THE disclosure in a report by the United States (US) State Department that Nigeria has more than 305,000 refugees in other countries and more than 2.1 million others in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps within the country is a testament that all is not well with the social fabric and organization of the Nigerian society.
What is more worrying, however, is the further disclosure in the report about ‘illicit recruiters, including family members, community members and pastors’ who are Increasingly targeting individuals seeking to travel by air to the Middle East, where wealthy individuals and other actors exploit them in forced labour or commercial sex.’
Here we find evidence of the persistence of the unholy ring of sexual trafficking of girls in the country despite the feeble attempts by the government and some non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to combat the nefarious activities of this ring.
The US State Department’s report listed Abia, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Imo and Kogi States as the epicentres of the trafficking of victims to West Africa and Europe, with the sex traffickers operating in highly organized criminal webs throughout Europe as a formidable Nigerian mafia.’
The situation is such that nearly 80 percent of women in Spain’s unlicensed brothels are victims of sex trafficking with a larger percentage of them coming from Nigeria even as it is revealed that Nigerian trafficking networks forced many women and girls into commercial sex work around Paris in France by threatening their families in Nigeria to maintain control.
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The report states: ‘While some sex trafficking victims arrive in Europe, believing they will be in commercial sex (for some time), traffickers coerce them to stay in commercial sex by altering working conditions and increasing victims’ travel debts. Some victims’ parents encourage them to obey their traffickers and endure exploitation to earn money.’
And even former sex trafficking victims referred to as ‘madams’ begin to work for their traffickers in exchange for leaving sex trafficking themselves, as a measure and signification of the depth of control exercised by the mafia in charge of this trafficking.
To be sure, sex trafficking is a reflection of the unsavoury and dire situation of things in the country with a collapsing economy and pervasive poverty.
It is also a reflection of the failure of government at all levels to provide minimum conditions for worthwhile living for its citizens, leaving the citizens to strive to make ends meet at all costs no matter what invidious and denigrating things they need to do.
The situation is compounded by even the government officials taking advantage by themselves joining in exploiting the people especially when they fall into penury and become unable to cater for themselves.
This is the sense in which the US State Department report speaks to ‘some aid workers, government officials, and security forces often commit(ing) sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking in government-run IDP camps, informal camps, and local communities… .’
The same way that the report brings tp the fore that the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and other law enforcement agencies in the country have failed to effectively coordinate with one another in curbing trafficking in persons, thus leaving the trade to continue to expand and mushroom across the country.
We cannot overemphasise the deplorable conditions of living and existence in the country that have largely accounted for families and girls resorting to sexual trade and exchanges in order to earn money and maintain existence. This is the situation that sex traffickers are exploiting given that families and girls themselves are desperate for their services and attention.
It is the case that many girls in the country are already involved in the sex trade through online dating and apps such as Tagged and Badoo and would easily jump on the services of sex traffickers to be able to ply their trade outside of the shores of the country in the expectation of making more money in hard currency outside, but not knowing the dangers and exploitation associated with such endeavour.
Professor Ayobami Ojebode and his colleagues are, therefore, right in the conclusion of their research article that ‘if the basic needs of young Nigerians are addressed – such as scholarships for students, jobs for young graduates, and a dependable social welfare safety net -’ the pressure for the recourse to sexual trade would be lessened.
And with that would be less interest in sex work outside of the country.
It tells us that the antidote to this persistent flourishing of sexual trafficking in Nigeria would be a revamping of the economy to assure citizens of worthwhile life without having to resort to denigrating and disreputable engagements to make ends meet.
- Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan
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