Are you one of those Nigerians
deceived into believing that our Nigerian women are as affluent and comfortable
as their male counterparts? Are you confused to reach this hasty conclusion
because of media celebration of some few influential women holding very
promising and prominent prime positions in some bluechip companies in the
private sector? Do you feel that Nigerian women are pretty affluent because of
the prominent roles some of them play in the much celebrated movie industry
known as Nollywood? Or perhaps you are carried away to believe that Nigerian
women are much more politically powerful than their men counterparts because of
the ubiquitous role taken upon herself by the wife of President Good Luck
Jonathan who has maintained the tradition of running an elaborate office of the
first lady of the federal republic of Nigeria that is not backed up by any
subsisting law or statute? Is the mainstream roles that some wives of the 36
state Governors play in their respective spheres of political influences beclouding
your objective sense of judgment on the current financial status of the
majority of Nigerian women?
Well, if you find yourself as a
professed believer in one or all of the categories of the aforementioned
interrogatories, then just watch me demolish the foundation of your mistaken
belief.
First, have you ever taken the pain
to drive round some suburban areas in most major centers or capital cities of
the 36 states of the federation and the Federal capital territory and indeed
taken time to visit the various trading stalls or markets that are scattered
around these not-so-well planned places? If yes, then you must have noticed
that the majority of the people that engage in petty trading in some dangerous
parts of these badly built markets are either women or children of school age.
Worst still, if you take a careful
study of the women that engage in these petty business of selling/hawking wares
such as 'pure' water, bread and other consumables/edibles, most of them
are also seen backing their little babies and are seen moving around in the
terribly blazing sun and are most times mercilessly beaten by the rains.
Then if you depart the urban centers
and move down to the different hamlets, villages and local council areas across
the length and breadth of the country the clear majority of the workforce in
the farms are women and younger children even as the women constitute the
majority of the persons that run the rural market stalls in their resilient
effort to keep body and soul together and to keep the economy of their
different family units growing. Do you also know that majority of women and
younger girls engaged in the illicit and dangerous sex trade or prostitution in
the different red light districts of the Nigerian capital cities and towns are
forced into this disgraceful venture by poverty and other economic
deprivations? Do you know that majority of the students of tertiary
institutions who go into prostitution while in school do so because they have
no financial support base either from their families or even religious
bodies?
Without sounding immodest or
derogatory, the fact is that the color of poverty in Nigeria is found indelibly
in most of our women and children and several questions have been asked why
women in Nigeria just like their counterparts in sub-Saharan African nations
are so poor and much poorer than their male counterparts. One off the curf or
rather straight forward answer to the basic interrogation of why
Nigerian women are so poor is that we live in a largely patrilineal
society whereby tradition recognizes the male gender as the dominant and
leading figures in all sectors of our daily life. Truth as this is, there are
more to it than meets the eye.
While attending the United Nations
congress on crime in Thailand in 2005 as part of the Federal Government of
Nigeria's official delegation, one topic that dominated critical discussion at
the different fora I participated was basically the disturbing cases of
how some dangerous barons run the organizational system of the trafficking of
minors and women from Nigeria to the developed European countries for sexual
exploitation and prostitution. Trafficking in women from Nigeria for me is the
modern day slave trade which reminds me that all those who celebrate and
pop champagne thinking that the era of slave trade was gone forever are indeed
making the worst mistake of their lives.
The internationally reputable
television conglomerate-Cable News Network recently aired very
comprehensive and brilliant documentaries from different parts of the World
including Nigeria which covered the criminal activities of the
dangerous international network of traffickers in women and minors
for sexual exploitations from the less developed societies to the more
developed parts of the Western World including the United States of America and
some European countries like Italy, Spain and The Netherlands. Interestingly,
the producers of the documentaries aptly titled 'Freedom Project', do also acknowledged
the universal fact that trafficking in women for sexual exploitation has indeed
become the modern day slave trade.
The United Nations
International Crime and Justice Research Institute was so concerned about
the emerging trend of trafficking in Nigerian women and minors for sexual
exploitations that in the year 2004 it commissioned a study titled
'Trafficking of Nigerian Girls to Italy' which turned out as a
591-page scholarly book that meticulously captured the different ramifications
of the criminal activities of these dare devil traffickers of Nigerian minors
and women for sexual exploitation otherwise known as the new slave trade. The
researchers found out that poverty among the Nigerian women was the root cause
of the booming dangerous crime of trafficking in women and minors for sexual exploitation
in Europe. The researchers also found out that one of the most interesting
aspects of the organization dedicated to the traffic of Nigerian women for
sexual exploitation is its capacity to appear as 'low profile', to avoid
spectacular exploits and work in silence. This apparent low profile in reality
is a very compact and well structured network, in the considered findings of
these international researchers from the United Nations. The researchers
stumbled on the reality that; "the Nigerian criminality dedicated to the
traffic of women for sexual exploitation is characterized by a network
structure with ramifications not only on Italian territory and the country of
origin, but also in many European and extra- European countries". Such is
the notorious international dimension of the systematic exploitation of
our women and minors which come about by the unprecedented poverty that afflict
the greater majority of our women and girls.
The United Nation views trafficking
in Nigerian minors and women for sexual exploitation as a huge social
phenomenon that is spreading across every region around the World. The United
Nation also scientifically gave the historical foundation of this dangerous
criminality thus; "Trafficking in Nigerian minors and women into Italy for
prostitution started around the second half of the 1980s, following the
economic difficulties caused by the Structural Adjustment Programme[Aghatise,
2002]. They started leaving the Country on promises of fantastic and well
paying jobs in Europe, in factories, offices and farms. They arrived in Italy
only to find themselves sold into SEXUAL SLAVERY. They were forced to engage in
prostitution".
Ironically, the man at
the center of the introduction of this anti-people policy during his
rule as a military head of state- General Ibrahim Badamasi
Babangida[rtd] sought to win political power through the ballots in 2011
and the critical component of his developmental blueprint that he prepared for
implementation if he had gone ahead to win the 2011 Presidential election would
have addressed the criticism that the Structural Adjustment Programme blamed
for the exodus of most of our minors and younger Nigerian women for sexual
exploitation in Europe. In his blueprint adopted by his campaign office just
before he was forced to withdraw from the Presidential primary race by members
of his Northern regional political bloc led by Adamu Ciroma, was
aptly titled 'Together we shall build a great and prosperous Nigerian
nation'. General Babangida promised a pro-women policy that would have
aggressively empowered the Nigerian women to regain a place of pride in the
economy of the country. His words; "Nigerian women are the bulwark and
mothers of society. Gender equality is therefore essential for sustainable development
and societal prosperity. Gender friendly policies shall therefore occupy a
central place in our developmental agenda. My administration shall be committed
to creating a Nigeria that places equal value on men, women, girls and
boys". Anyway, General Babangida never got the opportunity to right the
wrong of his structural adjustment programme which adversely impoverished
majority of Nigerian women and pushed many of them into sexual trade for
survival. He [Babangida] may never get that opportunity since he has
been forced by old age to quit the active political stage.
On its part, the Nigerian Government
had in 2003 established the National anti-trafficking in persons Agency
[NAPTIP] with the thematic mandate of battling the scourge of trafficking in
Nigerian minors and younger women for sexual exploitation in Europe and other
developed societies. If truth be told, this office is severely constrained by
funding challenge because the Federal Government has failed to show adequate
commitment to fight the menace of this modern day slave trade. There is the
serious factor of political interference in the staffing and operational
activities of this anti-trafficking in persons agency [NAPTIP] so much so that
the Federal Government treats the office as a place whereby jobs for the boys
can be created for political expediency and patronage. If Nigeria is to get it
right, then the anti-trafficking in persons agency must be adequately funded
and the Government of the day must respect the security of tenure of the key
staff running the place so that they can bring to bear their wealth of
experiences in waging successful war against trafficking in Nigerian minors and
younger girls which debases our value system and impoverishes the Nigerian
women.
Back to the question earlier
asked on why Nigerian women are so poor, it is the belief of some researchers
that women are not sufficiently represented in the formal sector
employment. In a yet to be launched research work conducted by the Nigeria's
office of the British Council, the researchers found out that there are three
key livelihood issues faced by Nigerian women namely; challenge with access to
land; restrictions in formal employment and access to finance and taxation.
It is my considered opinion that the
Nigerian Government must deliberately implement measures and policies to immediately
and comprehensively demolish all the institutional and
traditional barriers to formal employment for Nigerian women. The Federal
Government must come clean regarding the enforcement first and foremost through
effective legislative domestication in all segments of the Nigerian society of
the United Nations convention Against all discriminatory Practices against the
Women [CEDAW] which Nigeria voluntarily signed on to since it was introduced as
far back as 1979. The Convention on the elimination of all forms of
Discrimination against Women [CEDAW] defines discrimination against women as
"...any distinction, exclusion or restriction made on the basis of sex
which has the effect or purpose of impairing or nullifying the recognition,
enjoyment or exercise by women, irrespective of their marital status, on a
basis of equality of men and women, of human rights and fundamental
freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, civil or any other
field."
But I ask, why are Nigerian women
discriminated against in matters of ownership of land titles and why are women
facing certain insidious institutional and traditional constraints in finding
certain category of jobs in the formal sector? Why does the larger society see
it as a political anathema for women to rise to occupy some male dominated
offices like that of state Governors and that of the Presidency of
Nigeria? Why do we still hold on to these and many other primitive anti-women
practices even when chapter four of the constitution of Nigeria of 1999 as
amended outlaws any form of discrimination of any citizen on the basis of
gender?
In 2006, the United Nations Children
Fund [UNICEF] found out that where women were excluded from family decisions,
Children risked being under-nourished. The United Nations also found out that
equality between men and women is essential to lowering poverty and improving
health, especially of children, in developing countries. This truth as found
out by United Nation is a sacred fact because the reason why there are over
twenty million children of school age out of school in Nigeria is because of
the systematic economic deprivation that most Nigerian women face on daily
basis. This evil trend must stop and all the state houses of assembly in the 36
states of this country must pass legislation for the enforcement of child
rights and should outlaw all traditional practices that deny women equality
with their men counterparts especially in the area of land ownership and
inheritance practices. Political leaders must embrace the new thinking that any
nation that educate the women are indeed putting in place effective mechanism
for the rapid educational and economic empowerment of our women and children.
Our women must be liberated from the unfortunate and unwholesome medieval
practices that deliberately deprive them of all the economic and educational
opportunities that are available for the asking in our dear
fatherland/motherland Nigeria.
+
Emmanuel Onwubiko is head, Human Rights Writers' Association of Nigeria,
and writes from www.huriwa.blogspot.com.
30/4/2012
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