Reinventing Human Trafficking Through Baby Factories and Child Commodification in Nigeria

Abstract

Baby factories and the commodification of children have attracted severe criticisms in contemporary human trafficking scholarship. Scholars working in the field of human trafficking in Nigeria and sub-Sahara Africa have challenged the child commodification component of human trafficking, with emphasis on human rights violations, human values degradation, and deprivation of dignity of persons as fundamental principles that should guide human trafficking discourses and practices. The chapter investigates the emergence and growth of this illicit industry in Nigeria, relying robustly on content analysis and descriptive methodologies. It examines the responsibility of cultural beliefs, social attitudes, norms, and the harsh economy as dynamics playing critical parts in the unvarying growth of baby factories in Nigeria. Findings reveal that several socio-economic and cultural factors such as poverty, pregnancy outside wedlock, adopted children, denunciation of infertility, and the disfigurement associated with childlessness create a leeway for the furtherance of this transgression.