‘We need family, community efforts in tackling trafficking in persons’

In what ways do you think trafficking in persons particularly women and girls can be tackled in the country?When you talk about trafficking in Nigeria, it brings to the fore  the root causes of trafficking and how we can deal with the push and pull factors. Trafficking is also migration gone wrong because people are so […]

In what ways do you think trafficking in persons particularly women and girls can be tackled in the country?
When you talk about trafficking in Nigeria, it brings to the fore  the root causes of trafficking and how we can deal with the push and pull factors.
 Trafficking is also migration gone wrong because people are so desperate to leave Nigeria for survival and livelihood sustainability, and they get tricked by smugglers and people who take undue advantage of them.
The root causes are huge youth unemployment, growing poverty, gender discrimination, gender violence, inequality, and .social and political exclusion. Also the insurgency we have in Nigeria has caused a lot of displacement and the IDPs are vulnerable to trafficking.There are cases of people being trafficked from IDP camps.
As a UN Special Rapporteur, I travelled to over a 130 countries around the world. And there is no country that I have been to that I have not seen a trafficked Nigerian. That is why this is a big issue.
Like when I travelled to Uruguay in 2010 and met the case of some Nigerians who stow away on a ship apparently thinking they were going to the United States and when they were discovered, they were thrown overboard and they were drifting when helicopters were sent to rescue them. You find Nigerians even in the remotest of places.
There is no country I have been to on a UN Mission that I didn’t  find Nigerians, Spain, Morocco, Poland, Japan, Australia, Bahamas, Belize, among others and it is so sad. Sometimes they turn the meeting to the trafficking problem of Nigerians and I find myself dealing with these issues around the world.
When I went to Italy in 2013, in one Italian city I found over 3000 Nigerian girls trafficked for sexual exploitation, walking on the streets as sex slaves and being exploited by mafians and these mafians are Nigerians not foreigners. This was documented by the United nations television that followed me on the mission for two weeks as I transverse the entire Italy from Naples to Milan, to Rome among others. It was strictly full of Nigerians and I consulted with the embassy they too were thoroughly overwhelmed by the problem.
Even though we have a huge population can that explain why we are losing our youth in droves.  I met a Nigerian girl who lost both her brothers while trying to cross from Libya and she was the only one who made it alive.
When I went to Italy both the men and women were shouting ‘they want to send us back to Nigeria. Where do they want me to go? To go back to Nigeria and become an armed robber? A kidnapper ? Ok send me back and I will go and do them. So it is hopelessness. People who have lost hope in their country, marginalized and have no sustainable livelihood in Nigeria.
That is why they become vulnerable to trafficking. We have to stem the tide of human trafficking in Nigeria. NAPTIP is doing a lot of work but I don’t think they have enough resources. Nigerian needs special attention on trafficking.
I  went for a meeting in Brussels and  every single country of the European Union was complaining of Nigeria. This was even before this insurgency of Boko Haram came. We have been looking for the Chibok girls, it is possible that some of them may have been trafficked.
So what do you think can be done to discourage the menace of human trafficking?
We have to empower the youth. We must find jobs for them. We must stop gender discrimination, stem the tide of violence that we see, they kind of violence that leads to this hopelessness.
We must pay attention to education. It is part of what can afford people the opportunity for sustainable livelihood, for decent living , and basic social security.
These days we find people just having paper certificates, finish secondary schools and cannot even write their names. Let us go back to artisan work. We can get them to have the skills ,  come out of secondary and tertiary institutions and have something they can do on their own.
It is really a shame to trade in human beings and traffickers are huge making profit out of it.
I cite NAPTIP as an example all over the world. It is true Nigeria still has this problem but  NAPTIP  is a best example of how trafficking should be combated it is just overwhelmed by the huge problem.
The borders are so porous. Trafficking within West Africa is huge and worse than that to Europe. Some of the girls I interviewed are being sold for 50 naira in Mali and countries around us. They were deceived that  they were going to Europe and one common denominator is that all of these people lack capacity and are not very educated.
Families are also involved. People are trafficked by relatives and people who know them. We need community effort in combating trafficking.
When I got to Palermo in 2013 seven Nigerian girls have been murdered in Italy, and some of them were trying to escape their traffickers, and in order to send a strong message that they can’t run away, they killed them.
We have to stem the tide of trafficking, input more budget into fighting it and have a new framework for fighting it. The fight must not be left alone for NAPTIP. The government must show political will.
It is a national security issue. We must look at it as part of transnational organized crime. We must put attention into prevention of trafficking and protection of rights of victims of trafficking. Ensure that they get effective remedies and get reintegrated to have jobs and not be vulnerable to being trafficked.
The punishment also should be effective and dissuasive. It will take inter-agency coordination in Nigeria and international cooperation to curb the impunity of human trafficking but then government should give it priority.
How can we increase the number of women in elective positions from 2019 and beyond?
It is disappointing actually. We have less than 10 percent representation now. I was looking at the Mo Ibrahim report and Nigerian gender index  lags behind more than 40 Africa countries. Women political representation is recurrently decimal and we need to do something urgently.
A democracy that is not engendered is indeed in danger. We have to carry women along. Women‘s voices need to be heard. That is why it is stipulated in the African Protocol and CEDAW all of which Nigeria has domesticated and ratified. But implementation is the problem. We also have the National Gender Policy which prescribes 35 percent affirmative action in elective and appointive positions.
Now that we have failed in elective positions. In the short term the president should give women 35 percent affirmative action in appointive positions.
For 2019 and beyond we must adopt a law that will allow for proportional representation in line with Justice Uwais Electoral reform report that recommended proportional representation. Because Nigerian politics is highly monetized.
We also have a lot to do on internal party democracy. It is during the primaries that many women loose, so parties should have a guideline and framework in line with the National Gender Policy. Most party constitution have provisions for affirmative action but they don’t implement it at all even in the organ and structures of the party.
I am also disappointed in  the states where the appointment of commissioners has not met 35 percent affirmative action. We have women intellectuals, entrepreneurs those with track record and experience among others we are not lacking in qualification at all. We should also have legislative framework for affirmative action and we need to start working from now for 2019.
We also have to deemphasize money politics.
The Violence Against Persons Prohibition Bill (VAP) was recently passed into law, what is your advise on ensuring adequate implementation?
I congratulate our former president Goodluck Jonathan and our champions in the National Assembly for passing it into law like Senator Ndoma Egba, Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu, Senator Eta , Senator Helen Esuene,  Abike Dabiri among others.
We have beautiful laws but after some time they become dead laws in the statute books. Since the law is limited to the Federal Capital Territory, we need to set example by implementing it in the FCT. We need to ensure that other states adopt the law too. The law is gender sensitive and also protects men.
We need to create awareness on the law not just government but civil society organizations. International organizations should also support them to break and abridge the law and also translate it into local languages so that it can be reader friendly.
We also need to engage law enforcement officers  and women should be made to know where to go when battered and abused. Judiciary workers should also be trained on it.
Can you give women tips on combining home and career?
I have developed the resilience for being a mother and a career woman. Internationally and nationally I have done a lot of professional work and even as a scholar and activist it is not easy. At every point in time I have juggled about four jobs, and this gave me the knowledge and to develop the resilience.
My advise to every young woman is  to educate herself. I don’t just mean paper certificate, you need to build that knowledge, read widely, follow current affairs. They should read soft sell magazines and also listen to hard news.
The problem we have is that our reading culture is poor. When you have knowledge anywhere in the world you can address people. Women should also not be discouraged entering into any profession. You can be a mechanic, driver, professor of medicine anything. Because some people will say you are a woman don’t go for such profession. Don’t let anyone limit you.
You should aspire high and not just I am a woman and I want to get married. It is interesting to get married but your first priority should be to get educated.
I will also advise Nigerians to give to charity especially the rich. We need more people to provide service for widows, orphans and the less privileged. The level of poverty in the country is high. My organization WACOL has given over 2000 women and girls  free legal aid.