Amongst the many socio-economic afflictions of Nigeria of the 21st century, is the menace of trafficking in children by persons who have since made child trafficking and trafficking of persons billions' dollars business franchise.
The problem became a hydra-headed situation and indeed a social monster so much so that Nigerian state had to take actions to check the menace by setting up the anti human trafficking agency known as NAPTIP.
This agency was set up by one of Nigeria's most hard-working President's in the person of General Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Obasanjo (the retired military General and one time military ruler). Obasanjo was said to have bought the idea from the wife of his Vice President Mrs. Titi Atiku Abubakar who had already set up a successful private sector driven Non-Governmental Organisation with parallel mandates.
NAPTIP was immediately kick-started and within few months of its operation with the right calibre of leadership drawn from the federal mi istry of Justice, achieved momentous milestones just as the consciousness and awareness about the ills of human and child trafficking became mainstreamed in media reports just as millions of Nigerians became very much interested in seeing to the end of this crime which incidentally is a global criminal network.
Over the years, successive governments made the teething error or intentional mistake of appointing round pegs in square holes or rather, politicians hijacked NAPTIP and made it a place to settle their political loyalists just as all kinds of persons without the faintest idea on how to combat the problems of human and child trafficking which has become deeply entrenched in Nigeria, took over the leadership of NAPTIP and messed it up.
The current government is also part of the institutional and credibility crisis because of nepotism and failure to respect merits and competence in making the appointment of the Director General of NAPTIP.
NAPTIP is therefore a ghost of its old self and is almost dysfunctional. But the crimes of child trafficking is a crime that offends our national psyche and sensibilities. This is why we have to clamour for a total reorganisation of NAPTIP, Strengthening the agency by way of legal frameworks and then equipping it with the required sufficient resources and manpower especially the merit-based hierarchy to drive the process of waging the determined war against child trafficking to a logical conclusion.
Good enough, states of the Federation also have legal enforcement mechanisms to combat child trafficking. But the menace is so deep that it is strategic for the federal government to work in synergy with the states to more strategically battle this scourge of child trafficking and seek to eradicate it by cutting off the head of the snake or rather arresting the barons of trafficking rings and throwing them into jail for a long time. It is not as if nothing has been done by the government but much more is expected.
For instance, the necessary legal reforms should be effected speedily by both the National Assembly and the houses of assembly of the states of the Federation.
As aforementioned, a major incident of child trafficking was recorded recently in Adamawa State which was successfully redressed and the victims freed.
Specifically, the Adamawa State Government has successfully rescued 14 children who were victims of a human trafficking ring and reunited them with their parents.
The children, between the ages of 4 and 9, were trafficked from various communities in Adamawa State to the Southeastern region of Nigeria.
The state Deputy Governor, Professor Kaletapwa George Farauta, in her speech at the handover ceremony in Yola, said the trafficker, a middle-aged woman identified as Ngozi Abdulwahab, perfected the art of trafficking minors from Adamawa State to the Southeastern region, where she sold the victims for paltry sums of ₦800,000 to ₦1.7 million per child.
The deputy governor revealed that the government received an intelligence report about missing children in July 2025 and swung into action with the cooperation of security operatives.
To put it mildly, trafficking in children is driven by the social factor of poverty amongst girls and families even as the federal government through the ministries of Women Affairs and that of Humanitarian Affairs/Poverty alleviation should be directed by the President to work as partners to more directly provide social safety nets for impoverished families who are in very numbers. The Humanitarian Affairs and poverty alleviation ministry is doing so badly because of the lack of transparency and accountability in the implementation of the programmes tailored towards alleviation of poverty affecting millions of Nigerian households. There is the urgency of the now for the opaque financial methods in the administration of the federal ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and poverty alleviation to be dismantled. That ministry has unfortunately become a cesspool of corruption with mind boggling scandals uncovered by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission but the culprits who are politically exposed persons and members of the ruling All Progressives Congress are left off the hook by the Federal government. This evil trajectory should change going by the sad scenarios of mass and absolute poverty in Nigeria. Poverty in Nigeria walks with four legs on the streets of Nigerian cities, towns and villages.
By the last count, the National Board of Statistics said over 130 million families suffer from multidimensional and absolute poverty. Besides the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, had recently lamented that 15 per cent of girls aged 15 to 19 are already mothers or pregnant.
Sulaiman-Ibrahim also lamented that over 7.3 million adolescent girls and women suffer from malnutrition, with 55 per cent affected by anaemia, conditions that can be exacerbated by poor menstrual hygiene and lack of affordable sanitary products.
The minister disclosed this in a statement released by the ministry on Wednesday.
The minister revealed the statistics by UNICEF at the end of a meeting during the validation and adoption of Nigeria’s first National Policy on Menstrual Health and Hygiene Management (MHHM).
Sulaiman-Ibrahim, who was represented by the permanent secretary in the ministry, Dr Maryam Keshinro, stated that the recent waivers on sanitary towels by President Bola Tinubu showed his sensitivity to gender and public health matters.
She explained that the meeting was held to address the challenges faced by women and girls.
The minister also described the policy as a milestone toward ensuring that menstruation does not hinder the rights, opportunities, or well-being of any woman or girl.
“Implementation will require strong collaboration across sectors, political will, and active participation from states, communities, and development partners,” she said.
She noted that women aged 15 to 49 constitute about 25 to 30 per cent of the country’s population.
She described menstruation as a normal biological process that should never be a source of shame, stigma, or economic hardship.
“It is a normal biological process that should never be a source of shame, stigma, or economic hardship. No woman should be hindered in her personal or professional development because of menstruation, and no community should sustain stigma or exclusion linked to it,” she said.
Also speaking, Acting Country Representative of Population Services International (PSI) in Nigeria, Mrs Fifi Ogbondeminu, said the event marks a milestone in addressing menstruation with dignity, empathy, and urgency.
Ogbondeminu, who was represented by the Team Lead for Menstrual Health Initiatives at PSI Nigeria, Dr Abdulhameed Adediran, described menstrual health as a human rights issue, a gender equality issue, and a development issue.
She emphasised ensuring low-cost menstrual products are available in rural and urban areas.
This is what UNICEF on 08 October 2024 said about the disturbing trend of child poverty in Nigeria.
It says that the 2018/19 monetary poverty line, indicated that 40.1% of the Nigerian population is poor, and while poverty affects all demographic groups in the population, its effects are most profound among children, who constitute an estimated 48.82% of the total population in Nigeria as of 2019.
Children are most vulnerable to experiencing poverty because unlike adults, children cannot engage in income generating activities and they mostly depend on their parents/guardians for the basic necessities of life.
In Nigeria, approximately 54% of the children are multidimensionally poor by facing at least three deprivations across seven dimensions of child rights, including nutrition, healthcare, education, water, sanitation, adequate housing, and information.
These numbers might just seem like figures to you. Still, to these children, it means malnourishment, susceptibility to diseases, being out-of-school, homelessness, being forced into child labour, sex trafficking and early child marriage, amongst many other vices.
What does poverty mean to Children?
Most times, when the word ‘poverty’ is mentioned, the first thing that comes to mind is lack of money, but for children, poverty isn’t just about having less/no money. It’s about facing challenges from the very beginning, it’s about missing out on the things they need to grow strong and healthy, it’s about being confused because they don’t have the answers, it’s about not dreaming big because opportunities seem so far off. It’s like starting a race from behind, but they haven’t even taken the first step yet.
Did you know that worldwide, the poorest children are twice as likely to die in childhood than their wealthier peers? This means that these children living in poverty have reduced life expectancy, and most of them don’t even make it to adulthood.
It is said that children are the future, but if 1 in 7 children live in poverty, what future then is being spoken of?
My prognosis is simple: allow for free, fair, transparent elections so the states of the Federation and the National government are headed by Nigerians with legitimate electoral mandates to implement impactful initiatives and projects that would promote good governance, transparent leadership, accountability as a necessary legal obligation on the part of political actors from the grassroots, the states and national government and by so doing, the critical question of child poverty which gives rise to the unprecedented rate of child trafficking would be minimised through effective/efficient and result oriented law enforcement and economic empowerment of impoverished families.
With the natural resources that Nigeria is endowed with, it is not permissible that millions of families should be left to languish in poverty just as the SECURITY, WELFARE AND WELLBEING OF NIGERIAN CHILDREN SHOULD BE PIVOTAL TO THE MODUS OPERANDI OF GOVERNMENT in all parts of Nigeria.
EMMANUEL NNADOZIE ONWUBIKO is the founder of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) and was NATIONAL COMMISSIONER OF THE NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF NIGERIA.