Why Prostitution Should Be Legalised in Nigeria

Yemi Olakitan

 Prostitution is common practice in Nigeria, especially in the major cities. A naïve young man can easily be lured by these women of easy virtues who stand on the red zones of Lagos looking for clients to patronize them. This is not to say that prostitutes target young men alone. Older, married men also patronize prostitutes in Nigeria. There is no age or status barrier. Clients come from the poor, the low, the high and the mighty. 

The practice of sex work is so commonplace in Nigeria that nearly every community has a brothel, particularly in Lagos and Abuja. Hundreds of beautiful young women can be found in the clubs and brothels selling sex. 

This is an irony because nearly everybody condemns prostitution in Nigeria. The imams, the pastors, the lecturers, the doctors, the lawyers, all condemn sex workers, yet their population is increasing.

This is despite the fact that we live in a very religious country. Nigeria has some of the largest churches in the world, the synagogue Church of all Nations, Living Faith Church, The Redeemed Christian Church of God, to mention but a few, with populations hitting five million in one church. The Muslims may not have very large churches but their population is closely following the Christian population in Nigeria. 

 If we have a very large population of religious people, the question to ask is: who are the people patronising them? If we have very religious people who lay claim to high morality, who are the clients of our equally large population of sex workers? Who patronises them? They must be patronised by ghosts!  

In the words of Mr Ayo Ogunjobi, social commentator and blogger, Nigeria must stop the hypocrisy. The government must recognise that some things are with us and deal with them accordingly so that our brothels will not be a haven for much more heinous crimes. It is an irony that a country that has anti-prostitution laws should have such high numbers of sex workers. 

Reports say prostitution began to boom in the early 1980s when street prostitution become a common sight on Allen Avenue, Ikeja, Oshodi and later Kuramo Beach in Lagos. It started slowly after Nigeria's independence in 1960. The common description of prostitution as the oldest profession in the world is really an understatement in Nigeria! The Association of Nigerian sex workers says it has about, 1,000,000 members working in different parts of the country but not all prostitutes have registered.

The question is why? Why do young, beautiful and promising Nigerian women go into prostitution? The first answer should be poverty. There is no social welfare programme in Nigeria.  The result is that they struggle to provide for themselves. Many of them, without an education or any other means of livelihood except their bodies!

We can also find an answer to this question in peer pressure. ''My friends are all doing it why shouldn't I?''

In a chat with Aisha from Benin on why she is practising prostitution. She explained,

 ‘’ I have no one to take care of me except my mother who is living in the village. Since my father died, we have been alone. If I don't do that who will take care of me? Aisha said she has a daughter and she pays her school fee from the proceeds of prostitution’’ 

The fact remains that prostitutes are very poor in Nigeria. Many are led into the profession as a result of extreme poverty. The money they make does not really deliver them from the chains of lack. They work, they earn, they spend it. Most of it on riotous living because of bad company. Alcohol and marijuana are easy to come by in the country.

 However, it has been argued that there are those who choose to practice prostitution, not because they are poor but because they love the profession. There are also those who do not spend their earnings from sex work on frivolous things but on things of value such as education, or  a small business. 

A young woman named, Precious will fall into this category, she agreed that economic factors pushed her into sex work. According to her, she later discovered that she loves sex and enjoyed satisfying her clients especially when good money is involved. The question was posed whether she will live the profession if offered a better job. She replied, ‘’a better job will not change anything, I love sex.’’

Precious is a classic example of the argument that some women willingly go into sex work not necessarily because of poverty as she clearly stated that if given a lucrative job she will continue her sex work because she loves sex.

In another story, Comfort, a full time prostitute from Eastern Nigeria, used the proceeds from sex work to get herself an education. Now, she holds a Bachelor's degree in Communications Studies and a National Certificate of Education, NCE. However, Comfort continues to work in the sex industry. When asked why? She said, she has not got another job yet but as soon as she has an alternative job, she will live the sex work. As we can see from the scenario of Comfort, she wanted an education, not having the money to pay for tuition, she becomes a sex worker. Comfort is a victim of circumstances. 

In another case, Patience from Edo state worked as a full-time sex worker in Lagos for many years. She set up a hairdressing salon from her savings. In an interview with the writer, she said, she had trained as a hairdresser in Benin but did not have the money to set herself up in business. She decided to come to Lagos to do prostitution in order to save up for her dream business. Today, she has a successful hairdressing salon. When asked whether she still wants to do sex work. She said, no. According to her, she wanted to get married and have children. 

In 1987, the Women's Center in Nigeria wrote a press release about the harassment, assault and rape of prostitute by law enforcement members. Here is another problem Prostitutes face in Nigeria. Law enforcement officer regularly harasses them for sex and money. These policemen take advantage of the law.  Prostitution is illegal in Nigeria. However, this is only in the books not in practice. As a result, policemen regularly exploit sex workers, arrest them, then demand a bribe. Most of the time, these bribes may be in cash or in kind.

The illegality of prostitution is really a problem in the sense that, unscrupulous people take advantage of it. The Federal Government should rather legalize prostitution if it cannot enforce its laws. What is the point of law in the books that have no teeth in practice?

Prostitution should be legalized, monitored and regulated. It is nearly impossible to eradicate prostitution.  Who can stop two adults who have decided to have sex? They will always find a way.

 This is the reason why it is called the oldest profession in the world. The government should rather regulate it in order to eradicate the more severe crimes of child prostitution, human trafficking, rape and extortion by law enforcement officers, armed robbery and so on. 

A sex worker who is robbed by a client cannot report the offence. Why should she report when she can be arrested and exploited by policemen?

These things are all hidden in prostitution. It will be easier for them to tackle these things when prostitution is legalized so that prostitutes can cooperate with the government in order to expose the criminals hidden among them.

Human trafficking and other offences hid behind prostitution will easily be reported by the sex workers if they are free to work straight to the police station without fear of harassment.

Another big problem is Transnational commercial sex work which started during British colonial West Africa. It began to grow into a transcontinental business in the 1980s. Starting in the mid-1980s, the trafficking of Nigerian Women to European countries such as Italy began to gain attraction, according to reports. 

Young women are usually lured into transnational sex workers by very wealthy individuals who operate variously criminal activities including organ harvesting. 

 In many of the cases, there were examples of coercion.  For example, a trafficked person  is asked to swear an oath to a juju priest. Some personal items such as bodily fluids are taken by the priests for keeping or used to administer the oath and seal the agreement. This keeps the victim in extreme phobia and mental bondage. In addition to the fact that prostitution is illegal in Nigeria.

 When the women reach the country of the destination they are immediately indebted to the trafficker for transport and lodging fees and will have to pay off the debt before they are freed, if ever. The US Department of State Office dedicated to Monitoring and Combating Trafficking in Persons ranks Nigeria as a 'Tier 2 Watch List country.

The illegal status of prostitution only sweeps the activities of the sex industry under the carpet as we have seen in Nigeria. The way forward is that government must show interest in sex work in Nigeria and protect its citizens.  

They should show an active interest in the sex workers so as to be able to cooperate with them to fish out human traffickers, drug traffickers, armed robbers and paedophiles etc. This is because brothels are the hidden places of various criminals since prostitutes can not report them for fear of harassment.

The government can also provide counselling resources and rehabilitation programs for those who are in the sex business by circumstances and not by choice. 

 There are many young women in the trade who want to get out of the profession but are trapped by circumstances beyond their control. Government can offer scholarships to those who want to go to school but do not have the means. They can provide access to health care, thereby preventing the spread of infectious diseases. 

Only by decriminalising prostitution can government do all these and many more. They can also encourage social workers to operate among prostitutes. The Nigerian government must realise that prostitutes are humans beings They are not from the moon.

(Names are changed) by Yemi Olakitan

Lockdown Experience of a Nigerian Sex Worker

A sex worker in the northern Nigerian has told the BBC how coronavirus has affected her livelihood.

 

She lives in the mainly Muslim state of Kano, which is in the fourth week of a lockdown. No-one is allowed to leave their houses, except on Mondays and Thursdays between 10:00 and 16:00 to get food.

 

And despite it being the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims have not been allowed to gather for prayers or for the iftar meal to break fast.

 

Aisha, which is not her real name, says she is struggling to survive because of the restrictions:

 

Quote Message: I’ve tried to carry on working, but it’s not possible because of the lockdown, and also because of the Ramadan period.

I’ve tried to carry on working, but it’s not possible because of the lockdown, and also because of the Ramadan period.

 

Quote Message: Almost everybody here is a Muslim, so it’s not possible because in the afternoon they are all around with their family and in the evening they want to go and break their fast with their family.

Almost everybody here is a Muslim, so it’s not possible because in the afternoon they are all around with their family and in the evening they want to go and break their fast with their family.

 

Quote Message: Most of our clients are married men, so it’s not easy for them coming out."

Most of our clients are married men, so it’s not easy for them coming out."

 

Islamic law, known as Sharia, was introduced in Kano state in 2000, and to several other areas of the north.

 

Since then prostitution, gambling and the consumption of alcohol have been banned in Kano.

 

Quote Message: In Nigeria the police are very, very active because sex work is not allowed, especially here in the north.

In Nigeria the police are very, very active because sex work is not allowed, especially here in the north.

 

Quote Message: If you are caught selling sex you can be arrested and jailed. We are in this Sharia state."

If you are caught selling sex you can be arrested and jailed. We are in this Sharia state."

 

Aisha says she has not received any form of official welfare payment during the lockdown.

 

Quote Message: In Nigeria there is no support for sex workers. None.

In Nigeria there is no support for sex workers. None.

 

Quote Message: The only support we have had is from the NSWA - that’s the Nigeria Sex Workers' Association - because they have savings put aside from what we usually make.

The only support we have had is from the NSWA - that’s the Nigeria Sex Workers' Association - because they have savings put aside from what we usually make.

 

Quote Message: So that if anything comes up we support one another. And now the NSWA has run dry, because what [money] it had, it distributed all around the state to sustain the sex workers.

So that if anything comes up we support one another. And now the NSWA has run dry, because what [money] it had, it distributed all around the state to sustain the sex workers.

 

Quote Message: I’m hoping that maybe it will get support from the government, but there’s nothing coming in.

I’m hoping that maybe it will get support from the government, but there’s nothing coming in.

 

Quote Message: We just have to look for another alternative and another means. The government doesn’t even want to know how the sex workers are doing here in Nigeria.

We just have to look for another alternative and another means. The government doesn’t even want to know how the sex workers are doing here in Nigeria.

 

Quote Message: But my funds are finished. They're gone. And I don’t have any alternative.

But my funds are finished. They're gone. And I don’t have any alternative.

 

Quote Message: I am able to pay my bills because of the support from some clients - those that care.

I am able to pay my bills because of the support from some clients - those that care.

 

Quote Message: They are maybe getting me a little food, some money.

They are maybe getting me a little food, some money.

 

Quote Message: But it’s not enough because I have to share what I have with my other sisters.

But it’s not enough because I have to share what I have with my other sisters.

 

Quote Message: So it’s not easy. And I don’t know how long this is going to be.

So it’s not easy. And I don’t know how long this is going to be.

 

Quote Message: I feel disappointed that my government hasn’t given us any support. The government is not trying at all."

I feel disappointed that my government hasn’t given us any support. The government is not trying at all."

BBC

Cameroonian Student Shares UK Lockdown Experience

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, many people were locked up in places away from home. Few had the option of returning home, whiles for others it was a case of staying put for as long as the virus remained a threat.

In the weeks that followed especially through much of March and April, governments around the world imposed lockdowns with the sole aim of containing spread of the virus as authorities find ways to better control it.

Emilia Nkengmeyi, a Cameroonian journalist was one of those who was away from home, without the option of returning home. She had been in the United Kingdom for over 6 months as of March 2020.

“I am undertaking a Masters course here in the UK. It’s a one year course so I am officially expected to finish by September,” she told Africa News via a whatsapp interview.

She shared experiences of being locked out and in a lockdown spanning how she coped with the time out, social support systems and support from her school (University of Leicester) as well as how she connected with friends and family back home.

1. How are you coping with the lockdown?

It was a bit hard in the beginning because I had to abruptly put so many things on hold. I had several assignments I was working on but couldn’t use the library and online resources couldn’t give me as much as I wanted.

Working too from home requires a lot of discipline and self-consciousness and it took me some time to adjust to all this.

2. How did you prepare for the lockdown?

Well! I am was completely unprepared for the lockdown because I really hoped things wouldn’t get this bad. But when it came I took the first two days to stock up the house.

Thank God we are allowed to use the supermarkets. I used the next few days to rearrange my program in between house chores and school work

3. How was a typical day like before the lockdown?

It’s usually a completely busy day for me. I had lectures and seminars almost everyday in a week. I would also use the school library during free hours. Sometimes I left home in the morning and only returned in the evening.

And weekends were even more busier, I would travel around visiting friends and sometimes attend parties.

4. What are your biggest fears?

My biggest fear would’ve been a complete disruption in my school program. But I am lucky the lockdown came almost at the end of course work. But I still fear, I may not be able to complete dissertation on time if this continues.

However, I have friends whose programs have completely been disrupted especially those who had to undertake internships abroad or in the UK as part of their courses. Some had very practical courses that could not be done effectively online.

5. How do you socialize in these times?

Personally, I try to attend Webinars and online trainings. We also have groups created specifically to help us pass through these trying times.

We constantly check on each other. We encourage ourselves to be more active indoors. Record ourselves doing sports and share with others and discuss topics which could help each other.

Updates on the UK lockdown situation, case file as of May 6

• March 23: PM Johnson imposes full lockdown starting 24th for three weeks
• April 16: Extension announced by acting PM Dominic Raab another three weeks
• April 30: PM Johnson announces relaxing of measures starting May 4 ahead of May 7 deadline

• Confirmed cases = 194,990
• Death toll = 29,427
• Number of tests = 1.3 million plus
• Active cases = 165,219

The UK is the world’s fourth most impacted country behind the US, Spain, Italy, according to Worldometer website

6. Are friends and family back home worried and why or why not?

Mum is particularly not worried because we talk almost every day, she knows me to be very cautious so I guess that reassures her.

But I think she would have been very worried if she wasn’t able to get through to me. Friends have been very supportive. I get series of calls and messages from loved ones and most of them feel relieved knowing that i am just fine.

7. What measures have school authorities taken to support students? How are your studies continuing amid the lockdown?

School authorities have been very supportive. All lectures and face to face teachings had been moved online 2 weeks before the official lockdown. We receive daily update from school on the virus and measures that are being put in place.

We have the support team at our disposal in case of any difficulties. And all assignment deadlines have been extended by 2 weeks. Students who cannot return to their home countries at this time and are at school accommodations are effectively being taken care of.

Authorities ensure they have access to daily needs. The semester has been officially closed but we still have access to personal tutors and some lecturers.

8. Do you think government took the right decision with a lockdown and why?

The country has been invaded by an unknown virus and no one could say for certain the extent to which we could be affected.

I think the lockdown was necessary not only to reduce the spread, but also to give authorities the time to figure out how best to handle the situation.

The Prime Minister was very reluctant to lockdown so I guess if he did at the end of the day, he had good reason to do so. It was a hard decision to take due to economic impact on the economy but am glad lives were considered a priority.

9. Are you following developments back home, what are your views on the virus management?

I try as much as I can to get daily update on the situation back home. It’s very worrying I must say. The number of cases is rising and other regions are also getting affected and I fear it may get worse.

I believe the government took an early and timely step to shutdown borders but we are not properly managing the few cases we have reason for the spread. We need more sensitization than we already have.

I see the minister of health tweeting constantly but the question is how many people use and have access to Twitter. I understand at the moment we lack technical equipment so the least we can do is go down there and sensitize the people.

But I guess this is not work for the government alone to do, we all need to join them in this fight. We can only win through collective efforts. I see some civil society organizations mobilizing their communities, providing homemade hand sanitizer and must commend them for their involvement in fighting this.

10. What is the saddest coronavirus news you have seen?

I was really hit when it was reported that close to 900 people died in a day in Italy. I have never been that terrified since the outbreak. I feared losing someone close to the virus.

source: africanews.com

Lagos Is a Country

by Eromo Egbejule Known for its traffic snarls and entrepreneurial dynamism, Lagos is a megalopolis with mega-needs.

Nigeria’s smallest state is also its most populous. The country’s top economic performer, Lagos is bursting at the seams as more people arrive in search of opportunity, creating demand for roads and electricity, amongst other things. Long seen as a bastion of the opposition, Lagos has not received the investment that it needs to grow in a well-planned way, despite the fact that it generates more tax revenue per capita than any other Nigerian state. Lagos’s population swelled to more than 20 million in 2019. This number is projected to double by 2050, and the mega-city’s problems could equally double. Babajide Sanwo-Olu of President Muhammadu Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) became governor of Lagos State in May 2019. With Lagos sorely needing solutions to combat its infrastructure problems, he unveiled the Lagos Innovation Master Plan and also announced a N250m ($685,000) tech fund for research and development in the state in December 2019. The master plan seeks to make Lagos a ‘smart’ city and to provide the foundation for the growing tech sector based in Yaba to grow. Planning priorities In his 2019 inauguration speech as Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu named transportation, power, health and education as priorities for his term. As part of its plan to increase commuter options, Sanwo-Olu’s government has announced that the first phase of the light rail network will be operational in 2021Bids for the long-touted 38km-long 4th Mainland Bridge to connect both island and mainland districts also opened in December 2019. But experts say the government still needs to take innovative approaches to addressing the major infrastructural challenges. “For example, sewage will require a decentralised approach focused on empowering the local government system […] and providing community sewers,” says the University of Lagos’s Taibat Lawanson. “Mass transit will require a more centralised approach that is private sector-led, albeit supported with government subsidies.” Transportation minister and former governor Babatunde Fashola, whose stint as power minister failed to bridge the energy deficit, initiated five independent power projects (IPPs) to boost the power supply to government establishments. A sixth, 12MW one was switched on at the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Keen to make his own mark, Akinwunmi Ambode set up the Light Up Lagos initiative, which did little to boost the state’s electricity situation. His successor has announced plans to resuscitate that initiative, beginning with a proposed partnership with Siemens and the expansion of another IPP. More IPPs could emerge, powered by Lagos’s own mini-grid using pipeline gas supply, now that it has discovered oil and gas deposits. However, despite all its predilections for grandeur, Lagos has no proper sewage, drainage or mass transit systems, triggering complications during floods and traffic surges. Unlike the Pretoria-Gauteng metro service in South Africa, there is no interstate rail connecting the metropolis with satellite towns and the city of Ibadan, 129km away. There is a running joke that a Lagosian can land in London after a six-hour flight in the same time it takes his neighbour to go across the mega-city on a Friday evening. Evictions of urban poor With tony projects like Eko Atlantic adding space to the city for the country’s richest inhabitants, Lagos’s poorer citizens argue that they are being sidelined in the city’s modernisation plans. So far, Sanwo-Olu has followed in the footsteps of his predecessors. This January, a team of naval personnel and soldiers evicted residents of the popular Tarkwa Bay beach community. It was the latest round of recurring evictions since the 1990 exercise in the shantytown of Maroko, part of what is today’s highbrow Oniru and Lekki neighbourhoods. The communities provided shelter for low-income earners grappling with survival in the absence of state housing programmes. Lagos has not had an efficient public housing policy since the Lateef Jakande administration (1979-1983).. Jakande, who was also a former housing minister, supervised the building of over 30,000 housing units, mostly low-cost estates. He also initiated a metro line project that was halted by the military government that came to power in the 1983 palace coup, headed by a certain Muhammadu Buhari. Sanwo-Olu also recently banned the use of the ubiquitous okada motorcycles and tricycles, which rose as stop-gap solutions to the endless traffic jams and dysfunctional mass transit system. This, despite public meetings with representatives of various ride-hailing start-ups. “Both the federal and Lagos state government since 1999 have governed using a business/neoliberal model, forgetting that over 60% of the population live below the poverty line,” says Taibat Lawanson, associate professor of urban regional planning and co-director of the Centre for Housing and Sustainable Development at the University of Lagos. “The only one urban planning solution that comes to mind in which both poor and middle-class Lagosians in many parts of the city have been able to benefit is the BRT [Bus Rapid Transit] system, though it has been plagued by many challenges.” “Lagos can’t become a mega-city by violently displacing the poor,” concurs Ugochukwu Ikeakor, a Lagos-based policy analyst. “Very soon Lekki will turn into Apapa [with the same chaos]. All thanks to Dangote refinery. We don’t have a rail line that works, our roads are in a terrible state. Lagos is a dysfunctional city and it’s not the fault of the urban poor.” The plans for the mega-refinery highlight the need for joined-up planning at the state level so that companies and workers both have the infrastructure they need. Since the return of democracy in 1999, Lagos has effectively been ruled by the same party – the APC, its current iteration, evolved from the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and Action Congress (AC). Ahmed Bola Tinubu, a political godfather and current APC national leader, won two terms between 1999 and 2007 before supporting a series of protégés as his successors. Babatunde Fashola, now minister of works and housing, is seen as the brightest of them all. He initiated a series of projects in a bid to keep crime low during his tenure as governor (2007-2015). One publication labelled him ‘the man who tamed Nigeria’s most lawless city’. But even he fell short in some areas: a $1.2bn, seven-line light rail project originally conceived under Tinubu in the early 2000s and initiated early in Fashola’s second term remains unfinished. Transport commissioner Frederic Oladeinde says that more alternatives are needed:“Building more roads will not solve our problems because people will continue to buy new cars; the solution to our problems is creating more options.” Cutting ribbons regardless Bureaucratic and other hurdles often stop projects from making progress. With his exit already on the cards, Akinwunmi Ambode, who had built a number of overhead bridges and intrastate access roads during his tenure (2015-2019), invited President Muhammadu Buhari to cut the ribbons for the 10-lane road to the international airport and a multi-level transport interchange just after the elections, even though both projects were still under construction. It was the president’s second visit in a year, after the commissioning of a mega bus terminal, which has scarcely been used since. Since Fashola’s exit as the state’s chief executive governance standards have slipped. Ahead of the 2015 general elections, party supporters were convinced that if both Lagos and Abuja could be held by the same ruling party for the first time since the return of democracy in 1999 it would be an alignment for accelerated development. Fashola was named infrastructure minister in Buhari’s cabinet but that has failed to translate into major projects benefiting Lagos. His gubernatorial successor Ambode’s legacy was tarnished by the spectacular fumbling of sanitation in the mega-city after awarding a multi-billion naira contract to untested company Visionscape. It was one of a list of unforgivable sins that led party elders to rally the troops around Sanwo-Olu, another Tinubu protégé, at the party’s primaries, leading to the incumbent’s defeat. Since Ambode lost the governorship primaries in 2018, Visionscape has been forgotten, replaced by the Lagos Waste Management Authority and its Private Sector Participation operators. But the mountain of filth in Lagos will take a while to clean up.

AU in Talks with Madagascar on Herbal Remedy For COVID 19

The African Union is in discussion with the Republic of Madagascar, through its embassy in Addis Ababa, with a view to obtain technical data regarding the safety and efficiency of a herbal remedy, recently announced by Madagascar for the reported prevention and treatment of COVID19.

In this regard, the AU Commissioner for Social Affairs H.E Amira ElFadil convened a meeting with the Chargé d'Affaires of the Republic of Madagascar Mr. Eric Randrianantoandro on 30th April at which it was agreed that the member state would furnish the African Union with necessary details regarding the herbal remedy.

Once furnished with the details, the Union, through the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), will review the scientific data gathered so far on the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 Organics. This review will be based on global technical and ethical norms to garner the necessary scientific evidence regarding the performance of the tonic.

These developments follow the participation of Madagascar’s President H.E. Andry Rajoelina in a teleconference Meeting of the Bureau of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government with the Chairpersons of the AU Regional Economic Communities (RECs) on 29 April 2020, in which he participated as Chairperson of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), and where he made a presentation to his peers regarding the herbal remedy.

The teleconference was convened by H.E. President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic of South Africa, and Chairperson of the African Union (AU), and had the aim of apprising the Chairpersons of the RECs about the actions and initiatives undertaken by the African Union in response to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the continent. The meeting also provided a platform for the Chairpersons of the RECs to brief the Bureau about regional measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why Nigeria Should Not Be Included In Trump's Travel Ban

By Templer Olaiya

top American journalist with CNN, Fareed Zakaria, has analysed why the recent decision of the United States government to impose immigrant visa restrictions on Nigeria “does not make sense.”

The US government had justified the restriction on the basis of national security concerns, claiming that the affected countries have gaps in their security protocols surrounding travel which exposed the US to terror threats.

A report by Zakaria on the immigrant visa ban imposed on Nigeria by the Donald Trump administration trended yesterday on social media. The presenter of a weekly programme on CNN, GPS, made a case for Nigeria, saying US authorities justified the ban with national security concerns but data available proved otherwise.

Citing CATO institute, Zakaria said four of the six countries listed in the ban – Nigeria, Myanmar, Tanzania, and Eritrea – had no records on terror-related deaths caused by foreign-born attackers between 1975 and 2017. “The argument does not really make sense”, he said.

He added that Nigerians are the most educated immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa in the US of which 59 per cent aged 25 and older have at least a bachelor’s degree, according to migration policy institute, which is nearly doubled the proportion of the Americans born in the US (33 per cent).Zakaria argued that if the government was truly worried about security from the countries, it would ban all visas, not just immigrant visas. He said the government’s decision to target only permanent visas, leaving the temporary visas, suggests something else is going on. According to him, when Trump unveiled the new immigration plan in 2019, he said he wants English speaking immigrants who could assimilate easily and give back to the country.

Zakaria said if that is what Trump wants, Nigerian immigrants who make up the largest group of Sub-Saharan Africans in the US as of 2017 “check all those boxes. They are some of the most educated immigrants in America. Nigerian immigrants tend to work high skilled jobs, 54 per cent are in largely white-collar positions in business, management, science, and the art compared to the 39 per cent of people born in the US,” he added.This, according to Zakaria’s analysis, means that Nigerian immigrants have significant spending power.

The American journalist also cited a new report by the New American Economy, which states that Nigerian immigrants in the US in 2018 made more than $14 billion and paid more than $4 billion in taxes. The report also states that Nigerian diaspora around the world sent back almost $24 billion in remittances, contributing to the Nigerian economy that is “more dynamic than many people, including Trump himself realise”.According to the journalist, the Centre for Global Development reported that Nigeria is a country where the middle-class is increasing in education and aspiration. It is also America’s second-largest trade partner and the US wants to double its investments and trading in Africa.

President Donald Trump had some weeks ago extended the country’s controversial travel ban list to impose visa restrictions on six more countries. Nigeria, which happens to be the largest economy in Africa and the most populous nation on the continent, was included in the list. While the Trump administration included Nigeria on the travel ban list to keep America safe from terrorists, CNN report concluded that the decision was not smart.

Source: The Guardian Newspaper, Lagos

Survivors of Human Trafficking Speaks

As 16-year-old Miriam* stepped out of her tent to fetch water near the Madinatu Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp in Nigeria's northeastern Borno state in January last year, a middle-aged woman she knew as "Aunty Kiki" approached her.

She asked Miriam if she was interested in moving to the city of Enugu to work as a housemaid for a monthly salary. 

Miriam, who is now 17, wasted no time in accepting the offer and began to prepare for her trip to the east the following day.

She told her 17-year-old cousin, Roda*, about it and advised her to approach Aunty Kiki.

When Roda, who is now 18, met Aunty Kiki the next morning, she asked if there was a job for her, too. The woman quickly agreed, so Roda packed her bags.

We were both very excited to travel to Enugu," Miriam says. "We had suffered so much for four years and were happy to go somewhere new to start a new life."

Both girls, who used to live in the same compound in Bama, fled the northeastern Nigerian town in 2017 when Boko Haram stormed the area, burning down houses and kidnapping women and children.

Miriam and Roda fled, leaving other members of their family behind. They do not know what happened to them. 

The two girls trekked for several days to reach Madinatu, where they remained for nearly two years before their trip to Enugu in southeastern Nigeria.

In Madinatu, Miriam and Roda lived together in a small bamboo tent inside the camp that houses more than 5,000 people who, like them, had fled Boko Haram.

Life was tough in the camp. Food was in short supply and IDPs had to beg on the streets of the nearby town to be able to get enough to eat.

So the girls jumped at the chance of paid jobs in Enugu. 

They did not have time to tell anyone they were going.

First, they travelled with Aunty Kiki to Maiduguri.

Then a 12-hour journey to Abuja followed. They spent the night there in the home of a woman who knew Aunty Kiki. 

The next day, after a nine-hour journey, they reached Enugu.

Aunty Kiki took them to a compound where she handed them over to an elderly woman she called "Mma" and told the girls to do whatever the woman asked of them.

"The compound had two flats of three bedrooms each, filled with young girls, some of them pregnant," says Miriam. "Aunty Kiki said it was where we'd be working."

At first, the girls thought their jobs were to clean the compound and do household chores as Aunty Kiki had led them to believe. Their new employers, however, had other ideas.

A daily torture

"Mma asked that we stay alone in separate rooms for that first night," Miriam explains. "We were surprised because the other girls in the compound were sharing rooms, some of which had four people in them."

Late that night, according to Miriam, a man walked into her room, ordered her to take off her clothes, held her hands tightly, and raped her.

The same thing happened to Roda, but her rapist was much more brutal.

"When I tried to scream, he covered my mouth and gave me a dirty slap," Roda says. "If he saw tears in my eyes, he slapped me even more."

The next day, the girls were moved to shared rooms with others, only being sent to single rooms when they were required to "work".

Both girls say they were raped almost daily by several different men. 

They believe that Mma and Aunty Kiki work together in the same trafficking cartel and that Mma is the leader of the group.

All they could make out for sure, however, was that the two women communicated with each other and the men in Igbo, the language spoken in southeastern Nigeria.

Giving birth

Within a month, they were both pregnant. But still, they were raped.

"It doesn't matter whether you are six weeks or six months pregnant," says Roda. "If any of the men wants you, you can't say no."

It was pointless trying to escape, they explain, because the compound was guarded by men with guns.

Around a dozen girls were living in the compound when Miriam and Roda first arrived. But the number would change as the girls gave birth and were sent away, before new girls were brought in to produce more children for the cartel.

Miriam gave birth to a baby boy in the compound, with the assistance of a midwife who was called in from outside. But her son was taken from her.

Three days later, she was blindfolded and taken to a bus station where her traffickers made sure she boarded a vehicle back to the north.

"They didn't want me to know the way to the compound, that's why they covered my face," she explains. "I was given 20,000 naira (about $55) to assist in my transportation to my destination."

She first went to Abuja where she spent a night on the street before boarding a commercial vehicle back to Maiduguri.

'Boys are more expensive'

Miriam does not know how much her baby was sold for.

"Some traffickers let their victims leave after giving birth because they believe if girls stay for too long, they could develop a plan to expose the trade," explains Abang Robert, public relations head of Caprecon Development and Peace Initiative, an NGO focused on rehabilitating victims of human trafficking in Nigeria. "They are scared of sabotage."

Baby factories are more common in the southeastern part of Nigeria, where security operatives have carried out several raids, including an operation last year when 19 pregnant girls and four children were rescued.

Women and girls are held captive to deliver babies who are then sold illegally to adoptive parents, forced into child labour, trafficked into prostitution or, as several reports suggest, ritually killed. 

"Boys are more expensive than girls in the baby sale business," says Comfort Agboko, head of the southeastern arm of Nigeria's anti-trafficking agency, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), at her office in Enugu.

"Male children are often sold for between 700,000 naira (about $2,000) to one million naira (about $2,700) while female babies are sold for between 500,000 naira (about $1,350) and 700,000 naira."

The majority of the buyers are couples who have been unable to conceive.

Although anyone caught buying, selling or otherwise dealing in the procurement of children can be prosecuted, the baby trade remains prevalent in Enugu.

'Orphanages'

In recent years, security officials have carried out several undercover operations targeting suspected baby trafficking cartels whose operations the Enugu state government said are aided by some security agencies and unscrupulous state officials.

To avoid suspicion in the local community, baby factories are often presented as orphanages, experts explain.

"Baby factory operators hide under the 'canopy' of orphanages," says Agboko. She believes people receiving babies from them either do not know or do not care that they are not really orphans.

NAPTIP has arrested and prosecuted a number of people involved in the sale of babies in the southeast in recent years, Agboko explains. There are currently around half a dozen cases going through the court system.

"We are now working in collaboration with the association of orphanage homes operators in the entire southeast to identify, arrest and prosecute such people," she adds.

There is no official data to show how many babies are bought and sold each year in Nigeria, nor the number of girls exploited by human traffickers.  The United Nations estimates, however, that "about 750,000 to one million persons are trafficked annually in Nigeria and that over 75 percent of those trafficked are trafficked across the states, 23 percent are trafficked within states, while 2 percent are trafficked outside the country."

Human trafficking 'widespread'

Like Miriam, Roda was also discarded after she gave birth to a boy.

The cousins were reunited in Madinatu, where they are now living together in a small mud house, not far from the camp they were trafficked from.

"Luckily, we got to Madinatu on the same day," says Miriam, who spent weeks on the streets of Abuja, before she was able to make her way back to the northeast. 

"We thought it was no longer safe to stay in the camp, so talked to the man who owns this place to let us stay here."

To earn money, the girls now make and sell groundnut cakes at a mini kiosk just outside their compound.

They were not the first to be trafficked from the Madinatu camp. There have been many reports of girls being trafficked from the camp to cities in Nigeria and to countries including Italy, Libya, Niger and Saudi Arabia. The victims are often promised good jobs only to end up being exploited or enslaved.

Although widespread in Madinatu, the problem of human trafficking is not peculiar to this area alone. It is common across the entire northeast region.

The 2019 United States Department of State Trafficking in Persons report revealed that: "Sexual exploitation, including sex trafficking of IDPs (internationally displaced persons) in camps, settlements, and host communities around Maiduguri remained a pervasive problem." The report also notes that some security officials are complicit in these activities.

NAPTIP says it is aware of high numbers of cases of human trafficking in Madinatu and is increasing efforts to address the issue in the IDP camp in particular.

"The office has now increased surveillance in the IDP camp," Mikita Ali, head of the NAPTIP office covering the northeast region, says. "We are working with camp managers and camp officials to whom we've given our toll-free numbers and told to call us if they suspect any case of human trafficking."

'Easy to exploit'

Inside the Madinatu camp, however, residents remain worried about the number of cases. Community leaders say the lack of adequate amenities like potable water facilities and cooking stoves means that people have to walk long distances in search of water and firewood, making them vulnerable to the human traffickers who prey on them. 

"If we had easy access to water and firewood, there'd be little talk of human trafficking," says Mohammed Lawan Tuba, a community leader in Madinatu. "Criminals take advantage of our children when they go out to find what they need to keep them and their families alive."

Human rights campaigners are running "sensitisation campaigns" which aim to educate displaced persons about the dangers of human trafficking and how to spot the signs of it inside the IDP camp. 

But Yusuf Chiroma, head of the Borno Community Coalition, a group of aid workers assisting survivors of the Boko Haram insurgency through skills acquisition programmes, says: "Displaced persons in Madinatu are really struggling to survive, as they are not getting enough food supply from the government and that is why it is easy for traffickers to exploit those who are desperate for jobs."

"Sensitisation programmes have to be matched with adequate security and availability of food and social services by the state government to effectively tackle human trafficking."

*Names have been changed

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA NEWS