THAT the Nigerian society has become virtually dysfunctional is a saddening reality that requires no rigorous verification. And Nigeria and Nigerians are the victims of this manifest dysfunctionality: the former by reason of its continually sullied image and the latter by their gravely ebbing or deteriorating welfare. For instance, the country has been labelled the poverty capital of the world, a sobriquet that the average Nigerian will readily admit is a fitting and proper description judging by the difficulty of daily living in the land. It is so bad that routine activities that citizens used to undertake by and for themselves now require governmental intervention to execute. And to compound the issue, there has been a rapid breakdown of moral values which has, in turn, thrown up persons of low standards of character and conduct. It is, therefore, not surprising that stories abound of unscrupulous persons committing all manners of criminality that put a question mark on the soundness of their minds. Thus, the conduct of a couple recently apprehended by the Anambra State police command for alleged trafficking of a month-old baby from Lagos simply exemplifies the frightening level of moral decadence in the country.
Judging by the amount of money allegedly paid for the baby, its mother must be a victim of both poverty and diminishing moral values. That a mother could acquiesce to permanently separate from and sell her one-month-old baby for N30,000 or any amount at all is, to say the least, mindless. And it must have been a poor quality decision made without the benefit of a thorough thought process executed by someone in her proper frame of mind. And the couple who bought a month-old baby who naturally requires the physical presence of his/her mother to feed properly is either ignorant or does not care a hoot about the survival of the child. For instance, the suspected human traffickers were busted because a co-passenger reportedly alerted the police when he observed that the baby was crying and the supposed mother could not breastfeed it. And that, in itself, adds another layer to the suspicion about the real motivation for the child’s purchase.
It is gladdening to note that both the office of the citizen and the police played roles that are worthy of commendation in this case. The citizen reported the suspicious activity to the police and the latter responded swiftly. The state Commissioner of Police (CP), Aderemi Adeoye, also did well by thanking the public-spirited citizen who gave the information that led to the rescue of the child. Adeoye also commended the police officers for their vigilance and dedication to duty. The CP also directed that the couple be handed over to the National Agency for Prohibition in Trafficking of Persons (NAPTIP) for further investigation and prosecution while the baby has been placed in care of the Ministry of Women Affairs. The CP did the appropriate thing in the circumstance. We urge that this case be thoroughly investigated because trading in babies is a grave crime that debases society by dressing it in apparel of incivility. This must be reined in.
There was an imprimatur of poverty around the illegal transaction leading to the exchange of the one-month-old baby. Specifically, the incident is reflective of the apparent lack that motivated the mother of the baby to enter into the deplorable transaction in the first place. And that also mirrors the misery and adverse conditions that many a Nigerian is going through under government policies that tend to exacerbate the impoverishment of citizens rather than alleviating their suffering. And the official responses have been less than apposite: they do not seek to change the undignified, base existence of the people but rather seek to profit from it through the propaganda of palliatives and transport rebates. The latter was introduced recently by the Federal Government, ostensibly to lessen the burden of the cost of interstate transportation on citizens during the festive season. The preponderance of people needing the government to do what they used to do for and by themselves ought to inform the government that the challenge is much deeper than the general state of lack being experienced by many in the land. Imagine a couple confessing to having bought off a new-born from its parents for N30,000! What has life become in the country? What kind of pervasive indignity and lack of wellbeing would make parents to sell off their own child just like that?
It may be convenient to sermonise that poverty does not excuse criminality and, to be sure, we still subscribe to that assertion. But it also has to be recognised that there is a limit to human suffering before insanity takes over. The level of poverty in the country is making many Nigerians insane. They need palliatives to eat and feed themselves, and transportation rebates to be able to move around. This is an abnormal situation and it is little wonder that it is provoking unusual behaviour among citizens, especially those that have a weak moral fibre.
Truth be told, it does not reflect well on even the government itself that its citizens are unable to attend to ordinary issues of everyday existence without its provision of palliatives. It goes without saying that no country wants to be where Nigeria is today as the poverty capital of the world. And it is trite that a strong nexus exists between poverty and acts of criminality. Indeed, there is a unidirectional flow between misery and crime. We expect the government to get to the root of the current case and ensure appropriate punishment for both the sellers and buyers involved. However, it is imperative to stress that a more potent and an enduring solution to inappropriate conduct by citizens lies largely in the government working assiduously to ease the current level of pervasive poverty and cost of living crisis in the country. It must stem a significant disposing factor to meaningless living and associated insane behaviour, including trafficking in human persons, especially children.
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