Three civil society organisations have called on the Federal Government to urgently commission a new national study on the condition of the Nigerian boy child, strengthen child protection policies, and significantly increase funding for education.
The appeal was made in a joint statement issued by Boys Champions Foundation, ActionAid Nigeria and Oxfam in Nigeria to commemorate the 2026 International Day of the Boy Child 2026.
The organisations said the theme for this year’s observance, “Breaking the Silence: Boys and Mental Health: Investing in Boys for Stronger Families,” reflects growing concerns over inequality, outdated national data and the increasing number of children outside the school system.
According to the coalition, the last nationally representative assessment on violence, abuse and neglect affecting Nigerian children, including boys, was the 2014 Violence Against Children Survey (VACS), noting that no comprehensive update has been conducted in more than a decade.
The groups argued that the absence of updated data has left many vulnerable boys “unseen and uncounted,” particularly those affected by poverty, street life, school dropout and the Almajiri system.
Founder of Boys Champions Foundation, Noel Alumona, said the challenges confronting Nigerian boys stem from systemic neglect rather than personal failure.
“The Nigerian boy child is not failing; he is being failed,” Alumona stated.
He added that stakeholders must move beyond sympathy and deliberately invest in systems that support boys and secure their future.
“Today, we are asking the government, civil society, and every Nigerian who cares about the future of this country to look at our boys not with pity, but with intention. They do not need sympathy but systems. And those systems are not built by accident. They are funded, named, and committed to by all stakeholders,” he said.
Country Director of ActionAid Nigeria, Dr. Andrew Mamedu, warned that continued neglect of the boy child could worsen social instability in the future.
“If we fail to invest intentionally in the boy child today, society will pay tomorrow. The consequences appear in unstable homes, fractured communities, and poor leadership,” he said.
Mamedu stressed that promoting opportunities for girls should not come at the expense of boys, noting that both are essential to building stable families and stronger communities.
Also speaking, Country Director of Oxfam in Nigeria, Tijani Hamza, described the lack of updated national data on boys as “a profound crisis of inequality.”
“We cannot protect who we do not count,” Hamza said.
He called on government authorities to provide actionable data, dedicated funding and targeted policies aimed at supporting vulnerable boys before they are drawn into poverty, violence and crime.
The coalition made three major demands to the Federal Government, including the immediate commissioning of a new nationally representative Violence Against Children and Youth Survey focused on the boy child, explicit inclusion of boys in child protection, education and social welfare policies, and an increase in education funding from the current 7.3 per cent of the national budget to the UNESCO-recommended benchmark of between 15 and 20 per cent.
The organisations maintained that Nigeria’s growing out-of-school population and worsening social conditions require urgent policy action and sustained investment rather than symbolic commitments.
The statement cited reports from UNICEF, the Nigeria Violence Against Children and Youth Survey and other child welfare studies as evidence of the increasing challenges confronting vulnerable children across the country.
