Another indication of Nigeria’s failing system emerged recently with the emergence of a video of 11 young girls who were trafficked to Ghana for commercial sex exploitation. The confessions of the girls, aged 14 to 18, revealed mostly what most Nigerians already know. But they also told personal stories that reflected not just the moral decadence in society but also how low people can go in the quest for money.
During the rescue operation by officials of the Nigerian Diaspora Organization (NIDO), Ghana chapter, it was revealed that the victims were deceived and promised restaurant jobs. Further investigations revealed that none of the victims had international passports and that they were allegedly ferried by boats from Mile 2 Waterside in Lagos to Port Novo, from where they were transported by road to Ghana.
On arrival in Ghana, they said they were forced into prostitution after undergoing ritual oaths, a memo obtained from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the matter stated. However, in the video, two girls disclosed they were twins, while another one revealed that the alleged mastermind of the trafficking was his brother. The alleged human trafficking culprit was also arrested and detained. The culprit is said to be in detention at the Ghana Police headquarters in Accra, and his passport has already been confiscated pending the outcome of the ongoing investigation.
That Nigeria has been a source, transit and destination country for child trafficking for years is no longer secret nor strange. However, beyond sex trafficking, children, according to UNICEF have, for years, been forced into hard labour. According to reports, external trafficking of children exists between Nigeria and Gabon, Cameroon, Niger, Italy, Spain, Benin Republic and Saudi Arabia.
The NAPTIP/UNICEF Situation Assessment of Child Trafficking in Southern Nigerian State (2004) report claims that 46 per cent of repatriated victims of external trafficking in Nigeria are children, with a female-to-male ratio of 7:3.
They are engaged mainly in prostitution (46 per cent), domestic labour (21 per cent), forced labour (15 per cent) and entertainment (8 per cent). Internal trafficking of children in Nigeria was also reported to be for the purpose of forced labour (32 per cent), domestic labour (31 per cent) and prostitution (30 per cent).
Available information indicates that between October and December 2003, over 500 children from the Republic of Benin were rescued from granite quarries and repatriated back to their country of origin through a joint effort of UNICEF in Nigeria and Benin.
Nigeria has seen an increased number of repatriations of such victims from many foreign countries, such as the UK, Italy, Netherlands, USA, Belgium, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, and South Africa. Private transit camps have been reported to exist in coastal states where children are transported and forced into hard labour and prostitution.
However, this Ghana episode, sad as it is, reflects a country’s moral and systemic collapse.The usual bait for luring Nigerian girls into trafficking for prostitution is a false promise of employment to earn the much-valued foreign exchange, vocational training, or marriage.
With recent publicity, some awareness has been created as to the true nature of the employment, which is prostitution. It is, however, insightful that despite this information, many children still fall prey to traffickers through the active connivance of family members who coerce the children into the illicit trade.
Due to many factors, including the escalating level of poverty, lack of viable opportunities, fallen family values, and the attraction to earn foreign exchange, some parents and guardians have reportedly either acquiesced to their children being trafficked for sex or pretended not to know what the foreign trips are about. While we do not dismiss the place of poverty in this sad equation, we likewise find it hard to discard the greed and get-rich-by-all-means mindset that has become commonplace in the country.
However, we believe that government agencies whose operations fall within the purview of child trafficking must live up to expectation. This puts the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in the spotlight. There is no doubt that this agency has pulled off some successful operations in the past. Nonetheless, we believe that this case should serve as a wake-up call for an agency that ought to be more proactive.
We urge the National Orientation Agency (NOA) to embark on more sensitisation on the evils of such action. However, they must be more aggressive in their approach rather than a laid-back message on the issue. The agency, just like NAPTIP, should engage traditional rulers in the campaign against such devious acts.
We hope the investigation unravels the whole gamut of this heinous crime. Child sex trafficking is a highly organised crime that involves highly placed individuals, as in the Epstein case in the United States of America. Nothing short of a thorough investigation should be conducted to apprehend all those linked to it.
We expect that the Foreign Affairs and Women Affairs ministries should follow up on this case in collaboration with NAPTIP. We cannot afford to let this case be swept under the carpet. Besides serving as a deterrent, putting all the masterminds of such heinous crimes behind bars is a sure way for the government to prove its constitutional responsibility of protecting its young ones and future from savages and sadists.