I first came across the viral video posted by Adetoun and quickly glossed over it because something about it didn’t sit right with me. The clip showed a young girl, speculated to be 11 years old, sweeping alongside her mother, with Adetoun loudly condemning the situation as child labour.
At first glance, the message seems noble. Child labour is indeed a pressing issue in Nigeria, and it deserves attention. However, watching the video, I couldn’t shake off the discomfort I felt—not because of the supposed injustice being highlighted, but because of the way Adetoun handled it.
Her approach was anything but humane. She publicly humiliated the mother in front of her child, recorded it, and posted it online for social media validation. What is even more appalling is that while she was condemning exploitation, she was actively dehumanizing the very people she claimed to be helping. This isn’t activism; it’s exploitation disguised as advocacy.
Adetoun has a pattern of aggressive, clout-chasing behavior under the guise of activism. This isn’t the first time she has overstepped. In another incident, she attempted to slap a woman in custody because she believed the woman had over-disciplined her child.
If the police had already arrested the woman, why the need for further aggression? What purpose does humiliation serve? Activism should be about seeking justice and solutions, not feeding one’s ego at the expense of vulnerable people.
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Tunde Onakoya, in response to the video, articulated what many of us feel about such performative outrage:
“Extremely cruel to humiliate a mother in front of her daughter like this. Even worse that this was recorded and posted on social media.
My mother used to sweep people’s houses and gutters in 2016. It hurt too much that I could do nothing financially to stop her. I often insisted on going with her, just to help fetch the water she needed so we could finish quicker and get back home before daylight. I didn’t want anyone to see us. The poverty that pushes one to hide their labour in the dark is a painful one.
Yes, that child should not be working. But more than outrage, what she and her mother deserve is compassion. The only humane response is to help.
If no one has done this already, I would like to take full responsibility for the girl’s education through university. I hope this eases their burden in some way. These are incredibly hard times.
Our Privilege blinds us in ways we’ll never truly understand.”
This is what true activism looks like—compassion, action, and real solutions. Instead of using her platform to help in a meaningful way, Adetoun chose to shame a struggling mother and her child, turning their hardship into social media content.
Yes, child labour is a major problem in Nigeria. But we must understand that at the root of it lies poverty, lack of access to education, and systemic failures. Many children engage in menial labour not because their parents want to exploit them but because survival demands it. Condemning the mother in the video without acknowledging the broader economic hardship facing millions of Nigerians is both ignorant and unfair.
If we truly want to fight child labour, we must address the root causes. We need:
- Government intervention to provide free and accessible education.
- Better social welfare programs to support struggling families.
- Job opportunities for parents so they don’t have to rely on their children’s labour.
- Real activism, not social media theatrics that exploit vulnerable people for clicks and shares.
Adetoun’s brand of activism does more harm than good. It shifts the focus from genuine solutions to performative outrage, prioritizing viral moments over meaningful impact. If she truly wants to help, she should take a page from Tunde Onakoya’s book—offering real support, not just criticism. Activism should empower, not humiliate. It should uplift, not exploit. Until we start addressing the real causes of child labour, we will continue to see children working before dawn while the privileged few sit behind their screens, judging and shaming them without offering real help.
