Economic Crises, Poverty, Unemployment, Slave Trade and Human Trafficking in Nigeria, C. 1930-2010

Cite this article: Abdulkadir, M. S. 2026. “Economic Crises, Poverty, Unemployment, Slave Trade and Human Trafficking in Nigeria, C.1930-2010”. Sokoto Journal of History Vol. 14, Iss. 01. Pp. 48-59. www.doi.org/10.36349/sokotojh.2026.v14i01.005

ECONOMIC CRISES, POVERTY, UNEMPLOYMENT, SLAVE TRADE AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN NIGERIA, C. 1930-2010

By

Mohammed Sanni Abdulkadir

Department of History, Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria

Abstract: The Nigerian economy was structurally affected by a series of economic crises beginning with the world wide great economic depression of the 1930s.The 1930s (and specifically 1929-1934) witnessed an economic crisis that led to the British abdicating their responsibilities in the provision of social services, a general thrift, drastic and structural decline in the prices of agricultural produce, poverty, unemployment and so on. The 1980s saw a glut in the global oil industry leading to a substantial fall in Nigeria’s production, export earnings and revenue. The Nigerian government responded first by introducing Austerity Measures, the Counter Trade, and later the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). The various governments responded through job-cuts, cut-backs in expenditure – all leading to urban job losses, unemployment, worsened economic climate, poverty, etc. The crude oil price again declined precipitously between July, 2008 and January, 2009; whilst Nigeria foreign reserves dropped between June, 2008 and December, 2008. The Nigerian government responded again through huge budget cuts and social spending; further worsening the already terrible economy with different ramifications. The economic crises of the 1930s, 1980s, and early 2000 have important implications on household welfare, income, poverty and consumption levels, general adjustment and struggling mechanisms, and communal survival and cohesion. A potential and sought-after strategy for coping with the crises was slave trade / human trafficking. Some of the desperate measures (adopted by some frustrated Nigerians) included stowing away in ships or taking hazardous and circuitous routes.

Introduction

 Economic crises in Nigeria, as elsewhere in the world, have a series of consequences and different ramifications. The crises of the 1930s, 1980s and early 2000 had long-term consequences on the Nigerian economy and society. The causes of the economic crises (such as America’s misjudgment and the general breakdown of the world monetary system, deflation, secular stagnation, structural disequilibria, and the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange – in the 1930s; and currently the credit crunch within the US sub-prime mortgage market) are extraneous to the main issues of Nigeria economic history. The periods witnessed decline in government revenue, curtailment in expenditure, abdication of responsibilities by government, job-cuts and job looses, drastic decline in the prices of petroleum products, agricultural products and even foodstuffs, household chronic poverty, unemployment and so on. Unlike the 1930s, the recent period has witnessed increasing integration of the world economy, increasing industrialized production (and thus unemployment), more urbanization and new global outlets for ‘frustrated’ Nigerians. The depth and severity of poverty and income in-equality worsened as from 1980. Indeed, the economic crises and the globalized world economy have continued to enrich few and uproot many. Those who are both poor and uprooted frequently seek revenge, survival mechanisms, self-esteem, fanaticism, ethnic violence, armed robbery, and of course slave trade and human trafficking.

Conceptualizing / Defining Poverty, Unemployment, Human Trafficking and Slave Trade

 Poverty can be looked at from the perspectives of lack of access to basic needs and basic goods and services like employment, nutrition, housing, water, shelter as well as to productive resources such as education and political and civil rights. In conceptualizing poverty, low income or low consumption has frequently been targeted as the key symptom (Abdulkadir, 2008:25). This is used to construct poverty income necessary to purchase the minimum necessities of life. Income, consumption, knowledge, skill, social support system or family, lack of power to be truly human, lack of the moral foundations of abundant life and material-based needs constitute indicators for defining poverty. Poverty can be absolute (lack of physical requirements for a person/household) or relative (person whose available goods and services are lower than other people) or structural (chronic) or transient (transitory/temporary) (Abdulkadir, 2004:13; Abubakar, 2003:103; Kalu, 2003:433). The chronic poor are seen as the people likely to be trapped in long duration poverty, and who suffered the most from poverty and who are therefore chronically poor with little chance of rising out of poverty. In addition, economic inequalities have increased as the income gap between the rich and the poor widened and income distribution worsened. The big challenge and threat is the gap in wealth and even health that separates rich and poor (Landes, 1999: xx).

 Unemployment can be frictional (people moving between jobs), structural (structural changes in the economy) and technological (changes or improvements in the scientific or technological methods of work) (Yesufu, 2004:215-217). In Nigeria, youth unemployment has become a very serious problem reaching a crisis situation. In the 1970s and 1980s youth unemployment appeared to be limited to school leavers alone, but now it has developed into Graduate unemployment. The proportion of unemployed graduates to the population of graduates indicates that only 5.7% of all graduates received offers of employment as at the time of completing their National Youth Service Corps, about three quarters (60% to 70%) spent 13-24 months before securing employment, about 14% well over two years (between 25 and 30 months) and now a substantial percentage several years without securing jobs (Taiwo, 2004:249).

 The trafficking of persons is a trans-national phenomenon that transcends all corners of the globe. It is the worst of human nature, where sexual and labour exploitation, profit, corruption and greed take precedence over human dignity and fairness. It involves forced, coercive and violent transportation of people across national, regional and international boundaries. Human trafficking is the worst human development outcome linked to increasing global mobility. It is a form of modern-day slavery that deprives people of their human rights and freedoms. Indeed, traditions of colonialism and capitalism have increasingly made people and products inter-changeable, thereby legitimizing the unequal treatment of people. The adopted United Nations Protocol on human trafficking held in Palermo, Italy in 2000 considers human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. This commoditization effectively creates a supply of vulnerable individuals that fall victims to trafficking. Exploitation includes, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs (Human Trafficking in Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia).

 It should be stated that human trafficking differs from people smuggling. In the latter, people voluntarily request or hire an individual, known as a smuggler, to covertly transport them from one location to another. This generally involves transportation from one country to another, where legal entry would be denied upon arrival at the international border. There may be no deception involved in the (illegal) agreement. After entry into the country and arrival at their ultimate destination, the smuggled person is usually free to find their own way.

 Traditionally, African slaves were bought to perform menial or domestic labour, to serve as wives or concubines, or to enhance the status of the slave owner. In modern times, slaves are acquired and utilized in several ways including, in granite quarries, cocoa plantations, domestic work, and tending to cattle and lived and worked in appalling conditions. In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery of ritual servitude, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine (Human Trafficking in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia). In some of Nigerian communities like the Ijaw, the Kalabari, the Itsekiri and the Efik on the coast, slaves were acquired as servants and a mark of wealth and prestige. Some of the domestic slaves were buried alive with their masters in order for them to serve him in the next world.

Structuring Economic Crises

 The 1930s witnessed a drastic fall in government revenue, with Nigeria’s gross income from all sources declining from £74 million in 1928 to £25 million in 1929 (Shenton, 1986:101). In the 1932-33 fiscal year, the gross expenditure by the central government dropped by 38%, from £6.9 million to £5 million. Between 1929 and 1939, Nigeria received only £249,333.33 under the Colonial Development Act for her population of 22 million. This was just 0.011d per person (Abdulkadir, 2004:2). Between 1929 and 1934, a dramatic deterioration and structural decline of agricultural prices for primary producers took place. For example, the Lagos price of palm kernels dropped from £21 per ton in 1929 to £14 per ton in 1930 – a fall of 33.33%; and by 66.66% to £7 in 1934. The government responded by curtailing and reducing its expenditure on capital projects especially on road construction, railway extension, and bridges which were either reduced or stopped completely. For example, in August, 1932, Nigeria’s Surplus funds were estimated at £3,736,807, yet the government proposed a cut in expenditure in order “to balance the Budget of Revenue and Recurrent Expenditure” (The Nigeria Gazette, 1932:71). Other drastic economies adopted included the reduction of salaries (mostly by 10%), retrenchment of Native Authority and company staff and agents. Wages for unskilled labor fell during 1932 from an average of 8d-9d to 4d-6d a day (Colonial Annual Report, 1932:49). Economic contradiction in the formal sector had resulted in massive loss of jobs. A typical example was on the Jos tin mine where the number of companies operating dropped by about 37.35%, from 83 in 1928 to 52 in 1931. The labor force declined by about 60.52%, from 38,000 in 1929 to less than 15,000 in 1933 (Nigerian Blue Book, 1933:34).

 The Nigerian economy in the early 1970s was structurally affected by the drought. For example, during the period 1973-74, many farmers in Northern Nigeria lost more than 50% of their farm produce and similar percentage of their livestock. In 1981, the increased supplies of petroleum from new oil fields in non-OPEC countries coupled with the successful oil conversation campaigns in the west had caused a glut in the global oil industry. This had adverse effects on Nigeria’s production and revenue. For instance, between January and August 1981, production fell from 2.1 million barrels per day (mb/d) to 700.000 mb/d – a decline of about 66.67%. The average price per barrel declined by 26% from US$40 in 1981 to US$29.6 in 1983 (Umoden, 1992:68). Nigeria’s foreign reserves equally depleted by some 80% from N5.1 billion in 1981 to N1.0 billion in 1983 (Shagari, 2001:393). Some of the results were shortages, urban job losses, deflated government expenditure and increased inflation. In response to the worsening economic conditions, the Nigerian governments from 1982 through to 2000 altered some of the basic structures of the economy and introduced more drastic measures to prune expenditures. In 1982, Austerity Measures were imposed as part of the Economic Stabilization Act. In 1984, wage freeze, ban on certain imports and the change of the color of the various denominations of the Naira were put in place. The currency issue was an attempt to demonetize notes smuggled out of the country and utilized in the ‘black’ market (Abdulkadir, 2004:13). The results were deteriorating living conditions and the retrenchment of workers. In fact, with globalization, retrenchment of state involvement in economic activity, along with polices of liberalization that foster openness of the economy, have become conditions for the integration of the Nigerian economy and the economies of other African and indeed those of developing countries into the global economy.

 The severity of the economic crisis in the mid-1980s led to the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). Indeed, a globalizing mechanism through SAP is curtailment of public expenditures, currency devaluation, liberalization of international trade and rationalization of employment levels to reduce national budget deficits. Indeed, the neo-liberal economics dictate massive cuts in social spending by the state, the streamlining of government bureaucracies via job cuts, divestitures in public enterprises and the elevation of the private sector (Nayyar, 2006:77). Under this economic theory, efficiency becomes the supreme notion of how to govern a state. This policy is intended to restrain the growth of the money supply and thereby lead to stable prices and a climate conducive for investment. In Nigeria, the case has not always been the same – constant increases in the prices of almost all commodities and basic necessities of life. Indeed, unrestricted budgetary deficits are unsustainable, as they are likely to lead to economic instability and undermining the development process.

 The rationalization of employment levels leading to massive retrenchment of workers without properly addressing the issue of alternative job possibilities had resulted in substantial unemployment and threw into the national job market many of the nation’s manpower. The massive devaluation of the national currency – the Naira had resulted in hyper and cost-push inflation resulting in the decline of real incomes of the retrenched workers. The real exchange rates indices for the Naira against the US Dollar - $, have shown that between 1980 and 2010, the value of the Naira has deteriorated by about 404.9% falling from N30.3 to US$1 in 1980 to N45.6 in 1995, ₦34.2 in 1997, ₦31.5 in 1998, ₦122.4 in 1999, and 153 in 201₦0. SAP devalued the Naira and swept the carpet off the feet of many breadwinners witnessing children dropped out of school. The massive reduction in jobs inflated further the level of unemployment. Retrenchment and the non-utilization of available labour which has resulted in high unemployment meant that the Nigerian economy is throwing away and losing out by failing to put the people to work. For example, table 1 shows the labour force participation rate – i.e. the percentage of population of all ages in labour force – in Nigeria in 1980, 1990 and 1994:

 

 

 

 

Table: 1. Labour Force Participation Rate: 1980, 1990, 1994

Year	1980	1990	1994
Female	29.7%	28.0%	14.3%
Male	53.6%	52.2%	25.6%

Source: African Development Report, 2000. Regional Integration in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press) p. 228

 In Nigeria, one of the results of devaluation was hyper-inflation. Average inflation rate over the period 1960-1969 (including the period of the Civil War) was only 3.85%. This increased to 15.81% for the period 1970-1979 and continued to rise steadily to 39.6% in 1984, 56.1 in 1988 and 57.2 in 1993, over 60% in 1994, and 72.8% in 1995 (Yesufu, 2004:417; Abdulkadir, 2004:17).

 By implication it becomes obvious that the living standards of the majority of the population have been declining drastically. The incomes of those who were able to get and maintain jobs (especially public sector employees and lower cadre of workers in private sector) have fallen below poverty line and are battling and coping with survival strategies. The economic downturn precipitated by SAP had devastating impact on the social reproduction process such that the customary capacities of the family to protect and socialize adults and even children became eroded. Economic recession was marked by domestic deregulation, the break of family units, and increased fragility and destabilization of households. These became devastating under the impact of policies of liberalization via structural adjustment (Abdulkadir, 2004:16-17; Olaniyi, 2003:4-6). Real incomes have fallen by more than 50% between 1984 and 1999 due to inflation. Per capita income has drastically declined by about 317% from over US$1,000 in 1980 to US$240 in 1997, but increased by just about 17% to US$300 in 1998. By 1999 consumer price inflation was 9.5%. By 1999 70% of the population had income less than US$1 a day, only better than Mali (73%), compared to 45% in Ghana, 13% in Pakistan and 8% in Brazil. The growth of the GDP fell drastically between 1990 and 1994 – declining from 8.2% in 1990, to 2.9% in 1992, and 1.3% in 1994.

 With globalization and Structural Adjustment Program, Nigeria has continued to witness a series of imported materials into the country, particularly from Asian countries. In 2003, government policy of liberalization resulted in the retrenchment of workers in the footwear, textile and leather industries. For example, 30,000 workers lost their jobs in footwear and leather manufacturing industry as a result of ever-increasing rate of dumping of cheaper and fairly used products from abroad. Between 2002 and 2003, the textile industry retrenched 10,000 workers as locally made products were not in demand (Abdulrahman, 2004:309; This Day Newspaper, March 28, 2003:17). As a commodity-based economy and a weak democracy, Nigeria has become an important country for Chinese imports. In 2003, only 10% of the 2,500 members of the Manufacturing Association of Nigeria (MAN) operated at a sustainable level; 30% had either collapsed totally or shut down completely; while about 60% which were able to operate were in the process of collapsing as well. In 2005 more than 80% of textile factories in Nigeria had been forced to close down and an estimated 250,000 workers were laid off as a result of Chinese imports which undercut local manufactured products. Equally, in 2005, the Nigeria Police raided and closed down three Chinese owned shopping centers in Lagos as result of illegal imported goods found in the shops. By 2006, Chinese community in the country was estimated at 100,000 (Alden, 2007/2008:52, 68, 81).

 

 Table 11 indicates incidence of poverty in Nigeria – i.e. percentage of poor people in total population - varies by region, sector, gender, age etc.

Table: 11. Incidence of Poverty in Nigeria

Factor	1980	1985	1992	1996
National	28.1	46.3	42.7	65.6
Geo-political zones
Northeast	35.6	54.9	54.0	70.1
Northwest	37.7	52.1	36.5	77.2
North Central	32.2	50.8	46.0	64.3
Southeast	12.9	30.4	41.0	53.5
Southwest	13.4	38.6	43.1	60.9
South Central	13.2	54.7	40.8	58.2
Sector
Urban	17.2	37.8	37.5	58.2
Rural	28.3	51.4	46.0	69.3
Gender of head of household
Male	29.2	47.3	45.1	66.5
Female	26.9	38.6	39.9	58.5
Size of household
1 person	2.0	7.0	29.0	13.1
2-4 people	8.8	19.3	19.3	59.3
5-9 people	30.0	50.5	51.5	74.8
10-20 people	51.0	71.3	66.1	88.5
More than 20 people	80.9	74.9	93.3	93.6
Age of head of Household
15-24	16.2	25.3	28.7	37.4
25-34	17.8	33.4	28.7	52.7
35-44	26.7	46.0	42.1	64.6
45-54	27.1	49.7	45.7	71.3

Source: NEEDS, 2005:31; Federal Office of Statistics.

 The following examples further illustrate the level of poverty in Nigeria partly occasioned by the development of globalization vis-à-vis the global economic crises. The incidence of poverty and poverty rate in Nigeria increased from 27% in 1980, to 47% in 1986, 65% in 1993, 66% in 1996, 67% in 1999 and 70% in 2002 (Jega, 2003:5; NEEDS, 2005: xiii, 28). In 1999, an estimated 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty, whilst life expectancy is mere 54 years. In 2008, 69 million Nigerians live below poverty line and 70% below poverty level (Daily Trust, 2008:14). Equally, between 1980 and 1996, the population in poverty has increased by 48.8% from 18.3 million in 1980 to 67.1% in 1996 (Ajakaiye, 2002:10). In fact, poverty in the northern states increased sharply between 1985 and 1990. For instance, in 1985, 41.27% of the states had half of their population in poverty, but by 1990 all the 19 states had over 50% poverty incidences among their population (Aliyu, 2001:1). Nigeria’s social status has remained very poor when compared with other developing countries. In 1985, 51.4% of Nigerians lived below the projected national poverty level compared to 17% in Brazil, 20% in India, 27% in Indonesia, 10% in Mexico and 32% in Togo. By 1996, it has increased to 69.8%. Also, between 1980 and 1996, the number of Nigerians who were core poor increased by 750% from four millions to thirty millions, indicating the rising poverty level in Nigeria (The Graphic, June 17, 2008:15). It was estimated in 2006 that about 43.1% of urban residents in Nigeria are poor, whilst 63.8% of rural households are poor. Also, about 87% of households in Nigeria are vulnerable to poverty. In terms of Human Development Index (HDI) of the UNDP, Nigeria’s position has declined from 142^nd out of 174 countries in 1998 to 151^st in 2002 and further to 146 in 2006 (Abdulkadir, 2004:15-16). Nigeria is now ranked as the 20^th poorest country in the world (from 12^th in 1996) with 112 per 1,000 (live births) infant mortality. Real incomes have fallen by more than 50% between 1984 and 1999 due to inflation (Abdullahi and Suleiman, 2002:138).

 The prices of the Nigerian crude oil again, declined by about 212.76% from US$147 per barrel (p/b) in July 2008 to US$47 p/b in January 2009. The government account balance thus deteriorated by 0.59% and 2.48% for the period August-December, 2008 and January-July, 2009 respectively. The simulation results of the impact of oil price decline on government income show that government income declined by 2.09% and 8.59% for the period August-December, 2008 and January-June, 2009 respectively. Equally, the sectoral contribution to growth rates of GDP in Nigeria from 2003 to 2007 indicated that crude petroleum figures fell from 6.02% in 2003 to 0.84% in 2004, 0.12% in 2005, 0.2% in 2006, and -1.08% in 2007. The contribution of the industrial sector fell from 6.12% in 2003, to 1.22% in 2004, 0.47% in 2005, -0.62% in 2006, and -0.78% in 2007. Nigeria’s external reserves also dropped from US$67 billion in June, 2008 to US$53 billion in December, 2008 (Ajakaiye and Fakiyesi, 2009:2, 7, 36-37). This was a dropped of about 20.9% in just six months. One of the effects of this shortfall was huge budget cuts and drastic decline in social spending at all tiers of government, with disastrous consequences on households.

Struggling Mechanisms and Survival Tactics

 Over the years the Nigerian government both colonial and post-colonial had introduced economic measures, reforms and initiatives (like Mixed Farming (1930s), Operation Feed the Nation, Green Revolution, Austerity Measures, Counter-Trade, SAP, Privatization and Commercialization, Pension Reforms, Health Insurance, Micro-Credit, Virtual Poverty Funds (VPFs), NEEDS, etc) aimed at improving the economic climate and Nigeria’s social security system. Despite these efforts, a larger segment of Nigerians who are poor consistently remained unprotected. The fight against hardship and poverty has continued to be characterized by knee-jack reactions. The pervading poverty and high and increasing unemployment have worsened with the retrenchment arising from the public sector reforms at different levels of government. Thus, the most noticeable result of the state of affairs was that the majority of the population found themselves without jobs and with declining living standards. Equally, retrenchment of public expenditures in particular, and the state involvement in the economy in general, have contributed to the perpetuation and exacerbation of the gross in-equalities that are widespread throughout Nigeria. Most Nigerians were consigned to unpredictable living and thus compelled to indulge in different antics and a series of vocations (including religious fanaticism, street begging, armed and highway robbery, money laundering, armed sales, embezzlement, official corruption, extra-judicial killings, famine crimes, internet fraud, banking scams, trafficking in hard drugs and human organs, trading in fake currencies, ritual killings, and of course slave trade and human (children/women) trafficking) in order to survive (Abdulkadir, 2004:16).

 It has been estimated that in 2000, one to two million people were trafficked yearly across national, regional and international boundaries. This figure rose to about 4 million in 2004. About 80% of this figure are women, 48% female minors, 2% male minors, while the substantial part of the trafficked persons are girls under the age of 18 years. The trafficked people are utilized in vocations including sexual exploitation, begging, under-paid and exploited forced labor in the agricultural, manufacturing and construction industries, domestic service and organ harvesting. Organ harvesting which is also referred to as organ laundering involves trafficking in humans for the purpose of selling their organs for money. Human trafficking appeared to be very profitable netting between US $7-10 billion annually (Poverty Paper, 2006:14; Agbu, 2003:1). The total annual revenue for trafficking in persons is estimated to be between USD$5 billion and $9 billion. The Council of Europe states, "People trafficking has reached epidemic proportions over the past decade, with a global annual market of about $42.5 billion”. The United Nations estimates nearly 2.5 million people from 127 different countries are being trafficked around the world (Human Trafficking in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia).

 Similarly, widespread, abject and increasing level of poverty, unemployment, official corruption, mismanagement of resources, lack of structural planning and meaningful adjustment and development strategies, greed, family and communal dislocation etc have been responsible for human trafficking, slave trade and prostitution in Nigeria. In the 1930s, these were localized operating in villages and towns. In the 1970s and 1980s, they took a national dimension to urban-nerve centers like Kaduna and Lagos. In the 1990s and 2000-2009/10 the commercial sex industry, human trafficking and slave trade in Nigeria have been greatly expanded and integrated, regionalized and internationalized focusing mostly towards Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea Island, Cameroon, Gabon, Guinea, Mali, Benin Republic, Libya, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands, India, Macedonia, Germany, Hong Kong, New York, Rome, Britain and France.

 In the 1930s, slave trade, child labor and human trafficking were prevalent in many places and among the poor in Nigeria. Indeed, destitute families are very often vulnerable to persuasion to hire out or sell their children because they lack adequate resources to provide for the household. Grown up women and girls appear to be more vulnerable to this type of commercial exploitation. There was also another mode of trafficking in form organized begging. In some part of northern Nigeria, female labor was drawn from women beyond child-bearing age and pastoral Fulani women. Quranic scholars and local school teachers utilized their students to mobilize labor for their farms and also food for the household. Some parents sent their children to relatives or for Quranic training as copping strategies. For example, in Kontagora, in order for some children to get enough food and to survive the harsh economic climate, their parents sold them to those who had enough food. A typical example was the Fulɓe slaver Hamman Yaji, the Emir of Madagali, who operated in the Adamawa area until 1927. He was arrested in 1927 by the British, first taken via Yola to Sokoto and then finally exiled in Kaduna, where he died of septicaemia in 1929 (Vaughan & Kirk-Greene 1995). In Olai-Ochogabale village in Oturkpo Division, young women were sold into slavery by their husbands and parents (Crocker, 1936:88). In 1930, in Plateau Province, child laborers were forcefully captured by desperate, unemployed young men who sold them to Fulani herders who utilized them to look after their flocks. In 1932, 92 persons were convicted for trafficking in children in two Districts in Plateau Province. In 1932, the Native Authority Police in Idoma Division of Benue Province intercepted three truckloads of children destined for the cocoa producing areas of western Nigeria to work on cocoa plantations or serve as domestic servants. In 1932, Abdul, Hardon (Chief of) Heipang, was convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment for engaging in slave trade. The District Head of Buji, Negedu, was convicted for engaging in slave trade. In Keleri District, 136 persons were convicted and sentenced to various prison terms with flogging for dealing in slaves. The heaviest penalty of 6 years and 24 strokes of the cane was inflicted on Polo Gona, a Fulani man. In Pankshin Division of Plateau Province, 14 persons were convicted for selling children into slavery. The Birom frequently sold their daughters to Buyi and Jawara people due to acute food shortage and money.

 Prostitution appeared to have strived during this hard time. In fact, as a result of unemployment and poverty among parents and youths, many young girls and even women became involved in prostitution. The sex industry though localized appeared to have strived due to urbanization and influx of people many of whom came to urban centers without their wives. In Bida, the ‘sexual license’ increased partly because of economic conditions, inequality in wealth and status, but mostly due to the large floating population comprising of traders, former warriors, and laborers who came to the town “without their wives and depend on prostitution for the satisfaction of their sexual appetite” (Nadel 153-154).

 The modern period has witnessed a substantial increase in the human trafficking, slave trade, child labor and prostitution involving thousands of Nigerians. For example, in 1990, in Enugu, Fulani pastoralists bought children between the ages of seven and eleven who they utilized in cattle rearing. The deportation of 26 children of Imo state and 250 children of River state origin from Gabon in December, 1991 and February, 1992 respectively indicates the regional dimension of human trafficking. 128 prospective child slaves intended to be traded abroad were liberated between March and July, 1994 in Akwa Ibom state. In May, 1995, 330 Nigerian children were again deported from Gabon. 238 child slaves were also rescued between January and February, 1997 (Olaniyi, 2005:220-221).

 Between 1994 and 1998, a substantial number of Nigerians traded as prostitutes in the sex market towns of Livirno, Torinto and Genoa in Italy. The girls paid about 516 Euro to what they called ‘madam’ (those who brokerage the trafficking business) per month to rent road-side spots where they waited for their clients in extremely harsh weather condition. They had sex with their clients in the car or nearby bush. In these markets they were sold for $20,000, while the traffickers made about 90-100 million Lira from each girl. They (girls) contributed 36 Euro weekly for their provocative dresses. To acquire their freedom, they had to pay 60-80,000 Euro to their ‘madam’. Between 1984 and 1998, about 116 Nigeria girls are said to have died on the streets of Italy while prostituting (http://gvnet.com). Between March 1999 and April, 2000, about 1126 women trafficked from Nigeria were deported from various countries. An estimated 4,000 children were trafficked per year from Cross River state in 2000. About 54% worked as street hawkers, 29% stayed at home, whilst 3.3% were sexually abused (Olaniyi, 2005:229).

 As at March, 2002, about 20,000 Nigerian women were involved in the sex industry in Italy. It has been estimated that 80% of foreign prostitutes in Italy were Nigerian women. Most of the trafficked women/girls, aged between 15 and 35 years, were from Edo, Delta and Lagos states. In the same year, 12 ‘prominent’ businessmen trying to traffic 13 Nigerian women for prostitution were intercepted at the Seme border with Benin. Investigations show that 500 Nigerian women were practicing prostitution in Bamako, Mali and more than 500 others were hawking their bodies in Burkina Faso (Agbu, 2003:1).

 In 2003, more than 45,000 Nigerians were trafficked to Europe to work in brothels. On August 27, 2004, 120 boys were rescued from labor camps in Oyo, Osun and Ogun states, where they worked for odd 13 hours and beaten when they complained. In September the same year, 2 people offered to buy a six-year-old child for N500,000 in Maiduguri. The Nigerian police equally found more than 60 children packed in a fish shipping container in Lagos intended to be utilized as slaves and houseboys. Also 64 young girls were found in a cargo compartment of a shipping frozen fishing container in Lagos. 52 children from Mokwa town in Niger state were also rescued in a container at Amumoko area of Lagos state meant to be smuggled out of Nigeria. In May, 2005, girls between the ages of five and sixteen were among the trafficked children intercepted by the Nigeria Police in a containerized truck from Edati en-route Lagos for the purpose of domestic labor. The International Labor Organization estimated that the incidence of child labor in Nigeria for persons aged ten to fourteen years was approximately 12 million (http://gvnet.com). In 2006, two suspected human traffickers who were trying to ferry 24 teenagers across the border to Cotonou in Benin Republic were arrested by the Ogun state Police.

 

Conclusion

 The supply of women in the global sex trade and sex industry is kindled by the impact of economic transition, globalization, rural impoverishment, urban unemployment, accelerated commoditization of sex, economic uncertainties, greed and opportunism. In fact, the unequal patterns of global economy and wealth tended to have created an unprecedented demand for and supply of poor and vulnerable young women from Nigeria. In addition, the combined factors of self corruption, economic decline and the receding capacity of the state to provide basic social services, very often, partly pushed young women into the global sex industry. In fact, while the number of men migrating from rural areas in search of employment has increased over the years, the number of households headed by women has risen substantially. The trafficking industry has created a variety of veritable enterprises including fraudsters, forgers, phony lawyers, corrupt government officials (Police, Customs, Immigration and Aviation staff), even parents who sold their children and fake orthodox and ritual priests. In some part of Nigeria, the struggle to send family and non-family members abroad has become organized around individuals (mostly women) who brokerage the migration process and the prospective migrants. The contract is usually under-written in the form of some traditional oath involving rituals. The involvement of oath rituals performed by ritual and ‘black’ magic priests in the trafficking and prostitution processes reflects a wider development that has in recent times thrust the genuine traditional healers as well as fetish priests into the limelight.

Recommendations

 The benefits of integration, through globalization, would accrue only to countries which have laid the requisite foundations for industrialization and development. This means investing in the development of human resources and the creation of physical infrastructure, raising productivity in the agricultural sector, and the acquisition of technological and managerial capabilities at a micro level. In each of these pursuits, strategic forms of state intervention are essential. The Nigerian government must endeavour to create the initial conditions so that she does not end up globalizing prices without globalizing incomes, and also avoid a process whereby a narrow segment of the population will be integrated within the globalizing world economy in terms of consumption patterns and living styles whilst a substantial proportion of the population is further marginalized. It should bargain with transnational firms to improve the distribution of gains from international economic transactions, practice prudence in the macro-management of the economy so as to reduce vulnerability, and intervene to minimize the social costs associated with globalization, particularly unemployment and poverty and slave trade and human trafficking.

References

Abdulkadir, M.S., 2005, “Changing World Economy, Economic/Religious Problems and Immigration in Nigeria” in G. Rimmington, Empire or Interdependence: A Multi-Disciplinary Conference on the Post-Cold War World (Wichita – Kansas: Friends University) pp.221-231

Abdulkadir, M.S., 2004, Structuring, Struggling and Surviving Economic Depression in Northern Nigeria: The 1930s as Preview of the Present (Kano: Bayero University) Inaugural Lecture Series. No. 9

Abdulkadir, M.S., 2008, “Poverty Alleviation in Northern Nigeria: c.1900-1960” in Duze, M.C, Mohammed, H, and Kiyawa, A.K (eds.) Poverty in Nigeria: Causes, Manifestations and Alleviation Strategies (London: Adonis and Abbey Publishers) pp.23-35

Abdullahi, M, and Suleiman, S., 2002, Leading Issues in Economic Development and Social Welfare, (Kano: Samarib Publishers).

Abdulrahman, D.A., 2004, “Colonialism, Development Paths, Globalization and Social Inequality: The Sources of Social Conflict in Nigeria” in Oni, D., Cupta, S., Omoniyi, T., Adegbija, E., and Awonusi, S., (eds) Nigeria and Globalization: Discourses on Identity, Politics and Social Conflict (Lagos: Center for Black and African Arts and Civilization).

Abubakar, G.A., 2003, “Poverty Alleviation and Direct Job Creation in Nigeria” in Jega, A.M and Wakili, H (eds.) The Poverty Eradication in Nigeria: Problems and Prospects (Kano: Mambayya House) pp. 102-130.

African Development Report, 2000, Regional Integration in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Agbu, O, 2003, “Corruption and Human Trafficking: The Nigerian Case” in West Africa Review.

Ajakaiye, O and Fakiyesi, T., 2009, Global Financial Crisis Discussion Series. Paper 8, Nigeria (London: Overseas Development Institute).

Alden, C., 2007/08, China in Africa: African Arguments (London: Zed Books)

Aliyu, A., 2001, National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP): Conception, Implementation, Coordination and Monitoring (Kano: Sid Dwell Printers).

Annual Report and Statement of Accounts, 1993, Union Bank of Nigeria Plc., United Bank for Africa Plc. and First Bank of Nigeria Plc.

Bhide, S. and Mehta, A.K., 2004, “Chronic Poverty in Rural India” in Journal of human Development: An Alternative Economics in Action. Vol. 5, No. 4, July Edition (Oxfordshire: Carfax Publishing) pp. 195-209.

Daily Trust Newspapers, Tuesday, April 15, 2008, p. 7; Tuesday, May 6, 2008, p. 14.

Human Trafficking in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia

Human Trafficking in Nigeria: Root Causes and Recommendations. Poverty Paper, Poverty Series. Paris, 2006.

http://gvnet.com/human trafficking/nigeria.html Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery

Jega, A.M., 2003, “Economic Crisis and Democratization” in Sunday New Nigerian, January 19^th. P.5.

Kozul-Wright, R., 2006, “Globalization Now and Again” in Jomo, K.S., (ed) Globalization Under Hegemony: The Changing World Economy (Oxford: Oxford University Press) pp. 100-132.

Krishna, A., Kristjanson, P., Radney, M, and Nindo, W., 2004, “Escaping Poverty and Becoming Poor in 20 Kenyan Villages” in Journal of Human Development: Alternative Economics in Action, Vol. 5, No. 4, July Edition (Oxfordshire, Carfax Publishing) pp. 210-226.

Landes, D.S., 1998/1999, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are so Rich and Some so Poor (London: W. W. Norton and Company)

Lwanga-Ntale, C, and Mc Clean, K., 2004, “The Face of Chronic Poverty in Uganda from the Poor Perspective: Constraints and Opportunities” in Journal of Human Development: Alternative Economics in Action, Vol. 5, No. 4, July Edition, (Oxfordshire: Carfax Publishing) pp. 177-194.

Nadel, S.F., 1942/1965, The Black Byzantium: The Kingdom of the Nupe in Nigeria (Oxford, Oxford University Press).

Nayyar, D, 2006, “Globalization and Development in the Long Twentieth Century” in Jomo, K.S. (ed) Globalization Under Hegemony: The Changing World Economy. (Oxford: Oxford University Press). pp. 71-99.

National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS), 2005, (Abuja: Central Bank of Nigeria) pp. xiii, 10, 28, 30-33.

Nigeria Blue Book, 1933 (Lagos: Government Printer).

Olaniyi, R., 2003, Global Sex Trade and Women Trafficking in Nigeria. Paper presented at the Traffic in Persons Conference, School of Law, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, June 27-30, pp 4-5.

Olaniyi, R, 2005, “Child Labor and Informal Economy in Nigeria since 1990s” in Nigeria Journal of Economic History.

Shagari, S,A., 2001, Beckoned to Serve: An Autobiography (Ibadan: Heinemann Educational Books).

Shenton, R.W., 1996, The Development of Capitalism in Northern Nigeria (Toronto and Buffalo: University of Toronto Press).

The Graphic Newspaper, 2008, Poverty and the Quest for Development. June 17, p.15.

The Nigerian Gazette Extra-Ordinary, 1933, Vol. 19, No. 6, (Lagos: Government Printer).

This Day Newspapers, 2003, March 28, p.17.

Umoden, G., 1992, The Babangida Years (Lagos: Gabumo Publishing Company).

Vaughan, J.H. & A.H.M. Kirk-Greene., 1995, The diary of Hamman Yaji: Chronicle of a West African Muslim Ruler. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press).

Yesufu, T.M., 2000, The Human Factor in National Development: Nigeria (Ibadan: Spectrum Books).