Events
2024 National Child Care Development Summit In Abuja
CHILDREN, the most vulnerable members of the society, seem not to have any place to hide from demented Nigerians whose stock in trade is stealing of minors, even day old, for the purpose of making quick money. The epidemic is a variant of the scourge of kidnapping, which the Nigerian state has laboured to staunch for more than a decade but to no avail.
The rising cases of child theft in Nigeria is not only increasingly alarming but gradually spiraling out of hand. Its tripartite evil counterparts of child rape, abuse and molestation are not getting thedeserved government assault either. Nigeria is confronted by this ugly trend on a daily basis to the point that there seem not to be any light at the end of the tunnel. These evils and their corresponding robust networks blossom with audacity and consequently defied unfettered check by the responsible authorities. These dare devil group are practically on top of their game while government and its agencies lack any tact to arrest and eliminate this ugly trend.
But the most bizarre aspect of this nefarious merchandising in juveniles is the involvement of biological parents. The practice is becoming rampant, given frequent media reports. Poverty is used by some to justify the obnoxious act. Other vendors include commercial sex workers, victims of rape, teenage mothers, who had hidden their pregnancies from parents, and illegal orphanages that operate baby factories. Unfortunately, children affected by conflicts by bandits and terrorist are not spared.
According to a 2006 UNESCO report, the South-East states of Abia, Anambra and Imo have most of such homes, just as Akwa Ibom, Ogun and Ondo have high rates of the incident. “It is a well organised crime, sometimes with medical doctors involved in running the factory. They operate like a maternity home and the babies produced are sold out. Some bring their babies to be sold, while others are brought to the factory without pregnancy and able-bodied men are made to impregnate them forcefully,” say the Police.
2024 Summit Objectives
Objective 1: To x-ray the existing adoption frameworks and laws in Nigeria with a view to fostering a friendly adoption procedure that will accelerate increased access and award of legal child adoption applications by applicants as a measure to contribute to the elimination of child theft in Nigeria.
Objective 2: To make recommendations by way of a communique to the Federal Government, towards advancing the outcome of the summit aimed at eliminating the menace of child theft.
Objective 3: To strengthen the capacity of child care practitioners and adoption agents to promote more efficient and effective adoption procedures in Nigeria.
Objective 4: To recognise and offer award of excellence to selected CSO, Media Houses, Governments of States, Judges and their First Ladies that have contributed immensely to the fight against child theft/trafficking, GBV and child adoption in Nigeria.
One of such illegal orphanages was discovered in 2013, located at Umuozuo, Osisioma Local Government Area, in Aba, Abia State. It had 32 pregnant ladies, whose babies were sold. A male child was sold for N450, 000, while a female attracted N400, 000. A teenage mother was paid N100, 000 if she was delivered of a boy, as against N90, 000 paid to one that had a girl child. Undoubtedly, more of this bastion of criminality is outside the radar of law enforcement agencies and the media.
It is estimated that 27 million people are trafficked world-wide annually, generating $32 billion illegal profit, thereby making it the fastest growing global black market. While an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year, according to a 2005 report by the International Labour Organization (ILO). Another UNESCO 2011 report ranked trafficking as the third most common crime in Nigeria after financial fraud and drug trafficking.
According to Control Risk, a United Kingdom-based consultancy that tracks kidnapping globally, Nigeria is ranked fifth behind Mexico, India, Pakistan and Iraq. This malevolence is not likely to change any time soon; though 15 states passed laws making kidnapping a capital offence to serve as a deterrent, they have been indifferent to enforcing them. By all means, this evil mercantilism must be pulled down; it is an assault on our humanity.
The tragedy of selling a human being by a fellow human is quite abnormal and has diminished our entire humanity. The ugly situation we have found ourselves today have direct correlation with well-known underlining factors.
First is the high level of poverty in the Nigeria, promoting the growing cases of baby factories dotting the nooks and crannies of the South Eastern States. Some individuals secretly keep and encourage matured and under aged pregnant children to deliver kids at a cost even under the most excruciating conditions.
Secondly, there is an existing and flourishing market accommodating this crime. As any commodity without high market demand dies naturally. But this market supplies and satisfies the illicit trans-national business of child trafficking aimed at satisfying several notorious drug and prostitutions networks and the increasing demand of human parts for rituals prevalent in our society today.
Another factor and most important to the cause of this summit is the rising cases of infertility among families. Many couple these days especially in developing nations where effective medication for treating infertility is either expensive or nonexistent have devised means to fill the vacuum. Moreover, the reality of the African culture of married couples must have children have driven many into engaging in illegality to have children no matter what it takes. Many under this category result to buying babies from illegal nursing homes, baby factories after failed applications to obtain legal adoption, due to the cumbersome and un-ending procedures for child adoption in Nigeria.
This illicit trade, in whatever form, calls for adequate policy, legislative and law enforcement response from government and Civil Society Organisations to compel those involved in it to retrace their steps; all hands must be on deck to curb the rising cases of child theft in Nigeria, serious attention needs to be paid to this evil trend with a view to finding a solution to it. Hence, continuous advocacy by individuals, traditional and religious institutions, civil society organisations should be brought to bear on governments at the local, states and federal levels to seek innovative nature-based solutions in halting this increasing ugly trend of child theft in Nigeria.
It is for these reasons, that Elohim Foundation along with its partners seeks to take a deep dive at fostering a friendly adoption procedure framework, that will encourage easy and increased legal child adoption that aims to contribute towards reducing the menace of child theft in Nigeria through a constructive X-raying discuss among key stakeholders vested with the responsibility of care and protection of the Nigerian Child.