It was 6:30 am, and while the harmattan breeze was blowing, a group of teenage girls, seated by the roadside around ‘Tashan Shongo,’ along Bauchi Road in the Jekadafari area of Gombe metropolis, were waiting for potential farm owners.
The teen farm labourers, mostly girls, shared one thing: they are all below 18 years old, holding hoes and sickles, waiting for potential farmers, who will hire them to work on their respective farms for cheaper wages.
Our correspondent reports that at the outset of the rainy seasons, several teenage girls, of school age, instead of being in school, gather along the major streets in major towns of the state and the capital city, Gombe, looking for farmers to hire them and take them to work on their farms.
They are paid between N2,000 and N3,000 as wages after working for over 11 hours in the farms of total strangers, who engage them because of the cheap labour they offer.
The labour conducted in the farms by these girls at the onset of the rainy season includes clearing, ploughing, planting, weeding, and applying fertiliser and other menial work at the farms.
At the end of the farming season, the teenage girls work on the farm to harvest maize and cowpeas, a practice popularly known as ‘Barema.’
Among the children waiting for potential customers, was a 16-year-old girl, Maryam Sani, holding a small hoe.
She told our correspondent that she was withdrawn from school about two years ago, following her father’s failure to pay her school fees after she finished junior secondary school at one of the public schools in the state.
“I did my JSCE in 2023, but my father couldn’t afford to sponsor me to further my education and life was too difficult, therefore my mother asked me to start doing the Barema in order to help feed my other younger siblings,” she said.
Maryam added that she made about N3,000 daily during harvesting season from the Barema, with which they feed and also saved some part for hawking during the dry season when there are no farming activities.
She said: “I earn between N2,000 to N3,000 daily for working between 7am and 6pm on the farms. I divide the money into three parts, use a portion for my daily upkeep, give one part to my mother for our daily feeding and also save some part for usage during the dry season.”
On her part, Amina Usman, 17, of Bolari quarters in the metropolis, said she started working in the farms as a labourer after she finished primary school five years ago.
“I have been in this Barema for five years now. I came here daily to look for a farmer who would hire me to work on his farm. I finished primary school, and my father couldn’t afford to send me to secondary school.
“So, I work on the farms during the rainy season, and hawk different commodities during the dry season, just to keep body and soul together. I make about N1,500, N2,000 daily. And we work from dawn to sunset on the farms,” she said.
She explained that she uses part of the money to feed herself before going to the farm in the morning, and also when she returns in the evening. “I also gave my mother N300 to keep for me daily. I have been in this for the past five years,” Amina narrated.
According to another teen labourer, Fatima Abdullahi Musa, a 15-year-old girl of school age, from the Pantami area of Gombe metropolis, she was forced into Barema after her father retired three years ago.
“I was in JSS one when my father retired from the civil service, where he worked as a watchman. I am doing Barema alongside my two other siblings to get money to feed ourselves because we cannot afford to be in school because of the difficulties we are facing,” she said.
She said: “Our parents cannot afford to feed us or take care of all our other needs. My two other siblings have completed primary school, but they cannot go further as well because our father cannot afford to pay the fees and other charges that will keep them in school. He is only collecting his pensions and he is yet to get the gratuity.”
According to Fatima, apart from helping to feed their families, they also have to save for their marriage. “We also hope to save the money in preparation for our marriage.”
On the part of 14-year-old Aishatu Bala Garba, she was into Barema to get money for her daily needs, and to help her widowed mother and her younger siblings.
“I get about N1,500 daily, which I use to help my mother and my other siblings who are too young to join me in this Barema. They are still in primary school, I am hoping that I will be able to pay for their fees from the proceeds of the Barema, and the other activities I venture into during the dry season, just to keep body and soul together,” she said.
According to her, she was into Barema due to lack of options, “The work is very hard, I work from 7am to 6pm in the farms nonstop, and at the end of the day, I hardly get N3000. But I have no other options than to do the work because that is the only thing that can bring money to help my mother after the death of my father.”
Reacting, a farm owner, Malam Mahmud Bashir explained to Daily Trust that they prefer to engage young girls to work on their farms as labourers.
He said: “We normally pick the children along the Bauchi Road early in the morning and return them in the evening after working on the farm.
“We prefer to work with the young girls because they are more productive than adult males because the adults cannot do more than a bag in a whole day, so a farmer will end up wasting his time. But the young girls can fill over five to six bags per day,” he said.
When asked why they engaged the girls during school hours, Bashir said, “We don’t bother to know why they are not in school, because they all have their different reasons for not being in school.
“Also, some of them told us that they are on break from school, while others claimed that their parents took excuse from their respective schools for them to work on the farm,” he added.
Bashir further said: “Sometimes, they claim that even if they go to school, they will find out that there is not much for them to do, so they mostly prefer to work on the farm and earn money, instead of wasting their time in the schools.”
However, Gombe State governor, Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, had in September 2023 at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), sought the support of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in addressing the high rate of out-of-school children in the state.
According to the governor, there are over 600, 000 children who were not in school in the state, with the number increasing daily.
The governor, who was on the Nigerian delegation at the 78th session of the UNGA held in New York, United States, highlighted that several factors, including poverty, insecurity and cultural beliefs, contributed to the high number of out-of-school in Gombe and other states in Nigeria.
He pointed out that accelerating investment in the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal Four (SDG4), which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, would help check the rising number of out-of-school children and also contribute to the fight against poverty.