By Ephraim Sarki Arumse
Recently, national dailies in the country have been awash with stories of pregnant teenage girls being abducted under the guise of rendering humanitarian services to them by some scrupulous Nigerians who claim to be running orphanage homes.
“I wonder why and how the captors of these baby-making factories entice young women into their dens. What would these girls must have tell their parents about their shady absenteeism from their presence?” This quotation is from Miss Folake Omowumi of Women of Substance Initiative, Ibadan.
Today, the whole world is in trouble largely because of discoveries and knowledge especially in developed and developing countries. Although the problems differ from country to country and from coast to coast.
It may affect male and female, young and old, but the reality in the media is not always the reality on ground. Women are mostly affected by any of societal and environmental issues (especially those that have direct impacts on them.
In recent times, there have been several reports on baby-making factories in the country.
It was previously known to be gaining momentum in South East Nigeria. But today, the “Black market maternity business” seems to be spreading to every nooks and crannies of the country like bush burning during harmattan – a sign of breakdown of law and order!
Experts suggest that a lot of places where people called “clinics” are sometimes used as covers for the operators of baby-making factories.
A lot of causing organism have been highlighted through research on the spot assessment after the discovery in Abia State capital, Umuahia where the owner buys a baby boy for N100,000 and a baby girl for N80,000, which she sells to her clients for various purposes known or unknown).
According to a police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeymi while speaking to AFP said: “Following intelligence report, we discovered and stormed on Friday a baby factory in Akute district of Ogun state.
“The girls confessed that each newborn child will be sold for N300,000 ($1,800/1,300 Euro)”, he said.
The Guardian newspaper in Lagos published on its front page Saturday a picture of the eight girls, showing their protruding bellies. The Akute discovery was the first known case, and has added to about 125 the number of girls the police have rescued since 2011 in baby-making factories most of which were located in the South East Nigeria, where human trafficking business seems to be booming.
If there is a time to put to an end modern slavery in Nigeria in order to save the future generations from impending doom and gnashing of teeth, there is no better time than now. “I won’t sell my baby even for a million naira, says 17 year old Blessing from Akwa Ibom State (The Nation Newspaper, Friday 4, April 2014)”, one of the rescued inmates of the Akute baby-making factory where she was released alongside eight others for the purpose of breeding babies for commercial gains by their captors.
Now, for whatsoever reason, it is high time the society frowned at it and condemn in its totality to save the future generations.
The government should tell the world its position generally on human trafficking in its entire facet by enacting laws forbidding this heinous practice. And religious bodies should preach to their followers on the need to fear God and adhered strictly to the two Holy Books.
The Nigerian Medical Council should on its own part put its house in order and punish any erring medical practitioner through its disciplinary committee.
The community should alert security operatives when they suspect any foul play in their neighbourhood, while parents on their own should give their wards adequate home training, monitor their activities both in and outside the home. Get to know the kind of friends they keep and if possibly get to know the friends parents or guardians home.
Parents should know that as the custodian of these children, God would one day ask them how far they trained them; therefore, they should desist from sending their female children especially to friends, acquaintances and long distance relatives as house-helps under the guise of poverty as these people could turn them to sex slaves.
Above all, our mothers should indeed be mothers; they should always be on their knees praying for their children not to enter into wrong hands so as not to experiment with sex early in life.
Arumse is a 400L student of Mass Communication, University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri