Curbing the Menace of Baby Factories, Marketed Babies, and Unwanted Children -By Abdulkadir Salaudeen

When many factories are under lock and key in a country, when some are about to wind up, and when the few that still keep the production line running are also struggling to operate, there are bound to be serious problems. This is because nature abhors vacuum. Definitely some factories would emerge to replace the moribund ones. Though these factories could be illegal, they would gradually increase and dominate.

The primary materials that would be used as inputs in these factories would be bad. Thus, their products would be worse. Similarly, consumers of their products would be terrible. Ordinarily, these factories shouldn’t be allowed to exist in the first place. They would now exist because those that should be assisted to exist have abruptly stopped operation due to the unfriendly environment that kills legitimate businesses.

Every human, we were told, has that intrinsic instinct of survival. To survive, humans must always devise some means. And when the desirable means are not available, the available means become desirable. To put it differently, humans must survive—either by lawful means or by all means. But for humans to survive only by “lawful means” as against “any means” or “all means”, government, religion, and culture must come together to their rescue. If I were to choose Nigeria as my case study in this column as a country where illegal factories are replacing the legal ones, I would say the Nigerian government has failed. Religion has failed. Culture has failed.

Due to the failure of these three important institutions, many Nigerians have now resorted to “all means” and “any means”—no matter how undesirable and detestable—to put food on their table in order to satisfy their survival instinct.

What am I alluding to? I am alluding to the menace of baby factories that is gradually becoming a new ugly normal in Nigeria, especially in Southern Nigeria. Someone that is not well informed might ask: how could babies be manufactured in factories? Aren’t babies the outcomes of intimacy between man and woman, whether in a marital relationship or out of wedlock? Yes, that is right. That very intimacy that produces babies becomes factory when it takes a transactional character.

Homes are where babies are born as progenies, succeeding their parents and continuing their ancestral lineage. These homes become factories when babies are born into them not as progenies but as marketable items—items meant for sale. So, babies in this unfortunate circumstances become factory products (they become factory babies). While this is not new in the South, the recent disclosure by the Anambra State Commander of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), Ibadin Judith-Chukwu, is worryingly disturbing.

What is known to many is the practice whereby abandoned pregnant girls get hooked up in these factories where they are taken care of with the arrangement, or rather agreement, that their babies would be sold to make up for the expenses incurred by the baby factory operators. This would be their reward for taking care of the pregnant girls who are now mothers without babies. After they put to bed, these pregnant girls might be given some token to transport themselves back home.

It is also common knowledge that teenage prostitutes who “mistakingly” got themselves impregnated with unwanted pregnancies ended up in these factories to add “value” to the production chain. After having the babies which they never wanted, they felt relieved from their burdens and zoomed off to catch more “fun” and continue life in the immoral underworld as usual untill another round of unwanted pregnancy is conceived.

However, Judith-Chukwu alarmingly revealed a disturbing trend in Anambra State. This is different from what is generally known. She narrated situations whereby young people now cohabit by mutual consent solely to produce babies for sale. She further lamented that this unholy sales of babies is more prevalent in rural communities. If not in a society where government, culture, and religion have all failed, where else would couples deliberately cohabit to conceive with the sole aim of selling babies after delivery?

That is not all. Speaking in an interview with journalists in her office in Awka, as reported by the Nigerian Tribune, Judith-Chukwu continued: “We have seen situations where a girl gets pregnant, and then someone suddenly presents a marriage proposal. After she gives birth, often without her knowledge or consent, the man takes the baby and sells it.” This is how wicked some men could be. How would any sane man make a marriage proposal to a pregnant girl, then marry her—under the pretence of love and care—only to sell her baby after she puts to bed?

Similarly, this shows how stupid some ladies are. How would a lady be impregnated and someone—who is not responsible for her pregnancy—suddenly emerges from nowhere, makes a marriage proposal to her and she marries him while still pregnant? Though, the case of these thoughtless and unguided girls is different, they actually wanted their babies but were duped by criminal lovers who pretended to be their husbands. When the deed is perfected by their fake husbands, they would be psychologically traumatized—losing their babies and “husbands” at the same time. This is a double tragedy.

The next question to ask is about the final consumers of the products produced by these baby factories. Who are the final consumers? First and foremost, there are desperate couples who, for one reason or another, cannot bear a child. But there are legal processes for child adoption in which case one could legally adopt a child from registered government approved motherless homes. Buying babies from baby factories, even by couples who genuinely need babies for adoption, is a crime. This should not be encouraged; couples in need of child adoption should be enlightened.

The worse category of consumers are traffickers who buy and then sell these unwanted babies into slavery. Some as house boys and house girls but their wages are paid to their masters. This is how inhumane humans could be to humans. These children are literally lost. No mother. No father. No relatives.

What about ritualists? These are the worst category of consumers of products from baby factories. They are people who sickly believe that flesh or blood of newborn babies can be utilized, through some concoctions and spiritual rituals, to generate money or become powerful.

How do we arrest this ugly trend? Judith-Chukwu hammered on the need for far-reaching public enlightenment, with emphasis on residents of remote areas. While enlightenment is always very important, does one really need to be enlightened to know that it is wrong to cohabit to get pregnancy in order to born babies for sale? No matter how ignorant and uncivilized some humans are, we can always correctly assume that they should be better than animals. If that is the case, what could have pushed humans to act so savagely and so immorally? How would a girl go through pregnancy pain for nine months only to sell her baby for peanut after delivery?

To nip this ugly trend in the bud, the government should take a firm stance. This is not only about making and enforcing laws to curb the menace of baby factories; laws alone cannot be effective and sufficient. In addition to enforcing laws, Nigerian government at all levels should create jobs for the growing jobless population to earn wages that can sustain them. Moribund factories must be revived and more factories should be established. This would mean countering baby factories, whose products reek of immorality, with real factories that produce legitimate consumables.

As I noted above, the instinct to survive by any means in the absence of legitimate means is intrinsic to human nature. When legitimate means are difficult to come by, there could be a limit to the roles of culture and religion in stemming the immoral tide. And this is where the government and the community should assert themselves and come to the fore in job creation.

In conclusion, baby factories, where babies are produced and  traded, are a common practice in South. This is not to absolve the North. Each region has its unique challenge. Though babies are not commonly marketed in the North, the North is also plagued with unwanted children. If you think I am referring to the almaajiris, in tatters with begging bowls, you are right. They are obviously not wanted by their parents.

Almajiri practice is as detestable to religion, civilized culture, and common sense as marketed babies in the South. Whether our factories produce marketed babies as prevalent in the South or unwanted children that are ubiquitous in the North, we are sitting on powder keg. “A stitch in time,” as the saying goes, “saves nine.” All hands must be on deck.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com