Needless to say, the reality of child abuse and prostitution is an apodictic phenomenon in Nigeria, as in many developing and developed countries. This development has become an agonising threat, with multiple correlated implications, in addition to denying the fundamental rights and dignity of children as acknowledged in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The attention this incident draws is based on the awareness of the prominence of children in families and societies as future generations and leaders of tomorrow. And as potential standard-bearers of any nation, they need to be properly cared for and nurtured, thereby providing an enabling environment for them to develop their potential to take on such great responsibilities.
Child prostitution has devastating consequences for children individually and society as a whole. Undermining these consequences can lead to serious and far-reaching problems, not only for individuals but for society as well. To address the threat, law enforcement agents have been conducting raids on brothels and residences across the country to apprehend those involved in the dastardly act.
For example, the police in Lagos State emancipated 24 ladies including a 13-year-old who were trafficked from Akwa Ibom State for prostitution. Four members of the syndicate that brought the girls, most of them from Oron in Akwa Ibom, were also arrested. The trafficked girls were rescued in shanties used as hotels around an abattoir area at Agege. Preliminary investigations revealed that the traffickers charged men N2,000 to sleep with the girls who were then given N5,000 at the end of the month.
Furthermore, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) arrested eight underaged girls in Benin, the Edo State capital, for allegedly contravening section 17 of the Agency’s Act. The arrest was made by the Benin Zonal Command of the agency, comprising Edo and Delta States. The arrest of the underaged girls followed a raid on two brothels in the Aduwawa axis of the state.
Similarly, the Rivers State Police Command recently said its operatives rescued three underaged girls and arrested three male suspects during a raid on a brothel at Azikiwe Street, Mile Two, Diobu, Port Harcourt, the state capital. Policemen from Rumuolumeni alerted the Azikiwe Police Division following a complaint from a relative of one of the underaged girls, who was compelled into prostitution. The list is endless.
Nigeria has numerous underaged girls living and making a living in the streets. This has been attributed to economic factors and exposure to all forms of risks. The result is the proliferation of prostitution among young people, with its attendant problems. The causes of child prostitution in the country are largely economic, sociological, and socioeconomic factors. The effects of prostitution are psychological reactions, psychosocial damage, and political implications, which dent the nation’s image.
NAPTIP recently lamented that about 60 per cent of the female sex hawkers in Italy were Nigerians. It described the situation as not only pathetic but “highly unacceptable.” In other words, there is no question about whether the population of Nigerian girls who are engaged in sex hawking in the European country is sizeable because it is indeed significantly so. This is awful and constitutes a monumental national embarrassment.
By the agency’s disclosure, it is evident that many of the federal and state governments’ intervention schemes to curb underage prostitution have been largely ineffective and inadequate. Many wives of the heads of subnational governments are also known to have pet projects whose objectives are partly woven around the curtailment of this menace, but those projects too have failed to achieve the desired results. This is disconcerting.
Many young Nigerians are discontented, and some of them do considerable atrocious things to survive. However, while it is true that the seemingly intractable socioeconomic challenges of the country pose a veritable allurement for people to take precipitate actions to survive, there are also the issues of weak moral fabric and warped value system that make some young people and adults alike to disparage ethical, moral and sometimes legal abuttals in their quest for survival.
The questions are: how did we get to this contemptible state? How come that young girls who ought to be at school are flaunting the major streets of Abuja, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Enugu, Ibadan and other cities, hawking their half-naked bodies to any willing buyer? Why has sex become the fad among many students of our institutions? Where lies the future of these young ladies, and what can society do to protect their nobility?
More irksome is the all-embracing organised sex trafficking, even within the country. Many young Nigerian girls are being trafficked from one state of the federation to the other just for sex. Recent research conducted by Sympathy Worldwide Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) fighting sex slavery and child trafficking, reveals that several young girls are being trafficked from the hinterland to the cities but as the promises of their “do-gooders” fail, the girls take to the streets to use the same means to help themselves.
We call on the government at all levels, anti-prostitution NGOs, parents, churches, mosques, the police and all relevant stakeholders to take concrete steps to end prostitution which is still a crime in our law. People trading in prostitution or keeping brothels should be prosecuted, while men patronising, defiling or seducing our young girls should be brought to justice. The relevant authorities should also intensify their spirited campaigns against the illicit act.
Since poverty and unemployment are the major causes of prostitution, our governing authorities should stop paying lip service to these deprivations. The family institution needs to be re-invigorated. If parents were at home performing their parental obligations, their daughters would probably not have taken to the streets. Nigeria possesses an enviable rich cultural and religious heritage which includes living a chaste life and respect for the body and soul.
We have ascertained that neighbourhood and peer influence, weak financial, emotional and spiritual support, and molestation experience are some causes of child prostitution. We all must deploy strategies to massively generate awareness of the consequences of engaging in multiple sexual acts among the girl-child. This will help dishearten potential child prostitutes in the country.