Editorial
Checking The Baby Factory Problem
There is a growing concern over the
adoption and institutionalisation of
cultures, habits and lifestyles that are completely alien to the African continent. On this list are issues such as same-sex marriage, surrogate motherhood, drug addiction and armed banditry among minors which years ago were read of as tales from other lands, and condemned with passion.
Today, most of these are gradually becoming acceptable norms. Infact, if not for the firm resolve of Nigeria’s National Assembly to outlaw same-sex marriage, it would have been norm. This was in spite of pressures from foreign lands to do otherwise, under the veiled pursuit of human rights.
Unfortunately, the scourge of baby factories are now a growing menace which seems bent on re-defining our socio-cultural disposition to normal marriage and child birth. Despised by Africans as sinful, surrogate motherhood is now being replicated in even more dangerous dimensions.
A recent security report alerted unsuspecting Rivers people of the discovery of yet another baby factory at Igwuruta, Ikwerre Local Government of the State, where, young women are allegedly quarantined, impregnated, and made to bear children that are later sold to needy members of the society.
This discovery by the State Police Command was made after similar factories were smashed in the South-Eastern part of the country. Apparently, with material benefit as key consideration, the scourge seems to increase across the country and at such frightening levels that should cause concern.
There are indeed indications that once dislodged, the operators of such baby factories quickly regroup and resume at another destination. This is perhaps why Igwuruta became host to the despicable baby factory scourge.
Sadly, these baby factories operate in communities where, fellow residents cannot claim ignorance of their activities. Another is the kind of patronage they enjoy among childless adults who never stop for once, to consider the health, social-cultural and mental repercussions to society and the participants.
In fact, due largely by the criminal nature of the trade, the gullible young mothers are subjected to crude health hazards, reduced to sub-humans as slaves and years later are prone to mental degeneration. Some products of such criminal trade even end-up becoming a threat to their buyers.
These being strange times when, “Children” Kill their parents for no justifiable reason other than hate-filled, vengeful and destructive mental drive, the general public needs to be careful in condoning the existence and patronage of such baby factories. This is because, apart from those who genuinely need babies on account of childlessness, several others patronise such factories to buy babies for ritual purposes.
Unfortunately, unlike licensed orphanages where, legal adoptions are followed by proper knowledge of the background and bio-data of the adopters’, baby factories consider only the immediate financial rewards.
This is why it is worrisome to learn that even some orphanages have joined in the baby trade and abandoned known ethics that once governed their operations. These call for a closer monitoring of orphanages across the State and country to closely assess the procedures for approval to adopt babies.
While, we commend the Police expose’, as most timely, we think that this is also the right time for the appropriate institutions to legislate on the issue and spell out stiffer penalty for defaulters. We expect also that Child Rights activists will join the campaign against baby factories, to make the right impact, and in such a manner that the public would be properly sensitised on the dangers of the trade.
Rivers people must together resolve to abolish the abominable trade and save our heritage and future, because such criminal ventures are not only alien to our culture, they form part of stories often told from other lands at which the people often cringed.
There are moments in the life of a legislature when plain speaking becomes a public service. Senator Adams Oshiomhole provided such a moment on the floor of the Senate when he accused the Minister of Works, Senator David Umahi, of manifestly neglecting critical federal arteries in Edo and Delta States, and implored his colleagues to prevail on the Minister to adopt a more equitable and genuinely national approach to road infrastructure delivery. It was blunt, it was uncomfortable, and it was necessary.
The specifics of his complaint deserve restating. Drawing attention to the recent approval of some 20 new road projects despite the parlous state of existing ones, the former Edo State governor lamented that Nigerians cannot travel from Benin to Warri, Benin to Asaba, Benin to Auchi, or Auchi to Okene without encountering severe distress. He alleged a deliberate omission of these corridors from the national budget in the last three years, save for palliative interventions directed by President Bola Tinubu through tax credit arrangements. His question — “What have we done wrong?” — resonates far beyond the chambers of the National Assembly.
We lend our full and unequivocal support to that call. The Auchi-Benin Road, for instance, has been in a deplorable and near-impassable condition for several years, turning what should be a two-hour journey into an all-day ordeal of broken axles, extortionate fares, and despondent commuters. The media have, on multiple occasions, chronicled the suffering of motorists, traders, and students who ply that route. To describe it as a federal road today is to stretch the meaning of the term beyond recognition.
This pattern of sidelining is not confined to Edo or Delta. Even here in Rivers State, the disposition of the Federal Ministry of Works has left much to be desired, particularly along the Eleme axis of the East-West Road. That road, which ought to be a flagship of federal presence in the Niger Delta, has remained in a wretched state for long. Those who use it daily — workers at the Eleme Petrochemical Complex, the two refineries, Onne Port, and the countless ancillary industries — can attest to its deterioration. Work has proceeded in fits and starts without the sustained urgency such a strategic road demands.
The Eleme stretch is not a mere intra-state byway. It is the gateway to the nation’s economic jugular. According to the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing’s 2023 Highway Condition Survey, only about 35 per cent of the country’s 36,000 kilometres of federal roads are rated as being in good or fair condition, with the remainder classified as poor or very poor. The East-West Road, conceived in the 1970s to bind the entire Niger Delta, remains unfinished in critical sections more than four decades after. If it had been treated as a priority, the perennial gridlock, carnage, and economic loss on the Eleme-Refinery junction would have long been consigned to history.
The irony is as painful as it is glaring. The Niger Delta remains the goose that lays the golden eggs. Data from the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative [NEITI 2023 Oil and Gas Audit] show that the region still accounts for over 78 per cent of Nigeria’s federally collected export earnings and about 65 per cent of total government revenue. The National Bureau of Statistics [NBS Foreign Trade Report Q4 2024] similarly confirms that crude oil continues to dominate export receipts. By every metric of equity and economic logic, a region that sustains the national purse deserves first-rate consideration in the allocation of infrastructure, not afterthoughts and tokenism.
Road infrastructure is not largesse to be dispensed by favour; it is the skeleton upon which commerce, cohesion, and citizenship hang. When contracts are concentrated in one geopolitical zone while other zones are left to contend with craters, it erodes trust in the federation itself. The World Bank’s Nigeria Development Update [June 2023] estimated that poor transport connectivity inflates the cost of moving goods by up to 40 per cent and costs the Nigerian economy an estimated $1.5 billion annually in lost man-hours and vehicle maintenance. If we profess to be one country, then equity must be the compass that guides key institutions before any project is executed. Development must spread round, not pool in one place as though other regions do not matter.
There is also a grave security dimension that can no longer be ignored. The deplorable condition of federal roads has become a veritable enabler of criminality. The NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Survey reported over 2.5 million incidents of kidnapping-related occurrences nationally, with transport workers identifying bad road spots as prime ambush points. When vehicles are forced to crawl at 10 kilometres per hour through failed sections at Auchi, Sapele Road, or Eleme, they become sitting ducks for armed gangs. Fixing bad roads, therefore, is not merely about convenience; it is about safeguarding lives.
By his intervention, Senator Oshiomhole has hit the nail on the head and reminded Minister Umahi of a fundamental constitutional truth: public office is held in trust. The Ministry of Works is not a personal estate where contracts are awarded according to whim or political convenience. It is a national institution funded by the collective resources of Nigerians, including the oil and gas rents from the very communities whose roads are now neglected. The Minister must demonstrate balance, transparency, and a pan-Nigerian outlook in the distribution of projects that impact the daily existence of citizens. Selective neglect breeds suspicion, and suspicion is corrosive at a time when the nation is preaching unity, oneness, equity, and justice.
Consequently, the National Assembly must go beyond rhetoric and assert its oversight powers with vigour. Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution [as amended] empower the legislature to investigate and expose any maladministration in the execution of federal projects. If an office holder is not acting rightly, it is the duty of the Senate and the House of Representatives to call him to order. Oversight must not be reduced to budget approval ceremonies; it must translate to field verification, public hearings, and insistence that the Federal Character principle, as enshrined in Section 14(3) of the Constitution, reflects in road awards.
Let the Auchi-Okene, Benin-Warri, Benin-Asaba, and Eleme East-West gangways be restored to motorable dignity. Let priority be given to completing existing, economically vital roads before embarking on new ones. If those who, through their resources, sustain the federation are sidelined in the distribution of tangible dividends, it tells poorly of our nationhood. Bad roads must be fixed, and they must be fixed now, with fairness as the guiding standard.
