Opinion
Baby Factory Affair
The recent arrest of the General Overseer of Mount Sinai Ministry located in Rumukpokwu in Rivers State, Pastor Gloria Raphael, by the police, with 18 others on suspicion of child stealing and trafficking calls for serious reflections. The arrest, according to the Rivers State Police Commissioner, was meant to “showcase some achievements recorded by the command.” In a “sting operation” carried out by the Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department, the baby-factory operators was arrested along with 16 pregnant women awaiting delivery and onward sale of their babies to waiting buyers.
It is quite commendable that the police had reached out to the overseer of Omega Power Ministry (OPM), Apostle Chibuzor Chinyere, for the care and rehabilitation of the pregnant women. To take them to court for whatever offence would be to make a ridicule of the police. Even if the women were persons of lewd character arrested in brothels, the police would hardly have a good case to present. But certainly the police have a duty to ensure that a society does not slide into a state of anarchy and impunity.
Rivers State baby factory affair is one of many such cases all over the country, except that the phenomenon is under-reported. Many years ago, a medical doctor was arrested in Enugu for running a private hospital that specialized in delivering young women of unwanted pregnancies. The medical doctor was said to be selling such babies to childless couples for a fee ranging from N20,000.00 to N25,000.00 each, depending on the gender. Twenty two pregnant women and a staff nurse were arrested then.
Secrets of baby factory operators usually blow up when some of the participants in the business chain feel short-changed. Cases of buying of unwanted babies from reluctant mothers, as well as swapping of babies in clinics are quite old and numerous. In cases where women with unwanted pregnancies are detained or the babies sold against their will, acts of criminality are involved. Similarly, procurement of abortion has legal and health implications. But there are ethical and humanitarian issues involved in baby factory affairs.
The Nigerian law allows for a legal abortion only when the health or life of a would-be mother is in jeopardy. Similarly, infanticide or the abandonment of unwanted babies by unwilling mothers constitutes an indictable offence. The Nigerian society would regard an unmarried mother as a wayward and irresponsible woman. Therefore, the dilemma of women with unwanted pregnancies can be appreciated readily, especially under current state of the Nigerian economy. Sex is a means of solace.
Many women with unwanted pregnancies have sad and pathetic stories to tell, including cases of rape and sodomy. The stigma arising from publicity forces many women with such unwanted pregnancies to seek counseling and protection by clerics, such as the General Overseer of Mount Sinai Ministry. There are cases where fathers and step-fathers are responsible for unwanted pregnancies as well as more sad and shocking stories of women who would rather keep to themselves than make public their dilemma.
From ethical and humanitarian angles of perception, is the sale of babies coming through unwanted pregnancies to willing and needy buyers a criminal offence? Rather than abortion which can be dangerous, is the action of a cleric or medical doctor in running “babies market” a high crime? Would the delivery and sale of unwanted babies not be more noble and tolerable than aborting pregnancies and abandoning babies at refuse dumps?
The Nigerian Bar Association, Nigerian Medical Association, Christian Association of Nigeria and other humanitarian bodies should kindly throw their weight into the baby factory affair. Pastor Raphael’s arrest can be looked at from various angles, one of which is the humanitarian or exigency one. Legally, the charge of child stealing and trafficking would hold little water under the prevailing Nigerian economy.
From the perspectives of hermeneutic theory, baby factory affair cannot be examined with a fixed legal answer. Also known as phenomenology, hermeneutics is the science of interpreting events based on prevailing circumstances and variables. This theory rejects any assumption that a fixed model or answer must always be applied to every situation or event. Rather, every case must be interpreted, understood or dealt with under the context and circumstances surrounding it. This issue of unwanted pregnancies and babies arising therefrom deserve more holistic approach than police arrest of baby factory operators.
Dr Amirize is a retired lecturer at the Rivers State University.
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