by Adedayo Ademuwagun

Every city has its own set of traffic problems, and Lagos is no exception.

In Lagos, the traffic jams are notorious. However, they provide an opportunity which some people exploit by selling food and other items during these hold-ups in order to earn a living. Some of these people come from the south-eastern part of the country.

Monday, 20, is from a small rural town near Abakaliki in Ebonyi state. He’s one of these traders. He says, “I left my home town eight years ago when I finished primary school. Life was hard for me and my family, and so I had to look out for a way to fend for myself.”

Like Monday, young people from poor homes in rural areas are driven by a sense of responsibility and the desire for a better life. So they move to a bigger town or a city to join a trade or do available work.

Some of these youths come from large families, too.

Ndubuisi is an Abia native who owns a small plantain chips business and employs several boys who like him, come from the south-east. He says, “Polygamy is rife in our area, and many of these boys come from large families.

“Some men have as many as 20 to 50 children, but they have just a small farm or some other small means of income. So they don’t have the means to take care of so many children, and so these children have to fend for themselves and their junior ones.”

The civil war ruined the economy in the south-east and impoverished many families. Some historians say that certain federal government’s post-war policies forced people to start again from the bottom with practically nothing — and while some of those families succeeded in pulling themselves back up, many others weren’t quite able to do this.

Tuition is not free in most states in the south-east today, but it’s free in certain states. In any case, many young people drop out before they complete primary or secondary school.

Monday completed primary school but didn’t finish secondary. He explains,”I dropped out because I didn’t have anyone to assist me, and my parents didn’t have money.

“Tuition is free in Ebonyi, but you still have to buy some books, buy a uniform and pay a little money from time to time. And you have to eat.

“When you’re hungry and in severe lack, you don’t think of school or anything else. You first think of how to get what to eat and sustain yourself. Then you think of how to assist your family, especially your younger ones. In that situation, schooling is not the immediate necessity.”

Chibuike, 18, is from Anambra. He says about quitting primary school, “I wanted to go to school, but when my parents couldn’t afford my school fees anymore and I stopped, nobody encouraged me to press on and try to go back to school. That was why I came to Lagos to stay with my cousin and do this work. I was much younger then. But if I knew better, I’d have tried to hang on and struggle my way through school.”

Nnamdi Akpa is a journalist based in Ebonyi. He says that the dropout rate has reduced substantially in the past ten years because the government made primary and secondary school education tuition-free.

“Yes, there’s poverty in some places and work is scarce,” says Nnamdi. “But the government has been using this free education policy to help poor families so it’s less hard for them to send their children to school.

“Also, the government has set up family law centres. Some people have no money because their father died and the man’s relatives have taken his property and deprived the children of their inheritance. Now, people who have such problems can report the issue to a family law centre near them and the centre can get them justice.”

Nnamdi says further, “The ones who quit school to work do so because they wanted to, and not because they were forced. But some of them made this decision because they had an uncle or someone else who came from, maybe Lagos, and lured them to forgo schooling and follow them to pursue a business ambition.”

Not all of these traders drop out of school though. A lot of these youths come to Lagos to work during holidays and gap years so that they can raise enough money to pay for their education and support their siblings the same way.

Tochukwu, 22, says he intends to do the UTME next year and apply to university to study accounting. He says, “I’ve been doing this work since last year. The main reason I’m doing this work is to raise money to sit for the UTME next year so I can go to university. I want to continue my studies.”

“Igbos are naturally inclined to be independent and work for themselves,” Ndubuisi explains. “Right from puberty, a young Igbo understands that he has to work. You’ll not find an Igbo stealing or begging. He’ll prefer to work, no matter how lowly the work might be. He’ll try to earn his living that way and have something left to take care of his people.”

Monday is a very confident and optimistic lad. He says, “Not going to school, at least for now, does not mean that I won’t succeed in life. We have to keep trying to work out a better life for ourselves even when things are tough. It’s like the American scientist who is said to have failed many times before he did a bulb. You have to keep trying. That’s the spirit.

I have six siblings from my mother alone. I’m working hard to make money so that I can help my siblings go to school to any level that they want, even if I personally do not have the opportunity.

“Circumstances may have forced us to find alternative paths to education. But at the end of everything, I’m confident that I’ll be successful in life. I believe that I can achieve the things I want in life if I continue to work hard and make wise financial decisions. I know I’m going to make it.”