Chastising the child of necessity: peace journalism and Almajiri repatriation during COVID-19

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic posed unprecedented challenges to global health and livelihoods. While countries take measures to protect their citizens and reduce hardships on vulnerable populations who seem to suffer most, COVID-19 puts a spotlight on Nigeria's severe problem of child neglect. We investigate Nigerian newspapers' adoption of a peace journalism approach to emphasize the underlying causes of child neglect in their reporting of the oppressive deportation of child beggars called Almajirai during COVID-19. A qualitative content analysis of articles obtained from six Nigerian newspaper websites indicates a positive response to peace-oriented journalism, which suggests a comprehensive peace journalism intervention is needed.