Tag: Nigeria

That there is crisis of instability in Nigeria is not news. In the south, we are afflicted by the militancy in the Niger Delta which in spite of the so called amnesty and payment of bribes to criminals has continued unabated. Foreign and local oil men are still routinely kidnapped and policemen are regularly killed. In spite of the presence of solders, the creeks of the Niger Delta are still not safe for anybody. The South-eastern states seem to have perfected the practice of kidnapping which they borrowed from the Niger Delta. It has become a cottage industry in many parts of the South-east. It is so bad in the South-east that many of their important leaders are fleeing into Lagos and Abuja where there is relative security.

Unfortunately for them and for us, these kidnappers have followed them particularly to Lagos and the South-west where they are freely operating and recruiting into their ranks the local hoi poloi. Criminal gangs are now operating in Lagos and as far north as Kaduna in this nefarious kidnapping business. We have written so much about Boko Haram that there is nothing new to write again. One only hopes that there will soon be a turnaround in the case of insecurity in the North. But once again, I must confess that I sincerely believe that the cause of insecurity in the North is the pervasive poverty there. This poverty is accentuated by the rampant corruption of political leaders in Nigeria generally and in the North in particular. The cultural practice where rich people feed poor people exposes the transparent inequality in that part of Nigeria. However with education and enlightenment, poor people are beginning to ask questions as to why their commonwealth is not common. In order to overcome the problem of Boko Haram, the federal government, state governments and the local government up North will have to embark on massive creation of jobs, massive infrastructural provision of water and electricity and massive investment in mechanized agriculture. Without this, the problem will remain intractable. What I have suggested for the North must also be done for the whole country if we are trying to prevent rebellion arising from poverty enveloping the whole country.

The news that distressed me most in recent times is not about Boko Haram, kidnapping or militancy in the Delta while these are serious problems, the one that wins the victor ludorum is the reported baby factory in Umuaka Njaba council area of Imo State. Even though this crime does not seem new in the area, it has now assumed international dimension because it has gone globally viral. The story is that a lady built a huge compound where she harbours about 26 girls ranging from 14years to 25years of age. She locked them up in her compound and apparently lured a young man of 20years old to sleep with the 26 girls until they became pregnant. There must have been an element of coercion and force on the girls to surrender themselves. When these pregnant girls had babies, they were paid N60,000 for male child and N30,000 naira for female child. While the children were then sold by the Madam to her apparently waiting clients, the cycle of getting pregnant will begin all over again as if she was breeding dogs. The closest thing like this that I have come in contact with in my reading was what used to happen in the 17th century on the Caribbean island of Barbuda where the English will take strong black slave men and strong black slave women to breed and produce what they thought will be strong children particularly male to use as black overseers of plantation slaves. What was regarded as a crime against humanity is happening before our very own eyes in Imo state of Nigeria.

This story dehumanizes us and reduces our humanity as far as I am concerned and makes us a laughing stock in the international community. It is as bad as when some people kill hunch backs and albinos for money rituals in some parts of Africa. This case should be taken with utmost seriousness and the leaders of the community where it happened should be asked to say something about this abomination before it spreads to other parts of Nigeria. There is evidence of official collusion by Imo state’s Ministry of Women and Child Affairs in this terrible trade.

It is the same poverty that is the cause of Boko Haram movement that makes young girls victims of kidnapping and induction into baby factories. Obviously the Madam who is in charge of this is not poor because she runs a maternity as well as a pure water making factory in front of the house while the back of the house is the baby factory. This lady should be arrested immediately and an example of her should be made through life sentencing or execution as the case may be. If we do not do this, others will embrace this practice or learn from it in order to build their own baby factory. This should not be left in the hands of police alone. The government of Imo State must say something and do something and the government of other states where this practice may have spread should better watch out. A nation where everything goes, where nothing is too fantastic and unbelievable to happen, is not a good nation. The blood of the innocent has been shed too much on our land and we need to pray to God as a nation to forgive us and we need to cry in unison, God have mercy.