Ten-year-old Beninese apprentice works and sleeps at Lagos construction site
A 10-year-old boy who travelled from Benin Republic to Lagos to learn tiling is instead carrying cement, mixing mortar and sleeping on cardboard at an unfinished building, according to a Punch report. His case highlights how poverty and informal apprenticeship can remove children from school and expose them to hazardous work.
Ten-year-old Ibukun Oluwa is working and sleeping at an unfinished construction site in Ilasamaja, Lagos, after travelling from Ifangni in Benin Republic to learn tiling, according to a Punch report. Ibukun works under tiler Kilamuwaye Alexandre, who said the boy’s parents agreed that he should accompany him to Lagos. Alexandre described the arrangement as an apprenticeship and said Ibukun preferred learning tiling to remaining at home.
At the site, however, Ibukun carries materials, mixes cement and pushes a shovel through sand and mortar. At night, he sleeps on cardboard in an empty room without a mattress, mosquito net or electricity. He told the reporter that he did not attend school.
The report places his experience within the wider pressures created by poverty, migration and informal apprenticeships. Beninese citizens can enter Nigeria through official entry points under the ECOWAS free-movement arrangement, but longer stays and residence involve additional rules. The distinction between apprenticeship and child labour depends on the circumstances, including whether work is hazardous, interferes with education or is unsuitable for the child’s age.
Ibukun’s work on an active building site and his living conditions raise those concerns. Another tiler, Koku Tosin, said he had seen other boys from Benin Republic doing similar jobs in Lagos. The report does not identify any intervention by education, labour or child-protection authorities.
This independently written report is based on information supplied by the named publisher. Vertrix News has not independently verified the source report.