Opinions and Attitudes of Some Parents in Ilorin, North-Central Nigeria, Towards Child Abuse and Neglect (Report‪)‬

Nigeria has a population of 140 million people; (1) about 45% of them are under the age of 15 years. (2) The country is the world's sixth-largest oil exporter, yet 54% of its citizens live below the poverty line. (1) The country is wealthy but the people are poor. (3) It is therefore not surprising that a substantial proportion of the population are faced with significant financial difficulties. This abject poverty has led to various survival ploys that abuse children, such as child labour, hawking, begging, (3) children working as house-helps, (4) and in some cases sending away children for adoption to live with and work for better-off relatives or friends, who may give preferential treatment to their own children. (5)