26,000 Nigerian Children Enter Custody Each Year, Many Without Lawyers - Minister

The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has revealed that around 26,000 children enter custodial and remand facilities in Nigeria every year. Out of these, 74 percent are in pre-trial detention, and 68 percent do not have a lawyer from their first contact with the justice system.

Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim shared this information during a keynote speech on Tuesday at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The conference, which is taking place from 21 to 28 August with the theme “Beyond Limits,” brought together thousands of lawyers, judges, and policymakers at the Yakubu Gowon Stadium for discussions on professional and policy matters. Her speech was part of a session focused on justice for children, where officials and child-protection advocates discussed how Nigeria can improve diversion policies for children who face legal issues.

“I want this conference to adopt these numbers as its baseline,” Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim stated. “About 26,000 children enter custodial and remand facilities every single year in Nigeria. Over 122,000 in five years. Nearly 74 percent wait in pre-trial detention without a timely hearing opportunity, and about 68 percent have no lawyer from the first contact.”

She pointed out that these figures indicate a connected failure in the system. “The 68 percent shows that the system breaks down before a child is even charged. The 74 percent shows that remand has become the default response rather than the exception. And the 26,000 shows that diversion, as currently applied, is not working.”

Finding Alternatives to Prosecution

The main question during the plenary was how Nigeria can improve prosecutorial policies that help steer children accused of crimes away from formal court processes and towards rehabilitation and community support. This framework is supported by the Child Rights Act and the 2024 Prosecution Guidelines, which both encourage alternatives to prosecution for less serious offences.

Ben Odoh, the attorney-general and commissioner for justice in Ebonyi State, who leads the group of state attorneys-general, stated that the issue is not a lack of legal provisions but rather a failure to apply them. “The challenge we have is that while the law provides for statutory rights, converting and translating these rights into a live reality remains difficult,” he said.

He emphasized that prosecution should be a last option in cases that are not serious. Section 209 of the Child Rights Act already lists five diversion measures: supervision, guidance, compensation, reintegration, and reconciliation.

Odoh suggested that if states put formal diversion policies in place, police and prosecutors managing children's cases could work from a shared plan instead of acting separately. He called on every state attorney-general to create a prosecutorial policy on diversion. He also promised to set up a special child prosecution unit in Ebonyi State to work with the police unit responsible for prosecuting children.

Moving Beyond Just Laws

UNICEF’s Chief of Child Protection, Natalie Macaulay, told the plenary that Nigeria needs to go beyond just having laws and ensure they actually change children’s lives. “We have to go beyond response to prevention. Beyond laws on paper to change lives instead. Beyond the courtrooms to the police stations, the communities, and the places where the children first encounter the justice system,” she said.

Ms Macaulay urged for diversion, rehabilitation, and reintegration to be the standard response for children in conflict with the law rather than detention.

The Need for Early Legal Help

Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim said Nigeria has the legal structures needed to protect children, but weak implementation undermines them. “The honest question this conference must answer is not whether the law exists. It is why a child in many parts of this country still cannot feel its protection,” she said.

She mentioned that the justice system often fails within the first 48 hours after a child's arrest. Issues like poor birth registration, school exclusion, family breakdown, child marriage, and weak social welfare systems push many children into trouble with the law.

Only about half of Nigerian children under five have their births registered, the minister noted, warning that not knowing a child's age can put minors into adult justice processes. She also described Nigeria’s current age of criminal responsibility, set at seven, as “indefensible in 2026” and called for it to be raised.

Mrs Sulaiman-Ibrahim urged the NBA to implement Duty Solicitor Schemes across its branches nationwide so that every child taken into custody can see a lawyer within 24 hours. “Our difficulty is not the absence of a statutory hook. It is the absence of a framework around it,” she said, referring to Section 209 of the Child Rights Act.

She also called for creating family courts, a legal presumption of minority when a child's age cannot be confirmed, mobile family and children’s courts in underserved areas, and better training for lawyers, prosecutors, and police officers who deal with children's cases.

“Only the Bar can put a lawyer beside a child in a police station tonight,” she said.

The minister proposed a formal Child Justice Compact between her ministry and the NBA, which would include joint monitoring and measurable indicators on legal representation, diversion rates, and functioning Family Court sessions. “Those are limits we can pass, and we can begin this week,” she said.