*For adopted child, blood is truly thicker
In this concluding part on the child trafficking story, JULIANA FRANCIS reports that one of the ways to end the scourge is to remove clogs in adoption process and to create awareness on evil associated with trafficking
The Lagos State Zonal Commander, NAPTIP, Atokolo, explained that stigma was one of the factors militating against child adoption in the country.
He said: “We can’t run away from the issue of stigma in Nigeria. Most couples do not want people to know that they adopted a child. Some move to another clime for a while, take a stimulant, which makes their stomachs start growing and claim they’re pregnant. They know they’re not pregnant, but they’ll go on social media, flaunt their bumps and do all manners of things in preparation for the buying of a baby. It’s a cultural thing.
"Many couples will say, ‘God forbid’ that they should go for adoption. Some men will even allow their wives to have her way and adopt, but they’ll never accept the child. Most men, who allow their wives to have their ways and go for adoption, are probably those that have fertility problems. And for his reputation’s sake, he wouldn’t want to disturb the woman. Some men accept adoption because they don’t want their wives to go outside and blow the whistle on them. But deep down in his heart, he would never accept that child in his family. Imagine what will become of that child.
"The extended family is very important in the adoption process. The husband and wife may agree to go for adoption, but the extended family will say no. They can use it to abuse the child later in life. Even if the boy is bearing the couple’s name, extended family members will one day tell other children in the family that he is not their blood.”
Atokolo suggested that one of the solutions for checking baby trafficking, aside from adoption, is surrogacy.
He added: “Surrogacy is part of the solution to check baby trafficking. Surrogacy is a lady, who is not your wife, accepting to take in for you. You pay her; she takes in for you. Most times, it’s the wife that would suggest it to her husband. Sometimes it’s by artificial insemination. The sperm donors are usually anonymous.
"Some men even invite their brothers to impregnate their wives. They want to keep the secret within the family circle. Instead of allowing your brother to have sex with your wife, why not go for surrogacy? If you go to Facebook, you’ll find out that surrogacy is a job of some women. They are very professional about the whole thing. It’s usually via artificial insemination. After she delivers the baby, she collects her money and leaves.
"There are cases whereby husband and wife are fertile, but the wife couldn’t carry a baby to full term, because of her health. Her husband’s sperm is harvested and her eggs harvested and then they look for a willing womb to carry the baby to full term for them.”
The NAPTIP commander stated that the problem with surrogacy was the surrogate mother becoming attached to the baby, leading to all sorts of problems.
He added: “Once the baby starts kicking, the mother begins to bond with it. That’s part of the reason surrogate mothers are no longer allowed to breastfeed the baby.”
The Executive Director of Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma, argued that eroding culture was a contributing factor to baby trafficking in Nigeria.
He said: “Combinations of cultural factors and worsening socio-economic conditions have affected human behaviours and practices in most parts of Nigeria. Influence of western education and civilisation has led to the abandonment and extinction of some cultural practices.
"Vestiges of some old cultural beliefs and practices still remain though. In Imo State for example, a practice called 'ewu ukwu' was commonly practiced. It was a special ceremony by which women who gave birth to up to 10 children were honoured and glorified by having a 'goat killed on her waist'. Men at that time needed as many children as possible to join hands in cultivating the farm lands which were major means of family sustenance and commerce.”
Nwanguma stated that dwindling economic circumstances, less reliance on land and farming as means of family sustenance and livelihood and rural-urban migration have combined to eliminate the need for families to have many children.
According to him, no woman now wants to go through the pangs and risks of having as many as 10 children just to have a goat killed for her as a symbol of honour by the community or do men have the means any longer to cater for large families.
Polygamy, he noted, was also getting out of fashion in many communities just for the same reasons.
He added: “In those old days, a man, in quest of male children, could marry a second wife and even the third until he gets the number of male children he desires. Male children were preferred in traditional society just because only male children are allowed to inherit their father's estate and for the continuation of the family line. Female children are not considered fit to inherit their fathers' property because they are to be married out of the family. But a lot of these are changing.
"Many families now argue that female children have proved to be more useful in taking care of their parents at old age even when they are married. In time past, women who were not able to conceive and give birth in their marriages volunteered to marry another woman for their husbands just for them to have children. But this is no longer common. It is no longer easily obtainable for a man, after a number of female children with his wife, to allow her to sleep with other men in the community just for her to have a male child.
"Adoption of children which was considered taboo in traditional culture has gradually become accepted in modern times. However, the problem is that many families who have opted to adopt children do not understand the procedure for legal adoption. They resort, ignorantly, to illegal means and in many cases fall prey to many fraudulent syndicates which run illegal motherless babies homes. There are cases of child swapping in some hospitals where a woman's new born male baby is swapped and secretly given to another woman who gave birth to a female baby, who is in need of a male baby. Usually, the short-changed woman would not have known the sex of her baby.
“Many baby factories and illegal baby homes exist across cities in Nigeria, run mainly by a syndicate whose members claim to be doctors, nurses, priests, etc. They procure and harbour pregnant young girls until they give birth and get paid off by the owners of the homes who collect their babies and sell them to people desperately looking for children. This is clearly child trafficking or trafficking in persons. There is need for NAPTIP to create wider public awareness of the procedure for child adoption, of what constitutes human trafficking and the consequences of breaking the law in the process of trying to adopt a child.
"The procedure for child adoption should be made less cumbersome to discourage people from seeking the easy way out to adopt children and run afoul of the law. NAPTIP should be strict and decisive in dealing with people who run baby factories, exploiting young girls as well as health personnel who engage in the criminal practice of baby swapping.”
The Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Nigeria, Enugu campus, Prof Joy Ezeilo, linked baby trafficking to the baby factory or adoption.
She said: "It’s also a cultural issue because you have to look at what are the factors that exacerbate this or the root causes. People don’t want to disclose they get their babies through adoption, and so they go for underground sale of children, outright sale of babies and children.
"If you sell or buy children in the black market instead of going through the adoption process it is bad. Adoption is covered by the law; there are adoption laws, foster laws, especially adoption law in Southern Nigeria. But the issue is the underground business, fuelled by cultural perceptions and stigmatisation around the adopted children.
"Some couples don’t want people to know that they have adopted those children; they will go to any length to hide that fact and also pretend that they are their children. So that is exacerbating the black market and its demand. When there is demand, there is supply and supply can be done through other criminal activities and that is the major problem."
Ezeilo added that some children had also been trafficked to the United Kingdom (UK) and other places where some churches were implicated
She said: "But I think here it’s not just churches; maybe I’ll say religious groups because it happens across different religions. Some are even trafficked for alms begging; you see them in the Middle-East, in Saudi.
"I was United Nation’s Special Rapporteur for human trafficking for six years, and I have been dealing with this issue. It’s something I’m very familiar with. Every country has its own slant, but Nigeria is a transit and destination country. Adoption should not be stigmatised, it’s just our perception and the culture that sometimes see these children as illegitimate, one born out of wedlock and this even made people sell their children. Sometimes poverty causes this.
"People actually get pregnant to sell their children; even families of married couples. We have seen cases where couples sell their children. Some sell their children in criminal conspiracy; imagine bearing children and selling them because they want to make money."
The professor also blamed the government for not doing enough to prevent child trafficking.
She said: "Government has to raise awareness, sensitise the public and strengthen the law enforcement mechanism like NAPTIP. NAPTIP is under-funded and cannot be everywhere doing all the work. The police need to be strengthened as well. If orphanages are registered properly, and there is proper monitoring of their activities, and accounting for every child there, their movement and maintenance of proper adoption records in line with international best practice, we will not be having this problem of baby trafficking.
"Every day we hear about clampdown on health facilities and then some maternity homes, some orphanages used as fronts for this type of illegal activities. The issue is that if not for institutional neglect, and if we don’t have the right laws and regulations, then people will continue to engage in these kinds of criminal activities.”
The Chairperson and founder, Star Advocacy for African Women and Children (SAFAWAC), Miriam Okoro Esq, said the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act prohibits the sale, hire and sexual exploitation of children.
She said: "According to the Act, where a person buys, sells, hires or obtains possession or disposal of any person knowing that it is likely that the person would be subjected to exploitation, he commits an offence and shall on conviction be liable to an imprisonment term of five years and to a fine of not less than N2,000,000.
"However, my opinion remains that the stipulated punishment is too minimal for an offence such as trafficking. We should all note that trafficking, particularly involving women and children is not just an ordinary crime, but a crime against humanity. Same can rank among the most serious crimes recognised by the international community. However, imposing such a light sentence on the crime is not enough to deter future offenders.
"In conclusion, considering the sexual exploitation, harvesting organs and other in human acts involved in child trafficking, it is my humble submission that child trafficking should be regarded as a capital offence and treated as such. A life imprisonment sentence would be perfect in terms of serving as a deterrent to future offenders."
On his part, a Clinical Psychologist, Mr. Akin Gabriel, said selling babies would be mostly for people who sell for adoption.
He said: "That's why we find some people who run baby factories. They can sell the baby for adoption. There's another one; we need to distinguish them, who sells children for exploitative purposes, either to go and work on the farm or to work as domestic help for exploitative purposes so they can get a salary.
"However, people who sell their children for a number of reasons want to achieve a higher financial status. Most of those that do that are in the lower strata of the economy and are described basically as the poor who want to upgrade their financial standing. But, some people have now taken it more like a profession. Examples are professional mothers who get pregnant and sell the baby outrightly. The first thing they consider is financial gain and after achieving the status of being a mother, they have children but they can't feed them. They have no regrets; no guilt for selling the babies.
"For the buyer as well, their aim is to achieve a state of motherhood or fatherhood. Due to the culture, some people would wrap their stomachs as if they are pregnant and go about expecting babies. So, when the baby is ready they will now travel as if they went to deliver the baby and come back with the new baby because immediately the baby is delivered, they convey the baby to their home. Consequently, they have achieved that motherhood or fatherhood status."
According to him, children who are trafficked have more visitations to mental homes, because of worry, anxiety and sexual exploitations.
Gabriel said that for people that buy stolen children, knowing those children were not theirs, the only thing that could make them lose sleep was if the law catches up with them.
He added: “Before one can become a parent, the fellow needs to be psychologically all right.”
In February 2020 alone, the police rescued 53 toddlers, including babies, 20 pregnant ladies and arrested 12 self-confessed traffickers.
In the first week of February 2020, operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT) smashed a baby trafficking ring, arrested 12 suspects and later rescued six children.
The breakdown is as follows: On February 25, 2020, police in Rivers State rescued 24 babies and four pregnant girls. The children were between one and two years.
On the 27th of the same month, policemen in Bayelsa State raided a child-trafficking facility holding at least 23 children and four pregnant teenagers. The children were between ages one and four.
The Ogun State Police Command on February 28, 2020, raided a baby-making home at Imedu Olori area of Mowe in Obafemi Owode Local government Area of the state. The police rescued 12 ladies between 20-25 years. Six among them were pregnant.
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