From unfinished homes to shop compartments, this report explores how unequal living conditions influence early childhood development and deepen inequalities among children in a community in Abuja.
Eight-year-old Marvellous gripped a worn pencil tightly as she wrote on a single sheet of paper, kneeling on the bare concrete floor of an unfinished compound in Karshi, a satellite community on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.
Around her, four younger siblings sat barefoot, watching every movement of the pencil. Among them was a two-year-old toddler with mucus running from her nose.
The children barely noticed the visitor.
Because she is a minor, this reporter did not interview Marvellous directly. When asked if her parents were around, she quietly disappeared into the unfinished building behind her and returned moments later with her mother, Joy Kelvin.
Mrs Kelvin offered this reporter a wooden chair before settling on a stone beside the children. Behind her stood the family’s home, an unfinished three-bedroom building with exposed concrete walls and sections of roofing already beginning to deteriorate.
The structure does not belong to the family.
The owner allowed them to stay temporarily after they could no longer afford rent at their previous residence. The arrangement, however, comes with uncertainty.
“If the man decides to sell this house, we have no choice but to move again,” Mrs Kelvin told PREMIUM TIMES.
For many families, relocation is largely a housing challenge. For young children, particularly during their formative years, it can also disrupt the stability that underpins healthy development.
Frequent moves disrupt routines, friendships, schooling, and a child’s sense of security, all factors that child development experts say are essential during the early years of life.
Mrs Kelvin and her husband are raising five children on irregular incomes. She works as a domestic help while her husband is a tailor. Together, they navigate fluctuating earnings that force difficult choices about what can be paid for immediately and what must wait.
Food is often one of those choices. On some days, the family manages two meals. On other days, everyone eats only once.
Their meals consist largely of corn-based staples served with soup and whatever other food they can afford. Like many low-income households, they base their diet less on nutritional planning than on household income.
Despite these challenges, Mrs Kelvin remains determined to keep her children in school.
They attend a nearby private school, largely because the proprietor allows flexible payment arrangements.
“The owner of the school understands our condition, so she allows us to pay whatever we have, whenever we have it,” she said.
Without that flexibility, keeping the children in school would be difficult.
The family’s circumstances reflect a broader reality confronting many Nigerian households, where poverty shapes not only living conditions but also children’s opportunities to learn, play and thrive during the years experts describe as the most important period of development.
Early childhood development refers to the period during which children experience rapid physical, cognitive, emotional and social growth.
Although the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines early childhood as the period from birth to age eight, child development specialists consistently identify the first five years as the most critical.
During this period, the brain develops at an extraordinary pace.
According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), more than one million new neural connections form every second during a child’s early years. These connections are shaped not only by genetics but also by the environments in which children grow, including the quality of nutrition they receive, the care they experience, opportunities for play and learning, housing conditions, exposure to stress and access to healthcare.
In practical terms, the environments children grow up in help shape how they learn, interact, communicate and adapt to the world around them.
For children like Marvellous and her siblings, those formative years are unfolding amid unstable housing, financial hardship and persistent uncertainty.
Inyang Ekan, a family physician working with Nigeria’s Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp) programme, said stability is especially important during early childhood because young children depend heavily on predictable environments to build emotional security and healthy social relationships.
Mr Ekan noted that stability extends beyond having a roof over a child’s head. It includes consistent relationships, familiar surroundings and routines that help children feel secure as they grow.
For families already struggling to meet basic needs, however, achieving such stability can be difficult.
Inside Mrs Kelvin’s home, poverty influences more than where the family lives. It also shapes how every available naira is spent.
Feeding the children comes first. Other needs are considered only if money remains.
