Nigerians are naturally creative. Forget their indiscipline, Nigerians are punctilious people. Nigerians “love good life” and they have high survival instincts. Nigerians like to sugarcoat things too. They give fancy names to odd jobs in order to show class or have an upscale feel. Hence, tailors and seamstresses are proudly called “fashion designers” and “costumiers”. Barbers are called “hair dressers” who work in “barbing salons” and spas.
Nigeria can easily pass for a huge comedy scene. Palace jesters and clowns have been restyled “stand-up comedians” who now live posh lives from huge amounts of money they are paid. While erstwhile drinking bars or “beer parlours” are now called “executive lounges”, edible staple foods like Akara, Moi Moi, fried, cooked or porridge Yam, Agidi, Puff Puff and Chin chin (all made from flour) are now packaged as “snacks” and sold in “take away packs” in “fast food” joints. Naija no dey carry last!
Nigerians also have ways of making odd things to look psychedelic, mind-blowing or hallucinogenic. Condemnable anti-social behaviour like prostitution is disingenuously christened “hook up” or “runs”. Adulterers are called “sugar daddy” and “sugar mummy”.
Crime of obtaining by false pretences is code named “419”, “Yahoo Yahoo”. The parlance for heinous offences of kidnapping and ritual killings is “Yahoo plus”. Millions of youths without visible means of employment or livelihood or even delinquent adults engaged in internet fraud proudly claim to be on the “street “or employed in the “Hustle Kingdom (HK)”.
Leaving the country in droves has acquired a fancy name called “Japa” which is a Yoruba language word meaning “to run away”. Excruciating economic hardship and living conditions in Nigeria have made many frustrated youths and even professionals to run away from the country of their birth in search of greener pastures in other nations of the world.
As a result and sadly, some of these Nigerian immigrants have ended up being victims of human trafficking while many others not so lucky have either died, lost their limbs or freedom while taking flight from the country of their birth. Nigeria, we hail thee!
This outing is to enlighten or educate the public about the dangers of trafficking and to forewarn that many people are at risk of being trafficked because of “hook up” or “Japa” syndrome. A person and particularly those on “Japa mission” or “hook up” or “runs” adventure within or outside the shores of the country are liable or susceptible to be trafficked without their knowing it.
In chapter 2 of the book, Obiaraeri, N. O., STILL ON HUMAN RIGHTS, (Owerri, Nigeria, Global Press Ltd, 2012) 50-83, the topic “TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS AND VICTIM PROTECTION IN NIGERIA” was extensively discussed. Among other things, it was documented that the scourge of trafficking in persons or human trafficking is a crime against humanity and a big affront to human rights.
In section 82 of the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015 applicable in Nigeria, “traffic or trafficking in person” means “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, the abuse of power of a position of vulnerability or the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person or debt bondage for the purpose of placing or holding the person whether for or not in involuntary servitude (domestic, sexual or reproductive) in forced or bonded labour, or in slavery-like conditions, the removal of organs or generally for exploitative purposes.”
Apart from human trafficking assuming the form of involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and forced labour, two major forms of human trafficking identified in the Trafficking in Persons Report, 2011 include Sex Trafficking and Child Sex trafficking.
Sex trafficking is said to have happened when an adult is coerced, forced, or deceived into prostitution – or maintained in prostitution through coercion – that person is a victim of trafficking. All of those involved in recruiting, transporting, harboring, receiving, or obtaining the person for that purpose have committed a trafficking crime. Sex trafficking also can occur within debt bondage, as women and girls are forced to continue in prostitution through the use of unlawful ―debt‖ purportedly incurred through their transportation, recruitment, or even their crude sale which exploiters insist they must pay off before they can be free.
It is critical to understand that a person‘s initial consent to participate in prostitution is not legally determinative: if they are thereafter held in service through psychological manipulation or physical force, they are trafficking victims and should receive benefits outlined in the Palermo Protocol and applicable domestic laws.
On the other hand, according to the UNICEF, as many as two million children are subjected to prostitution in the global commercial sex trade. International covenants and protocols obligate criminalisation of the commercial sexual exploitation of children. The use of children in the commercial sex trade is prohibited under the United Nation‘s Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children otherwise called the Palermo Protocol and in the Nigerian legal system. Sex trafficking has devastating consequences for minors, including long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and possible death.
The point being made is that not all that glitters is gold. Citizens desiring to leave the country or those who embark on rural to urban migration must ascertain clearly that they are not being hoodwinked into being trafficked and as such liable to Debt Bondage among migrant labourers and involuntary domestic servitude variants of human trafficking.
Needless to say that many Nigerians are being tricked into being trafficked because of promise of brighter future overseas. The very recent case of young girls from Imo State trafficked to Ghana for prostitution is an eloquent testimony that sex trafficking is a major challenge to human rights. While the prompt effort of Imo State Government in rescuing the trafficked girls back to Nigeria is highly commended, it remains to be said that the trafficker must be brought to justice to serve as a deterrent to other traffickers.
Consent is no defence to human trafficking. Under the relevant laws on human trafficking, people may be trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude or were transported to the exploitative situation, whether they once consented to work for a trafficker, or whether they participated in a crime as a direct result of being trafficked.
Trafficked persons or victims are entitled to care giving; counseling, rehabilitating and reintegration. Victim protection will require that they are not subjected to undue media publicity. The victims are entitled to claim and recover damages in compensation from their traffickers.
This recent trafficking case and other such cases should be reported to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (otherwise called “NAPTIP”) which was established and empowered by law to be a trafficker‘s nightmare. NAPTIP came into existence in 2003 following the passage of Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Enforcement and Administration Act, 2003. That law has since been repealed and now replaced by Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition), Enforcement and Administration Act, 2015. In a nutshell, the law prohibits child labour, forced labour, trafficking in slaves, pornography, drug trafficking, and forced or compulsory recruitment into armed conflict. It also provides a legal framework for the protection of the rights of victims of trafficking, protects the identity of victims and their right to press charges against traffickers, as well as provides access to health and social services.
What are the major reasons that conduce to citizens being trafficked or vulnerable to being trafficked, including young girls being sexually exploited? A direct answer will be proffered after assimilating the provisions of section 17(3)f) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended which enacts clearly that the Nigerian State shall direct its policy towards ensuring that children; young persons and the aged are protected against any exploitation whatsoever and against moral and material neglect.
Without holding brief for delinquents and the criminally minded, the failure, refusal or neglect of government (federal, State and Local Government) to direct her policies to achieve the fundamental objectives and directive principles of State policy robustly espoused throughout the gamut of Chapter 2 and particularly the social objectives in section 17 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended is, in the main, responsible for “japa syndrome” and or “hook up” mission rampant in the country.
Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 as amended is emphatic that the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of Government.
Good governance is the most durable way to increase the effectiveness of eradication of trafficking in persons including strands of national disgrace psychedelically called “Japa syndrome”, “brain drain”, “hook up or runs”, “yahoo yahoo” and “yahoo plus”.
A new normal is possible!
🖋️
Prof Obiaraeri, N.O.
OBLONG MEDIA UNLIMITED 
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