tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/ibadan-72443/articlesIbadan – The Conversation2022-09-19T13:17:38Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1903782022-09-19T13:17:38Z2022-09-19T13:17:38ZAkin Mabogunje: Nigerian urban geographer who mapped the origin and trends of African cities<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/485061/original/file-20220916-25-mljo8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C58%2C538%2C478&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Akin Mabogunje</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was introduced to Professor Akin Mabogunje’s work when I joined the Department of Estate Management at the University of Lagos in 2011. As a new junior lecturer, I had to read the key text being used by my course leader. It was here that I first encountered Mabogunje’s work on urbanisation in Nigeria. </p>
<p>I never met Mabogunje, <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/08/prof-akin-mabogunje-dies-at-90/">who died</a> in Lagos on 4 August 2022 at the age of 90. And though my first experience of his work was not as a student, today his writings play a key part in what my own students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/19491247.2020.1851634">learn</a>. Each year when I stand before a class of young people to introduce the semester’s work to them, I feel compelled to justify why they must read a text that was written before we were all born. </p>
<p>This compulsion has deepened with the news of his passing. It is not just future geographers and scholars of urbanisation who should engage with Mabogunje’s work. So, too, should anyone invested in Nigeria’s progress; every aspiring Nigerian political leader and all pan-Africanists. His research captured history as it happened. It must be read and dissected as the compass to guide Nigeria’s future.</p>
<h2>Origins of Nigerian cities</h2>
<p>Akin Mabogunje was born in Kano, northern Nigeria, <a href="https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2021/10/17/buhari-rejoices-with-akin-mabogunje-at-90/">on 18 October 1931</a>. He completed his secondary schooling at Ibadan Grammar School in 1948. It was here that his flair for geography became clear. His teacher even <a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=aMSDDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">predicted</a> that he would one day become a professor of the subject. </p>
<p>He won a scholarship to study at the University College, Ibadan, now University of Ibadan, and obtained his Master of Arts and Doctorate in Geography in 1958 and 1961 respectively. He became <a href="https://books.google.com.ng/books?id=aMSDDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false">a professor of geography in 1965</a>, at the remarkable age of 34. He was Nigeria’s first professor of geography.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/urbanization-in-nigeria-by-akin-l-mabogunje-london-university-of-london-press-1968-pp-353-ill-maps-50s/1A2870622275DBFEC16D84EF945497D9">Urbanization in Nigeria</a> was Mabogunje’s seminal work. It was derived in part from his doctoral dissertation and further shaped when he was a visiting scholar at Northwestern University in the US in 1963. The book provided a cogent narrative of the pre- and colonial origins of Nigerian cities. It also presented pathways for navigating urbanisation challenges from an African perspective. </p>
<p>The book traced the history of urbanisation in northern and southern Nigeria before colonisation, stretching to the early 1960s. It unpacked the impact of colonial policies and laws on urban configuration.</p>
<p>In it he told of generative cities, those that contribute to the social and economic development of every nation, and parasitic cities, those that suck the contributions of other cities. These don’t add to the financial pot. He spoke also of primate cities, those towering hubs that are synonymous with their nation’s development. </p>
<p>Two key south-western Nigerian cities, Ibadan and Lagos, served as case studies. Ibadan, the sprawling historical city of warriors, local slave merchants and cottage craftsmanship, epitomised the rich cultural legacy of a Nigerian “traditional metropolis”. Lagos, on the coast, was to Mabogunje the “most spectacular” of the modern cities, emerging from European influence and the subsequent British colonial administration.</p>
<p>Crucially, Mabogunje empirically tested urban growth theories that emerged from western contexts. He showed the dangers of applying these theories to African cities’ contexts without recognising differences and similarities. He was among the first urban scholars to raise this crucial point. Sadly his critique was largely overlooked: even now, western theories still form the foundation for theoretical knowledge in urban planning disciplines in Africa.</p>
<h2>Postcolonial cities</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/africa/article/abs/urbanization-in-nigeria-by-akin-l-mabogunje-london-university-of-london-press-1968-pp-353-ill-maps-50s/1A2870622275DBFEC16D84EF945497D9">Urbanization in Nigeria</a> was neither Mabogunje’s only book nor the only book on housing problems in Nigeria. He published <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=akin+mabogunje&btnG=">others and scholarly articles too</a>. But it stands apart from many other writings on the subject by providing historical evidence of urbanisation’s origin and trends in Nigeria. </p>
<p>Beyond this, his work compels urbanisation scholars to think about why postcolonial institutions in African cities do not seem to work. It compels us to ask why, decades after colonial governance, we as stakeholders in the cities of Africa have not corrected the inequalities we inherited. He invites us to replace the ever-ready stance of blaming colonial roots for all current problems in land, housing, and real estate markets, and proposes clear courses of action. </p>
<p>His writing was also palpably honest. In Urbanization in Nigeria he presented colourful, endearing and poignant descriptions of the streets of Ibadan and Lagos. Readers were invited to walk alongside him through history – and to grasp the tenacity of those cities’ modern problems. And the book is suffused, perhaps surprisingly, with hope: Mabogunje suggests that Nigeria’s future might still be great if it has the courage to learn from its past mistakes.</p>
<p>Like no other, his book connects the history of urbanisation, the heritage of coloniality and the missed opportunities for changes in Nigeria’s urban areas. </p>
<h2>Mabogunje’s legacy and vision</h2>
<p>But Mabogunje’s legacy stretches far beyond his seminal book. </p>
<p>He served as a consultant to the Nigerian government and several states in urban and regional development, helping politicians and bureaucrats to understand how research institutions could influence and shape policy. </p>
<p>He also engineered the structures upon which the Nigerian real estate sector emerged. Through his work, institutions such as the <a href="https://www.fmbn.gov.ng/">Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria</a> emerged. Through his chairmanship of the Presidential Technical Committee on Housing and Urban Development in 2002, the <a href="https://web.redanonline.org/">Real Estate Developers Association of Nigeria</a> was formed. </p>
<p>Mabogunje was also an accomplished academic. He was the first African to be elected as a foreign honorary associate of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2017. <a href="https://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/news-events/news/news-archive/2017/october-2017/akin-mabogunje-awarded-this-year2019s-vautrin-lud-prize">That same year he won the Vautrin Lud Prize</a>, the highest global award in the field of geography. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/08/akin-mabogunje-an-african-institution/">a consultant to the Federal Capital Development Authority</a> (1976-1984), he was instrumental to the conceptualisation of Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. He was also the foremost professional in getting it built, canvassing rigorously for the appointment of Nigerian town planners and architects to build the city.</p>
<p>It is up to urbanisation scholars, ordinary Nigerians and politicians to do more than just offer tributes to the father of modern policy in the nation’s built environment. We all owe him action: to bring his vision of cities that work for all to life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190378/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Basirat Oyalowo receives funding from the UK Research and Innovation, British Academy and WaterAid. </span></em></p>Akinlawon Ladipo Mabogunje was Nigeria’s first professor of geography. He has died at 90.Basirat Oyalowo, Senior Lecturer/Researcher in Housing, Real Estate and Sustainability, University of LagosLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1631952021-07-07T15:04:07Z2021-07-07T15:04:07ZNigeria’s #ENDSARS protests: a window into how creative art can be an act of therapy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/409862/original/file-20210706-19-1i1m42l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Protesters march at Alausa Secretariat in Ikeja, Lagos State, in October 2020.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Recent disturbing events in different regions of the world poignantly reveal how the creative arts can contribute to making sense of difficult situations and stressful times. This is particularly true of performance art. </p>
<p>Performance art provides ways of seeing, thinking, expressing and mindfulness. It highlights the idea that human beings, regardless of race, class or gender, have creative forces within them.</p>
<p>In African societies, including Nigeria, the use of the creative arts as political tools of assertion in crises is not new. This includes dance, music, art and drama.</p>
<p>For example, in colonial Nigeria, the famous <a href="https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/aba-womens-riots-november-december-1929/#:%7E:text=Thousands%20of%20Igbo%20women%20organized,the%20history%20of%20the%20colony.">Aba Women’s riot of 1929</a> is still a reference point. Tens of thousands of <a href="https://www.historians.org/teaching-and-learning/teaching-resources-for-historians/teaching-and-learning-in-the-digital-age/through-the-lens-of-history-biafra-nigeria-the-west-and-the-world/the-colonial-and-pre-colonial-eras-in-nigeria/the-womens-market-rebellion-of-1929">militant</a>, resilient, scantily clad or nude women engaged with a highly charged protest dance. They forced the colonial government to change its system of governance in southeastern Nigeria.</p>
<p>Prominent Nigerian historian <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41971233">Adiele Afigbo</a> described the women’s protest as “one of the most telling poems of resistance against colonial hegemony”. Nigerian women became politically visible to an extent that has never been repeated.</p>
<p>More recently <a href="https://theconversation.com/young-nigerians-rise-up-to-demand-a-different-kind-of-freedom-148105">Nigeria’s #ENDSARS</a> in October 2020 represented a similar example of public protest as art.</p>
<p>Many Nigerians see their country as a failing state. This is due to the steady downhill slide of the economy and vanishing resources, dilapidated social amenities, massive unemployment, violence, insurgencies, <a href="https://theconversation.com/nigerias-poverty-profile-is-grim-its-time-to-move-beyond-handouts-163302">mounting poverty</a> and police brutality. It also includes the highhandedness of those in power. </p>
<p>Young Nigerian youths dared bullets and machine guns and took over public spaces to assert their right to a better life. For weeks, in a unified social body, they peacefully contained the “danced” protests. </p>
<p>One can view #ENDSARS as exquisitely organised politically motivated protests, fuelled and sustained by creative art making. Not many have investigated it as an event which has made a unique contribution to the understanding and study of non-verbal psychotherapy as an emerging field of study in Nigeria.</p>
<h2>Creative art therapies</h2>
<p>In 2015, at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan I successfully defended the first clinical trial experimental research in <a href="https://punchng.com/why-im-advocating-dance-as-treatment-for-mental-illness-nigerian-scholar-gladys-akunna/">dance and movement therapy</a> as an aspect of creative arts therapy in Nigeria. My research tested and validated the effectiveness of dance and movement therapy treatment in adult inpatients suffering from schizophrenia and depression. </p>
<p>The subjects in the research learnt to trust and use art as a tool to connect to themselves. They were able to get quantifiable levels of improvement in health. </p>
<p>Similarly, Nigerians in the #ENDSARS protests intuitively embraced improvised art making for the release of pain and anguish, and for mustering strength for survival. </p>
<p>The popular adopted slogan for the protests was <em>sorosoke</em>, a Yoruba word which translates as “speak up”. Apart from its political connotation, it was also a group therapy engagement.</p>
<p>The therapeutic space of this event lasted a few weeks. During this time millions of Nigerians in large groups performed for their mental health.</p>
<p>Nigeria’s heavily burdened and impoverished population has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJoyjIWxNeU">publicly branded</a> as “lazy” and good-for-nothing citizens with no goals or aspirations. </p>
<p>But through their many united voices and bodies they became powerful and they found voice. Hence the importance of the slogan <em>sorosoke</em>.</p>
<p>Experts in the field of mental health agree that to have a voice is as much a part of daily living as it is of therapy. It signifies self-awareness and active agency and participation in staying healthy and productive.</p>
<h2>Artmaking and the search of mental health in #ENDSARS</h2>
<p>At the turn of the 20th century, and building on earlier research, the neurologist Sigmund Freud founded <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Introductory_Lectures_on_Psychoanalysis.html?id=Sfz0l6WSqFgC">psychoanalysis</a> – or the talking therapy – as a medical breakthrough in traditional psychotherapy. His approach has since become a vital aspect of the fields of psychiatry and mental health. </p>
<p>Freud also founded other significant theories including the theory of sublimation.</p>
<p>As a theory, sublimation is central to <a href="http://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/15030">psychoanalytic theory</a> about the arts. </p>
<p><a href="https://literariness.org/2016/04/16/freudian-psychoanalysis/">Freud’s analysis</a> of literal and visual narratives of great artists was based on psychological nuances and influences of consciousness and beingness. To him, the subjective domains were symbolic communication of libidinal drive or fulfilment of these desires. </p>
<p>Beyond this, it was his critical evaluations of the experience of unconscious conflicts and their expression through the process of sublimation that laid the foundation on which the <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2009-12112-000">psychoanalytical study of art and the artist</a> evolved.</p>
<p>For Freud, and countless other examples, including those in Nigeria, the channelling and communication of stored painful memories can be released through a work of art – a socially acceptable form of creativity. </p>
<p>Equally significant is the symbolic form – or aesthetic appearance – of the work of art which meaningfully camouflages the hideous elements of consciousness, yielding some measure of beauty, enjoyment and appreciation. </p>
<p>For instance, as an art, dance is a specific, precise, intricately organised creative activity. It is pervaded by ideals of universality and inclusive sociality that evoke emotional and aesthetic appeal and response.</p>
<p>The #ENDSARS protests are a good example of this. They incorporated and presented potent, meaningful visual, verbal, non-verbal art displays and an overall visual quality. These yielded some measure of pleasure to both the performers and spectators. These powerfully interactive and meaningful performances were densely psychotherapeutic in form and content. </p>
<p>The protests rejected the irrational continual denial of the tragic realities in Nigeria’s socio-political landscape. Rather it was a creative way for the battered bodies and minds of Nigerians to confront their harsh, unfriendly environment. </p>
<p>And it paved the way for healing, vitality and a new vista of productive life.</p>
<p>This therapeutic goal was monstrously cut short by the Lekki Toll Gate <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/nigerias-lekki-toll-gate-massacre-will-not-go-away">massacre</a>. This inflated the frightful circles of mental illness and exposed hurting Nigerians in need of psychotherapy to brutal violence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163195/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gladys Ijeoma Akunna does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The protests paved the way for healing, vitality and a new vista of productive life.Gladys Ijeoma Akunna, Visiting Scholar, Department of Creative Arts Therapies, Drexel UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1324552020-03-05T14:17:54Z2020-03-05T14:17:54ZWhat wedding venue choices tell us about social status in Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318563/original/file-20200304-66052-1stmvov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Nigerian bride dances into her wedding venue for her big day.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Marco Longari/AFP/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Event centres – venues to host social events such as weddings, meetings, naming ceremonies and funerals – are ubiquitous in southwestern Nigeria.</p>
<p>Some are enclosed in a building, others are semi-enclosed or on open fields. Major conference and convention centres are often built to landmark architectural designs and are usually constructed by the government. Then there are those built by individuals or institutions for the purpose of hosting social events like birthdays and wedding receptions.</p>
<p>Event centres are categorised as big, medium and small relative to cost and size. We did <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0021909615605530">research</a> on
the reasons underlying the emerging culture of using these centres, and their symbolism. Our findings suggest that conducting weddings in event centres eased stresses associated with celebration. </p>
<p>Factors that influenced the choices people made included accessibility, proximity and cost. Their choice therefore led to social categorisation and delineation of the users as “rich” and “poor”. It conferred a valuation on the users and the event.</p>
<p>We found that the use of event centres in Ibadan was laced with social meanings. Based on their choices, people were identified as belonging to a group that enjoyed – and could afford – conspicuous consumption.</p>
<p>Studying event centre culture in southwestern Nigeria provides insight into how spaces for social events can be used as markers of class characterisation.</p>
<h2>Why event centres?</h2>
<p>Traditionally, major events such as burials, naming ceremonies, birthdays, chieftaincy celebrations and weddings were usually conducted within the compound of the celebrants or within the family’s compound.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/318560/original/file-20200304-66052-ksjchw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A bride and groom dance at a Nigerian wedding.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mehmet Eser/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But modernisation – and the changing tastes and needs of customers – have made these traditional ways of celebrating archaic. As a result, event centre culture is flourishing among the rich and upper middle classes. Weddings and other social celebrations are increasingly making use of event centres.</p>
<p>For our research, we selected event centres in Ibadan metropolis using the prices of each to form three categories of small (between $600 and $1,000), medium ($1,666 to $2,333) and big (above $2,666).</p>
<p>Some respondents said they viewed the use of event centres as trendy and fashionable. A respondent put it this way:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Yes I could have done my wedding ceremony in my wife’s family house but you see, things are changing, people don’t do that anymore, that was in the past and we didn’t want to be old school, we wanted to move with the trend. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another reason given was the weather. A respondent said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We used a hall for our wedding ceremony because it was during raining season. You know the kind of rain these days that are accompanied by the storm. It can spoil your occasion and again the hall we used was very close to our church so it was easier for our guests to move from the church to the reception ground.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Other factors that accounted for high patronage of event centres in Ibadan included proximity – the distance between the home of the celebrant, the church and the reception venue. Also considered important was the accessibility of the event centre and its conspicuousness and other services.</p>
<p>We also found that there was a social and class dimension to the use of the centres.</p>
<h2>Event centre as a status symbol</h2>
<p>Our research found that the hiring of top-end event centres boosted people’s social status and made them feel more esteemed. The hiring of event centres filled social needs – like prestige – of the users. </p>
<p>A highly placed individual in the society with influential friends and relatives would want an event centre that befits their social status. They would choose an expensive hall.</p>
<p>The cost of hiring a venue ranged from N150,000 to N1,000,000 per day. The most expensive hall in Ibadan metropolis cost Naira 1 million ($5,076). It was patronised mostly by people of distinction and class. </p>
<p>As one individual told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Individuals and government officials patronise us, what I know is that people want to use this facility for their occasion and if they can afford it, why not? The place is beautiful; we have enough parking space and good customer service.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We found that big halls were for “big people” who wanted luxury and spaces they believed equated with their social standing and placed them at a high economic and social level. If they hired an expensive venue it showed that they had carved out a social and economic niche for themselves. It meant that they continued to distinguish themselves.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/132455/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oludayo Tade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Hiring top-end event centres boosts people’s social status and made them feel more esteemed.Oludayo Tade, Researcher in criminology, victimology, electronic frauds and cybercrime, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1185272019-06-19T13:39:31Z2019-06-19T13:39:31ZStudy shines light on how vulnerable children are trafficked in Nigeria<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/279542/original/file-20190614-158967-1iwya16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trafficking is a very real threat for kids in Nigeria.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paschal Okwara/Shutterstock/Editorial use only</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The international trafficking of children has received much attention in recent times. But, little attention has been paid to how it plays out and its unique dynamics in Nigeria.</p>
<p>Child trafficking is one of the most flourishing organised criminal enterprises in Nigeria. <a href="https://punchng.com/oyo-becoming-hot-spot-of-girls-trafficking-nis/">In Oyo State alone</a> (Nigeria has 36 states and a federal capital), the Nigerian Immigration Service rescued 464 trafficked children and arrested 101 traffickers and 120 end-users between 2016 and this year.</p>
<p>Nigeria is a source, transit spot and destination for human trafficking. Close to 1.4 million Nigerians live in <a href="https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/data/country-data/nigeria/">slave-like conditions</a>.</p>
<p>An investigation into the recruiting strategies of traffickers and their networks could be helpful in arresting this menace.</p>
<p>With this in mind, I conducted <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10246029.2014.922107">research</a> in which I examined the recruitment strategies of trafficking networks. I interviewed drivers, domestic servants, those who employed domestic servants, and trafficking agents in two communities in Ibadan, Oyo State where the crime is endemic. </p>
<h2>Research findings</h2>
<p>My research found that traffickers have established markets where they supply trafficked children who are younger than 18. Their clients include plantation agriculturists, brothel house owners, and middle-class urban households. Based on their needs, the farmers, brothel owners and urban households contact traffickers to obtain children to work for them. </p>
<p>The brothel managers demand children for sexual exploitation. Farmers, meanwhile, use the trafficked children for cheap labour on plantations.</p>
<p>Households demand child domestic servants to lessen the burden of executing domestic chores while at the same time engaging in paid work. In deciding whether to hire domestic servants, households adopt the so-called “make or buy strategy”. Under the “make strategy”, households devise a plan to split housework and home management between family members. The “buy strategy” is adopted only when the activities go beyond what households believe they can manage – then, they “outsource” to a domestic servant.</p>
<p>If they decide to go this route, the household specifies the age and sex of the preferred domestic servant. For most employers, sex is considered alongside age. </p>
<p>Other required qualities include the ability to communicate in the employer’s language or <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-west-africas-pidgins-deserve-full-recognition-as-official-languages-101844">pidgin English</a>, good character, history or place of origin, and the ability to work under stress.</p>
<h2>Recruitment strategies</h2>
<p>Traffickers can recruit from child trafficking endemic communities in Oyo State or other states. Our respondents adopted two major strategies in recruiting children as domestic servants and child prostitutes. The first involves the use of relatives, coworkers, religious associates, club members and neighbours to lure children away.</p>
<p>The second strategy relies on recruiting agents or traffickers. The traffickers use field agents. Here, trust is vital. Without trust, it’s difficult for prospective employers to get to the traffickers. The agents ensure that prospective employers are genuine and not part of the security apparatus.</p>
<p>For traffickers who are indigene (that is, from the communities where the children are recruited from), the method is usually deception. They trick parents into releasing their children for supposed training in the city. A 16-year-old domestic servant affirmed:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It was my uncle who came to Igede to tell my people that he wanted me to assist him with his business that was booming. He took me from Benue to Benin and dropped me with a woman at a brothel house. I was expected to sleep with men and pay money for the house I slept in every morning. I cried throughout the three days I stayed there … I ran away … I went back to Igede. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another strategy is to use people from the recruiting community to get children to work in town. A trafficker stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I have one Alhaji (meaning a Muslim who has completed the holy pilgrimage to Mecca) in Benue State. We got to know each other through wheat trading. Any time I need people to work here (in Ibadan) … I will just call on him and since we have been able to establish trust and confidence, it is not difficult for him to get some of these children for me. </p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Trafficking season</h2>
<p>My research participants who recruit from Igede community in Benue state told me they are more likely to get more children during the <a href="https://www.nigeriagalleria.com/Nigeria/States_Nigeria/Benue/Igede-Agba-Festival-Benue.html">New Yam Festival</a> when people of Igede extraction return home to thank their communal deity for a bumper harvest before officially eating the new yam. </p>
<p>The traffickers and agents use this period to entrap new children. They come to Igede with lots of money to attract attention. I found that traffickers set out on the recruitment journey towards the end of the year and returned early in the year with newly trafficked children. A female domestic servant said all Igede indigene who live or work elsewhere were expected to return home to join in the Christmas festivities. Most of the traffickers can be seen in the community at this time, as often they bring the children home and then return with them to the city.</p>
<p>The traffickers or agents engage in house-to-house canvassing, asking and persuading people to release their children to them, usually on agreed terms. Once this is settled, the local community agent either transports the children on his or her own, or awaits a vehicle sent by an associate in Ibadan to transport the new recruits. </p>
<p>A private vehicle is usually hired from Ibadan, which is more than 500kms away, to avoid suspicion.</p>
<h2>Combating the scourge</h2>
<p>To combat trafficking, it’s important for the Nigerian government to understand and deal with the factors that predispose children to being trafficked. These include rural underdevelopment and poverty, for instance. The <a href="https://www.naptip.gov.ng/?page_id=112">National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons</a> needs to strengthen its campaign aimed at fighting the trafficking of people within Nigeria. </p>
<p>A good place to start would be to target festival periods to educate the communities from which children are sourced about the scourge of child trafficking. Such education needs to expose the gimmicks traffickers use to lure vulnerable children. The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons may also need to revisit its current strategy and leverage more on inter-agency collaboration.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118527/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Oludayo Tade does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>An investigation into the recruiting strategies of traffickers and their networks could be helpful in arresting this menace.Oludayo Tade, Researcher in criminology, victimology, electronic frauds and cybercrime, University of IbadanLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.