1. BACKGROUND AND CONTEXTUALISATION
1.19. MAL-ADMINISTRATION AND MIS-GOVERNANCE IN NIGERIA
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Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) and the trafficking Protocol, setting standards for the ECOWAS region and beyond through its National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), but the country’s role as source of trafficked human beings has been fueled further by long running military dictatorships and civilian maladministration. This high level of mis-governance and political instability, resulting in poverty, inequality, nepotism, corruption and insecurity has further widened the gap between the extremely rich and the extremely poor, forcing citizens to either migrate or become vulnerable merchandise of human traffickers.
An editorial of the online edition of The Nations Newspaper on May 6, 2015 has
“Sold for Sex: Nigeria continues to grapple with modern-day slavery” as its caption. The report warns that as an ever-increasing number of Nigerians leave the country to illegally or legally migrate to other nations, Nigeria must begin to seriously investigate the spike in the incidences of the horrifying phenomenon of, human-trafficking, resulting into sex slavery which has now become rampant. It further exposes a particularly disturbing manifestation of the trend which can be seen in the story of Precious Ugochi Okoro, a 15- year-old secondary school student who was trafficked to Libya to engage in coerced prostitution. The girl claims that she was kidnapped by a cousin of her mother and handed over to traffickers who took her to Libya. She was then forced to work as a prostitute and eventually sold to a woman who helped to secure her freedom. Her distraught family was unaware of her disappearance until her school contacted them three weeks after she was supposed to have resumed.
The traffickers reportedly even had the temerity to demand ransom from the family for a victim who had
already been taken out of the country. Fortunately for Miss Okoro, the Lagos State Command of the Nigeria Police was able to track down the kidnappers, effecting her repatriation from Libya. The scenario is better relayed here as reported in The Nation newspaper:
This sorry tale has all the elements that have combined to make sex trafficking the social cancer that it has become: persistent economic depression, youth unemployment, parental indifference, crass materialism and criminal impunity.
Nigeria’s economic difficulties have been most apparent in the high proportion of youth unemployment that has left millions of young citizens jobless, destitute and desperate. Given the apparent hopelessness that seems to surround them at home, the ostensible attractions of other nations take on added significance. Thus, Nigerian youths continue to risk their lives to reach other countries, in spite of the well-documented tragedies that assail illegal migrants.
The main culprit in the sex-slave saga is Miss Okoro’s cousin who agreed to sell her to the traffickers for just N10,000. No matter how difficult his economic circumstances may have been, it is incredible that he could be so heartless as to betray a close relation for such a relatively small amount of money. When such greed is combined with the ubiquity of criminal gangs specialising
in sex trafficking, it can be understood how a young girl can disappear from her own country so easily.
Not least is the seeming lack of parental concern which characterized the response of Miss Okoro’s parents to her disappearance. It is very strange that they permitted a 15-year-old girl to embark on an interstate journey alone, did not bother to check to see if she had arrived at her school safely, only becoming aware of their daughter’s plight when the school contacted them three weeks later. Such lax monitoring only facilitates the nefarious activities of sex-traffickers by providing them with an extended
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Nigeria must begin to properly address the sex- trafficking epidemic that is confronting it. All strategies to this end must aim at making it less easy for citizens to be abducted and transported across state and national borders. The long-delayed national identification system must be made functional without delay. Security procedures should be overhauled to accommodate particularly vulnerable groups like school children, migrant workers and the homeless.
Known smuggling routes must be properly policed, and corruption and incompetence within the immigration service should be harshly dealt with.
The country must also embark on a comprehensive effort to repatriate its citizens who are living illegally in other countries. Instead of simply waiting for host countries to expel Nigerians, the Federal Government must work with them to ensure that they are sent home with as little fuss as possible. The greatest anti- trafficking strategy, however, remains the creation of an economically-vibrant nation whose benefits are freely available to all of its citizens.
The above scenario reveals the hotchpotch of factors governing and dictating the operations of the trafficking business in Nigeria and the nefarious nature of the traffickers themselves. Nigerian women and girls are taken to Europe, especially to Italy, Russia and sometimes, to the Middle East as well as other parts of North Africa after syndicates employ deceit and coercion to prey on these vulnerable youths who they traffic overseas for domestic servitude or sexual exploitation.