’ad Zadawa, the presiding judge of State High Court No. 6.
“Similarly, the presiding judge of High Court No. 1 who is also the state Chief Judge, Justice Rabi Talatu Umar sentenced Adamu Abdulra’uf and Abdulkadir Wada to 35 years imprisonment each for causing grievous hurt and attempting to commit culpable homicide on a minor girl in Jama’are.
“In July 2023, Justice Nana Fatima Jibrin of High Court No. 11 sentenced Jamaludeen Zakari, a headmaster who fingered one of his pupils in Burra district of Ningi local government to 11 years imprisonment,” she explained.
Also, responding to allegations that drivers operating at Itas Motor Park, the Secretary of the NURTW Itas branch, denied recording any incident where a girl was either raped or sexually harassed by any driver.
In an emphatic voice, the Secretary said, “I have never heard anything like rape or abuse of girls hawking around the park. I have been Itas NURTW Secretary over the last three years but have not come across a reported case.”
He noted that the leadership of NURTW in the area has been sensitising its members on the dangers and risks associated with harassing minor girls. “We have been hearing about suspected cases of rape and sexual abuse targeting young girls in town but not in this park,” he added.
This publication is produced with support from the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism (WSCIJ) under the Collaborative Media Engagement for Development Inclusivity and Accountability Project (CMEDIA) funded by the MacArthur Foundation.
