At 11, Baba Alhaji should be worrying about school assignments, playing football with friends or dreaming about what he wants to become in the future. Instead, he says he inhales petrol to quiet the emotional turmoil that has become his daily reality.
“When I inhale petrol, it helps me calm my mind. It makes me forget my problems for a while,” the boy says in a viral video that has sparked concern across Nigeria.
The child, who says he lives in Yola, Adamawa State, recounts a childhood defined not by the security of a home but by uncertainty. According to him, his parents separated, his father relocated to Michika after remarrying, and his mother disappeared from his life.
He says his father promised to return for him someday. Until then, he waits.
“My father said he would come back for me after he remarried. I’m still waiting,” he says.
His account has not been independently verified. Yet regardless of what further reporting may establish, the video reveals something that cannot easily be dismissed: a child appears to be living with profound emotional distress while engaging in one of the most dangerous forms of substance abuse.
For many Nigerians, the image of an 11-year-old inhaling petrol is deeply disturbing. But child development experts say the behaviour itself may point to something even more troubling.
“Children rarely express trauma the way adults do,” says Amina John, a child psychologist. “Emotional pain often manifests through behaviour.
According to experts, some children become withdrawn, others become aggressive, while some resort to harmful coping mechanisms such as substance abuse because they lack the emotional tools to process what they are experiencing.”
Too often, conversations about failed marriages revolve around the adults; who was right, who was wrong, who left and who stayed. Lost in those arguments are the children, whose lives can be permanently change by decisions they never made.
A marriage may end, but parenthood does not.
Experts say separation itself does not inevitably harm children. Many divorced or separated parents successfully co-parent, ensuring their children continue to receive love, stability and emotional support.
“Research consistently shows that it is not divorce alone that harms children,” says Mahmoud Ali, a child development specialist. “The real damage occurs when separation is accompanied by abandonment, prolonged conflict, neglect, poverty or the complete absence of emotional support.”
When those factors combine, children can become invisible victims. Some end up on the streets. Others drop out of school because there is no one to pay their fees. Many become vulnerable to exploitation, while others turn to drugs or inhalants in an attempt to escape emotional pain they cannot yet understand.
If Baba Alhaji’s account reflects his reality, his petrol inhalation is not simply a case of substance abuse. It may also be a manifestation of unresolved trauma.
Medical experts warn that petrol inhalation can have devastating consequences.
“Petrol contains toxic chemicals that can damage the brain, lungs, live, heart and risks cancer,” explains Dr Tonde Elijah, Chief Consultant Physician at Modibbo Adamawa University Teaching Hospital (MAUTH), Yola. “Repeated exposure can impair learning, memory and behaviour, and in severe cases may result in sudden death.”
The story also raises uncomfortable questions about how society prepares young people for marriage and family life.
Across many communities, enormous resources are devoted to wedding ceremonies, while far less attention is given to preparing couples for the lifelong responsibilities that follow. Emotional maturity, conflict resolution, financial planning and shared parenting often receive little emphasis. Yet when marriages fail without adequate arrangements for children’s welfare, it is the children who pay the greatest price.
Every parent has a duty that extends beyond the success or failure of a relationship. That obligation does not end with divorce or separation.
“Children need at least one stable, dependable adult in their lives,” says Dr Tumba Madube, a family therapist. “When that support disappears, the psychological effects can last well into adulthood unless intervention comes early.”
That responsibility does not rest on parents alone. Communities, religious institutions, schools and government agencies also have a role in identifying vulnerable children before their circumstances deteriorate into crisis.
“No child should have to go viral before receiving help,” says Blessing Adam, a child protection advocate. “The priority should be immediate safety, psychosocial support, access to education and efforts to reunite the child with responsible caregivers where appropriate.”
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