Chronicles of Human Trafficking in Nigeria

Chronicles of Human Trafficking in Nigeria

A Nigerian serving senator in person of Mr. Ike Ekweremadu and his wife Mrs. Beatrice Ekweremadu have been arrested since June 21 in the United Kingdom and have since been in a grave legal battle over an alleged case of abduction and exploitation of a young man, who much is not known about him other than his name Nwamini.

Nwamini was suspected to have been unsuspiciously trafficked from Nigeria for organ harvesting to be used on the ailing senator’s daughter who needs a kidney transplant to survive.

This is the case of many young Nigerians who were lured and trafficked within and beyond the far shores of Africa with a promise of getting them to Europe for better greener pastures, who in actual sense are being trafficked suspiciously for various criminal vices.

Human Trafficking is the third most profitable crime business in the world after drug business and gun-dealing business. Over 800 thousands people are being trafficked across the globe, while women and young girls constitute 63% of people being trafficked.

Human trafficking is the act of trapping people through the use of violence, deception and exploitation them for financial or personal gains.

Many young people that were trafficked were forced into hard labour, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation and abuse, drug trafficking and most recently organ trafficking.

Nigeria and Africa as a continent have always have her fair share of suffering from high human trafficking; this is due to the failing state affairs of governance, as a result of bad leadership, economic hardship and largely insecurity within the sahel where insecurity has birthed dangerous gang within the sahel region who mostly deal and engage highly in human trafficking, slave trade, terrorism and gun running business.

From Agadez in Niger Republic to Libya that borders the Mediterranean lies many dangerous gangs and traffickers. Over 5,000 people pass through the Agadez corridor per day and it is estimated that over 33,000 people pass through that route every year until recently due to global clampdown.

States like Edo and Delta are the leading state that engage mostly in human trafficking in Nigeria, with the existence of different cells, groups and organization all around Europe that specialize in trafficking Nigerians, especially young girls. Many young girls were made to work under severe working experiences and conditions, mostly forced into prostitution with the mandate to repay certain huge amount of money to buy away their freedom from their boss or madam as they are usually called.

Many graduates and products of these industries have gone years ahead to recruit millions from Nigeria into the $150 billion global industry. The business base is spread across Europe, America, Asia, and other continents where countries like Italy, Kuwait, Brazil, and Belarus are the leading destinations for most people from Nigeria.

Africa as a continent, through the African Union (AU) and other regional blocs have made moves and enact policies to tackle and put an end to issues surrounding human trafficking, even though little have so far been achieved over the past years.

By the year 2003, the Nigeria government recognise the need to put an end to issues revolving around human trafficking, as it has become an industry that many clandestine agent ventured into, both within and outside the shores of the country to make money. Recognising the imminent danger and the need to fight the cancer of human trafficking then, the Nigeria government under the leadership of President Olusegun Obasanjo created a governmental agency saldled with the responsibilty of tackling human trafficking and other relatable offenses which is known as NAPTIP. Since the inception till date, the agency has made an arrest of over 8,000 suspected human traffickers and has rescued over 17,727 in the course of 19 years of its existence.

Many years after the creation of NAPTIP, the issues revolving around human trafficking have gone multi facit and the surge on human trafficking has continue to be at an alarming rate in Nigeria for various reasons.The inability of the government to review the policies of the then created agency to accomodate new realities and renewed mandate, lack of proper training for members of NAPTIP, corruption within the agency, lack of proper funding for the agency to perform at uptimum level also contribute to the ineffectiveness of the agency as a body.

Nigeria with a teeming population of over 200 million people, with over 70% of this population being youth and an increase in growing population of 2.6% yearly. Despite the large amount of Nigerian population consisting of the youth, they are the most affected and neglected section in the country in terms of governance assistance and aid from the government, multiple and incessant strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities in Nigeria has been going on for a long time with no end in sight, economic downturn is on the rise like never before and is hitting the youthful population of the country the most, various armed rebels have continue to spring up and the government have continue to be rendered useless by various groups, who kidnap, kill and maim the larger population, these ills gives room for easy human trafficking with no solution in sight.

For government to effectively tackle the issue of Human Trafficking, it need to embark on a wide deliberate campaign against human trafficking that will need both formal and informal ways in doing so. Government also have to partner with various religious bodies, sociocultural groups and the need to start early campaign and a synthesization programme for student in nursery and primary schools by orientating them on what human trafficking entails, ways and steps on how to not to be a victim of trafficking.

Beyond all, the government also has to take advantage of digital media in its campaign against human trafficking, as it serves as the new hob these traffickers do use to lure most of these innocent young people.