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• I sell cigarettes to survive - Teen  

An encounter with young teen Naziru Mamuda, a cigarette seller who could not be sure of his age among a clique of friends’ gives insight into his unsual life.

The sight of young children under the ages of ten and above, selling cigarettes at gatherings is a common phenomenon for stadium, cinema and theatre goers in Kano State.

Naziru Mamuda is one of these minors selling cigarettes anytime there is a football match. He moves around the teeming football spectators with several packs of cigarettes and a box of matches in search of customers. While the spectators were busy watching the match, the young boy was busy making brisk business. . . .

“I don’t have my capital, we normally collect the packs from a retailer in our area and he doesn’t give more than five packs per child,” explains Naziru, adding that since one of them ran away with about 10 packets, their master reduced the number of packets to five. . . .

Abubakar said they collected a pack of Benson at N180, Rothmans also at N180, Aspen at N90, while Super King at also N90. “If we collect Benson at N180, we earn a profit of N20 when we sell it.”

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