Dehumanizing Business of Child Trafficking

The world we live in is regressing.  The 21st Century man seems to have evolved technologically but has degenerated morally. Humanity has suddenly lost grip of her spiritual essence and is floundering uncontrollably from one unconscionable depravity to the next. Not too long ago, the world frowned in shock and revulsion at the mention of slavery.  Liberty and freedom, justice and fairness were all well-worn mantra which the world trumpeted and carried banners of indignant righteousness, professing to proclaim and protect for all humanity. How fickle we all are, for as soon as the heady glamour of the new battle cry dries from our lips, we retreat into our cozy cocoons of laissez faire.  Under our noses, the world burns while we fiddle and dawdle.

At the close of the century before the present era, slave trade in it’s crude form was mercifully abolished and humanity heaved a sigh of relief. Today, like a hydra headed monster, it has regenerated and has taken an appalling hue.

The trafficking of children for the purpose of domestic service, prostitution and other forms of exploitative labor is a widespread phenomenon in Nigeria. Children and women are recruited with promises of well-paid jobs in urban centers within and outside the country.  The victims realize only too late that they have been lured into a debt bond by a devious and well-organized cartel of human traffickers. Violence, coercion and deception are used to take victims away from their families. This is the modern form of slavery and regrettably, Nigeria is a source, a transit point as well as a destination country for trafficked women and children. Prostitution, domestic and exploitative labor continues to fuel this modern from of slavery.

There is yet no reliable estimate of the number of children trafficked internally and externally primarily because of the clandestine nature of the phenomenon. The causes of children and women trafficking are numerous. They include poverty, desperation to escape violence, corruption, unemployment, illiteracy and ignorance. The children from poor homes, broken homes, and children with low self-esteem are the usual targets  and easy prey for child traffickers.

 It is a vicious circle. The victims trapped in the dark cesspool of base profiteering traffickers are completely shut out from the outside world, debased, dehumanized and robbed of self will. They go through hell on earth. No one notices them, no one sees them, no one hears them. They have no voices of their own and are condemned to a brutish existence. It’s a scourge on modern society.

If we must look away when the ones involved are adults who should normally decide their fate, even if they were coerced into this form of existence, what do we say about those little children forced into sexual exploitation and child labor more often by desperation, poverty and ignorance? Believe it or not, these little ones are bound either by physical chains or psychological ones which will trail them as they grow into adulthood. Where do you begin the long process of healing? Millions of children around the world are trafficked or trapped in sexual exploitation with little hope for freedom.  The world must bring freedom to them. We need to rescued them, provide them security, give them education, vocational training, counseling and healthcare, spiritual guidance and, most importantly, love

Child trafficking is a thing of sorrow and pain to the victims. The earlier we did something to bring it to a stop, the better for us, because, those who suffer physical and emotional abuse and rape may never be able to live normal lives again. They live in constant fear and end up being psychologically compromised.

It’s not bad to pursue wealth and riches legitimately. It is depravity to profit from other person’s misery and pains.  We are all connected to one another by our human essence. Therefore, when one of us is denatured, a part of humanity dies.

We are aware that criminals in Nigeria are helped by the powerful to enslave fellow young citizens. We are aware that these powerful personalities who outwardly profess religious purity, patronize and protecting these traffickers. We must do all in our power to expose their hypocrisy and bring succor to the victims. Let men and women of goodwill blow the whistle and expose the evil trade wherever we see it.

Child trafficking is a huge problem in our nation Nigeria and in the world at large. Government organizations, non-profits organizations and law enforcement agencies should put up a concerted effort to end child trafficking and hand out death penalty sentence on the perpetrators.
Why most women in Lagos have sex before age 18?

Dear Honourable Commissioner for health, Dr Jide Idris

I feel that the reason why young girls engage in early sexual act could be traced to poverty and the boy-child’s upbringing

Poverty most of all, should be blamed for exposing the girl-child to early sex and making prostitution an institution.
The “Baby-Mama” syndrome has come to stay with us as an acceptable nomenclature for a shameful and unacceptable societal ill. Today, many teenage girls get pregnant outside wedlock. Most of them were preyed upon by the rich and the famous/celebrities, married or unmarried. They were lured into this trap with money, and the desire for security makes them accept albeit unwillingly an obviously aberrant and dehumanizing situation. The painful irony in it is that some get pregnant, some get AIDS and some lose their wombs in this line of early sex.

Poverty is the major reason why most parents give their girl-children out to early marriages. Most indigent parents are hardly worried when their unemployed teenage daughters come home with money. The guilt they feel for not being able to provide for their family beats them into submitting and accepting to condone the unforgivable.

If poverty is to some reasonable extent alleviated, then, the young girls will have their heads right on their shoulders and walk their path with dauntless optimism, thereby making the issue early sex a rare occurrence.
Our government can begin to change all these by providing welfare for the less privileged girl-child who has concluded her secondary education. It will be more like a Girl-Child Support Program where they will be paid stipends monthly for their personal upkeep.

   Inequality is undoubtedly so entrenched in our society, so, we need to really take decisive and proactive measures to bringing the girl child to a level playing field with the Boy Child.

While the focus is on the Girl Child, it must be noted that whatever gains we hope to achieve in fostering an egalitarian society will be rubbished if the Boy Child is groomed with a skewed concept of the place of his opposite number in the society. The Boy child should be raised with the belief that all people, irrespective of gender, are in principle equal and should enjoy equal social, political and economic rights and opportunities in our society. That is the egalitarian mentality.

The boy child should be tutored to appreciate the girl child as worthy partner in all areas of life, not as subservience. They should be taught that they can work in harmony in bringing up a better society. They should also not harbor negative notions about the female gender in the area of rape and other viles. Girls should be respected.

In conclusion and bringing to mind the points raised by Dr Jide Idris, Honourable Commissioner, it will be pertinent to have the right charismatic mentor instill in the Girl Child the spirit of self confidence, bravery, assertiveness, respect for her body: not giving in to early and casual sexual desires, knowledge on the importance of education, and make her gain as much information as needed to empower her.