Since 2012, the United Nations designated every October 11 as the ‘International Day of the Girl Child’. This was apparently projected by feminists to advance gender inclusivity and protection of the rights of the girl child, especially in climes where girls are treated as second class citizens. Conversely, no day was set aside for celebration of the boy child. It took years of sensitizations by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, a university lecturer from the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, to commit governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) worldwide to observe a special day for the boy child. An excerpt of his wake-up call reads: “… there are regular incidents in which young, misguided boys and teenagers are involved in crime and violence. If a boy child is neglected or fed a diet of hate and violence it is obvious, he will develop into a teenager who is misguided and confused. There is an urgent need to focus on the home and school in order to save the boy child.” Consequently, in 2018, the United Nations set aside every 16th May as the ‘International Day of the Boy Child’.
The 2025 ‘International Day of the Boy Child’ was commemorated over a week ago with the theme: “Building self-esteem in boys: Stand up, Be Heard, Be Seen.” But most unfortunately, the day had come and gone without a deserving number of goodwill messages and accolades that are usually extended to the women and the girl child. There was little or no formal mention of the event by various governments, parliaments, and civil society actors. This mirror-images the deeper challenge faced by the boy child and widens the gulf of state-society relations.
The boy child has been placed in a disadvantaged position in today’s world. This stems from a lack of intentional and critical support from families, communities, schools, religious bodies, relevant institutions, and policy makers. Hence, the boys are exposed to gross negligence, unwholesome peer pressure, and huge societal expectations that thrust enormous responsibilities on them very early in life. In the same vein, they are scarcely heard out, as according to Halima Layeni of Life-after-Abuse Foundation, “sexual abuse against boys is more prevalent than we know” yet nobody raises the issue the way the girl child vulnerabilities are laid bare.
This societal anomaly has created some huge gaps. Firstly, the boy child has morphed into self-indulgent behaviours as malcontents to prove his masculinity. The rise of secret cultism and its spread like wildfire in many tertiary institutions in Nigeria some decades ago was the earliest red flag. Today, it has overripen and cascaded down to communities as criminal gangs, ethnic militias, and in some cases, they operate as self-appointed local vigilantes.
Secondly, the boy child has largely lost interest in formal education and opted for the short cut of wealth without enterprise. The burgeoning number of graduate unemployment and underemployment does not incentivize schooling as the boy child in most cases, is in a hurry to make ends meet to support poor parents and bear responsibilities as firstborns. Most young people are too impatient to go through the whole hog and rigour of learning a skill. Even the Harvard-recognized Igbo apprenticeship scheme in southeast Nigeria is facing a decline, partly due to the get-rich-quick-syndrome and “a shift in youth values.”
Thirdly, the loss of values in leadership (traditional, religious, and political), the disappearance of welfare state and the unchecked exposure of those on the bottom rung of social ladder to the market forces, project the state as a predator, instead of a protector. Thus, the boy child becomes predisposed to and found fulfillment in criminal enterprise, either to survive, ventilate grievances, or canvas for a new social order. Some of the manifest examples are banditry, insurgency, kidnap-for-ransom, sea piracy, and economic sabotage by the destruction of strategic national infrastructure. The conformists among them serve as political thugs, bouncers and body guards to VIPs, and/or work as ”menacing and mafia-like revenue collectors” which Nduka Orjinmo of BBC notes that, “At its heart lies a powerful system of patronage that sees a portion of the money going into the pockets of politicians, powerful families, and the army of unemployed men…”
Lastly, those who have the means through family support or sales of assets relocated abroad in what is termed ‘Japa’. Others took the illegal routes of valleys of death and moved out of their countries in search of greener pastures in developing and developed countries The tech-savvy and semi-literate ones at home went into internet-related fraud, popularly known as ‘yahoo-yahoo’, while politicians engaged some of them for the hatchet job of cyberbullying and blackmailing of their opponents in the social media.
In all these, drug abuse and alcoholism have become the placebos. Sadly, the “Almajiri’ system in places like northern Nigeria which encourages outsourcing of parenting has turned many of the impressionable boys to street beggars and willing tools of radicalization. And here lies the seemingly intractable security crises in Nigeria where we are often confronted with the emergence of new or splinter terrorist groups. Arguably, this has been fueled by hopelessness of the boy child.
Wittingly or unwittingly, the boy child has been left without commensurate emotional intelligence and tough love concerning his affairs. The implication is that the society is breeding generations of unloving, violent, unconscionable, irresponsible, and psychologically bruised men with no natural affection. They are likely to be unmoved by people’s tears and humanity. They would find easy excuses to sell off family generational assets at giveaway prices. On the other hand, innocent boys raised in responsible homes would be their ready hateful targets.
As a way forward, there should be all-encompassing intentionality to win back the boy child. Government must demonstrate social conscience. Formal education especially in STEM areas should be incentivized. The unemployed should enjoy some monthly benefits on a stop-gap basis while those with entrepreneurial initiatives should have access to credits. The deposit money banks must commit to boy child development as a corporate social responsibility. We can calm the raging storm together.