Root Causes Of Child Trafficking And Panacea

 By Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko

Amongst the many socio-economic afflictions of Nigeria of the 21st century, is the menace of trafficking in children by persons who have since made child trafficking and trafficking of persons billions’ dollars business franchise.  

The problem became hydra-headed so much so that Nigerian state, under former President Olusegun Obasanjo, set up the anti human trafficking agency known as NAPTIP to tackle the menace which, incidentally, is a global criminal network. But NAPTIP is a ghost of its old self and is almost dysfunctional. But the crimes of child trafficking is a crime that offends our national psyche and sensibilities. 

This is why we have to clamour for a total reorganisation of NAPTIP, Strengthening the agency by way of legal frameworks and then equipping it with the required sufficient resources and manpower especially the merit-based hierarchy to drive the process of waging the determined war against child trafficking to a logical conclusion. 

Good enough, states of the Federation also have legal enforcement mechanisms to combat child trafficking. 

But the menace is so deep that it is strategic for the federal government to work in synergy with the states to more strategically battle this scourge of child trafficking and seek to eradicate it by cutting off the head of the snake or rather arresting the barons of trafficking rings and throwing them into jail for a long time. It is not as if nothing has been done by the government but much more is expected. 

A major incident of child trafficking was recorded recently in Adamawa State which was successfully redressed and the victims freed. Specifically, the Adamawa State Government successfully rescued 14 children who were victims of a human trafficking ring and reunited them with their parents. The children, between the ages of 4 and 9, were trafficked from various communities in Adamawa State to the Southeastern region of Nigeria.

The trafficker, a middle-aged woman, allegedly perfected the art of trafficking minors from Adamawa State to the Southeastern region, where she sold the victims for paltry sums of N800,000 to N1.7 million per child.

Trafficking in children is driven by the social factor of poverty amongst girls and families even as the federal government through the ministries of Women Affairs and that of Humanitarian Affairs/Poverty alleviation should be directed by the President to work as partners to more directly provide social safety nets for impoverished families who are in very numbers.

The Humanitarian Affairs and poverty alleviation ministry is doing so badly because of the lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the programmes tailored towards alleviation of poverty affecting millions of Nigerian households. Poverty in Nigeria walks with four legs on the streets of Nigerian cities, towns and villages. 

By the last count, the National Board of Statistics said over 130 million families suffer from multidimensional and absolute poverty.  Besides the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, had recently lamented that 15 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 are already mothers or pregnant.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim also lamented that over 7.3 million adolescent girls and women suffer from malnutrition, with 55 per cent affected by anaemia, conditions that can be exacerbated by poor menstrual hygiene and lack of affordable sanitary products.

Children are most vulnerable to experiencing poverty because unlike adults, children cannot engage in income generating activities and they mostly depend on their parents/guardians for the basic necessities of life.

Most times, when the word ‘poverty’ is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is lack of money, but for children, poverty isn’t just about having less/no money. It’s about facing challenges from the very beginning, it’s about missing out on the things they need to grow strong and healthy, it’s about being confused because they don’t have the answers, it’s about not dreaming big because opportunities seem so far off. It’s like starting a race from behind, but they haven’t even taken the first step yet.

Did you know that worldwide, the poorest children are twice as likely to die in childhood than their wealthier peers? This means that these children living in poverty have reduced life expectancy, and most of them don’t even make it to adulthood.

It is said that children are the future, but if 1 in 7 children live in poverty, what future then is being spoken of?

My prognosis is simple: allow the states of the Federation and the National government to implement impactful initiatives and projects that would promote good governance, transparent leadership, accountability as a necessary legal obligation on the part of political actors from the grassroots, the states and national government and by so doing, the critical question of child poverty which gives rise to the unprecedented rate of child trafficking would be minimised through effective/efficient and result oriented law enforcement and economic empowerment of impoverished families. 

With the natural resources that Nigeria is endowed with, it is not permissible that millions of families should be left to languish in poverty just as the security, welfare and wellbeing of Nigerian children should be pivotal to the modus operandi of government in all parts of Nigeria. 

*Onwubiko is the founder of Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and was National Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.