By Lateef
Ibirogba
The world faces the scourge of human trafficking which traumatizes the existence of man and threatens global development. A 2004 US State Department’s data reveals that more than 800,000 women and children are trafficked yearly across the world. Similarly, United Nations (UN) statistics indicates that 4million human beings are trafficked globally and domestically on a yearly basis.
Women and children account for 80% of cases of human trafficking. It has reached such a widespread level that the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime was adopted by the UN General Assembly resolution 55/25 of 15th November, 2000, as the main international instrument in the fight against transnational organized crime. Nigeria and other nations are signatories to this UN Conventions and other Protocols such as Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). These Conventions guarantee right to liberty of movement and freedom to choose one`s residence, right to a decent work, right to freedom from slavery, right against torture and /or submission to other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
The UN depicts human trafficking as the conscription, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercive methods, of abduction, of fraud of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
In-spite of available domestic and global legal instruments, human trafficking has remained a profitable venture which conventionally rakes in huge earnings of about $10 billion annually. Like it is with drug trafficking, our nation is highly ranked in the business of human trafficking, serving as origination, transition and destination points. At the moment, many Nigerian women and girls are being ferried abroad under various pretexts only to end up as prostitutes, domestic servants, slaves and destitute. Not only is Nigeria a major base for human trafficking to Europe, America and Asia, it is also an intermediary point for some West Africa countries such as Benin Republic, Togo, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Mali among others. Within the country, the bulk of household servants are under aged children recruited from such States as of Akwa Ibom, Cross Rivers, Ebonyi, Kano and Kaduna.
To truly deal with the scourge in Nigeria, Federal Government needs to put up a data base that provides universal details and methodical examination of human trafficking cases in the country. It is only in doing this that we can really evolve a structure for the precise breakdown that is required in limiting the current trend of human trafficking in the country. Likewise, government ought to wield sufficient political will to execute human trafficking laws in such a way that discourages the usual custom of sacred cows in the country. Equally, there is a serious need for the law to be strengthened in order to avoid being unduly exploited by the high and the mighty.
Governments across the country need to execute policies that will ensure that the vulnerable in the society are not in any way manipulated by the powerful people. This is why it is vital that all levels of government in the country evolve programmes that would economically empower different categories of Nigerians, especially those that are more likely to be victims of human trafficking.
Aside this, every agency involved in policing the nation’s international and local borders need to be re-oriented and efficiently empowered to perform this onerous and sacred duty. It has been claimed, in some quarters, that the porous nature of our borders is partly responsible for the current state of insecurity in the country. This must be addressed. Considering its nature as the commercial nerve centre of Nigeria, and indeed West Africa, Lagos, without doubt, has its own experience of this inhuman business. However, in its characteristic systematic approach to issues, the State Government has evolved an holistic strategy to tackle this menace headlong. For one, it has put in place several empowerment schemes for different categories of
Lagosians in order to forestall the idle hands syndrome. There are several skill acquisition centres across the state where women and children could acquire useful skills that would make them become economically independent and therefore, less susceptible to exploitation.
To say human trafficking is criminal is begging the issue because it is dehumanizing, it is evil. It is man’s inhumanity against man and thus, requires a louder voice against it and a more concerted effort to stop it. It is utterly confounding and shows an absolute lack of conscience that anyone could consider trading in fellow human beings as a means of livelihood. We must, therefore, not subject our world to a second form of slavery as a famous American actor, D’Andre Lampkin once said, because to look away and pretend that it is a small problem, is to encourage the perpetrators to be more vicious in this heinous act. God bless Nigeria.
Ibirogba is the Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy.
