NAIJAFEED

Friday, December 9, 2022

25,000 trafficked women, girls from Nigeria trapped in Malian mines

Virtually all states in Nigeria face high human trafficking and no fewer than 25,000 Nigerian women and girls are trapped in the mining areas of Mali, where they are sexually exploited

This was revealed by experts at a three-day media training workshop on “Countering Trafficking In Persons, (CTIP),” organised by Network Against Child Trafficking, Abuse and Child Labour (NACTAL) in collaboration with USAID for journalists from Cross River and seven other states of the federation and Abuja.

Held in Benin, Edo State, the workshop ended on Wednesday.

National President of NACTAL, Abdulganiyu Abubakar, in his remarks at the workshop, said as result of the situation, some countries discriminate against Nigeria when they travel out.

He charged the media to embark on campaigns to tackle issues of trafficking.
Similarly, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) confirmed the high level trafficking of humans in the country, revealing that it has, till date, rescued 17, 753 victims in the country.

The Zonal Commander of NAPTIP, Benin Zonal Command, Mr. Nduka Nwanwanne, stated that out of the figure, 13,626 are female, while 4,727 are males.

He said: “No fewer than 25,000 Nigerian women and girls are trapped living in shanties in the mining areas in Mali, where they are sexually exploited.”

According to her, prostitution is not human trafficking but the exploitation in prostitution is human trafficking. He described Nigeria as transit and destination on human trafficking, saying it is endemic in Edo and Delta states and all parts of the country.

Human trafficking, according to him, is worth 150 billion dollars in global criminal enterprise and it is the second largest in trans national organised crime after drug trafficking.

One of NACTAL’s resource persons, Nasiru Muazu Isa, said trafficking on humans is huge business and is so sophisticated to the extent that they track their victims with electronic gadgets to know where they are and where they go to.

The Project Manager, NACTAL, Mr. Samuel Olayemi, listed the objectives of the workshop to include: increasing knowledge of media practitioners on CTIP, intensifying media campaigns, strengthening capacity of media practitioners and improving knowledge of participants in developing relevant programmes.

By Anietie Akpan, The Guardian

Gang charged with sex trafficking girls from Nigeria arrested in Italy

Video - Nigerian women trafficked to Europe for prostitution at 'crisis level'

4,000 Doctors to Leave Nigeria

The National Association of Resident Doctors, NARD’s, recent alarm of a looming mass migration of no less than 4,000 of its members in the nearest future should call for an emergency meeting of President Muhammadu Buhari’s government with the medical service unions to discuss the stoppage of such a haemorrhage.

But, of course, no such a thing may happen because those we elected had for long abandoned the Nigerian healthcare system for treatment abroad. Successive presidential families since 1999 had turned treatment abroad into a fad, unlike the earlier practice where the State House Clinic was properly equipped to take care of them.

The late Mrs Stella Obasanjo received medicare abroad. The late President Umaru Yar’Adua received treatment in Europe and Saudi Arabia till his demise, and the wife of former President Goodluck Jonathan also got medicare outside the country. The most celebrated presidential treatment is that of the incumbent president who once spent over three months in a London infirmary and goes there routinely for follow-ups.

The State House Clinic itself which used to receive more budgetary allocation than all the University Teaching Hospitals in the country, has altogether been abandoned because the people who are supposed to use it no longer have use for it.

Because of this neglect, our doctors have steadily been leaving. When the Buhari administration assumed office in 2015, the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, reported that Nigeria had 35,000 doctors out of the 237,000 required to serve a population of about 180 million then. Over seven years later, the number of doctors available in our health system dropped to 24,000 while the population rose to an estimated 211 million.

NARD’s announcement that 4,000 its members are leaving is not surprising. Health workers are in hot demand all over the world, particularly in countries with advanced systems. Two of them, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom in recent years, sent personnel to scout for, or opened their doors to employ our willing doctors. The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, despite the migration trend, insists Nigeria has enough doctors.

The consequence of this is that the few doctors who are still available, especially in government hospitals, are over-worked, underpaid and under-motivated. This, certainly, is a trigger for more migrations to places where they will get job satisfaction.

Nigerians have already lost hope that the incumbent regime can do anything about our healthcare system. It has only six months to go. Our attention should shift to the need to elect leaders who have the mindset to revive our health system. Adequately equipping our public hospitals and offering competitive welfare packages for our doctors and other health sector workers can stop and reverse the exoduses. This is in addition to squarely facing challenges in the training of more doctors for our teeming population.

Vanguard

Nigeria suffering from medical brain drain

Citizens of Nigeria Uneasy about Cash Withdrawal Restrictions

Nigeria's Central Bank this week announced a new policy that restricts large amounts of cash from being withdrawn from bank accounts. The announcement comes two weeks after authorities unveiled redesigned currency in an attempt to curb cash hoarding and check corruption and crimes. But some critics say the decision will have a negative effect on small businesses.

The Central Bank’s directive this week restricting cash withdrawals from individual and corporate accounts will take effect on Jan. 9, 2023.

According to the new policy, personal account holders will be able to withdraw only 100,000 naira, or around $200, per week while companies will be restricted to about $1,000 in the same period.

The policy comes ahead of Nigeria's election slated for February 2023, with authorities vowing to tackle vote-trading and corruption.

The CBN says the initiative seeks to address excessive hoarding of cash, help fight crime, give authorities control of the legal tender, and encourage more people to use electronic means for their transactions.

But economist and director at the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said it will have an adverse effect on small and medium scale enterprises, or SMEs.

"That is not the way to curb vote-buying,” he said. “Yes, it could restrict the amount people have in their hands but these amounts of money are too small considering the value of the naira, and in terms of small businesses particularly people in the informal sector who may not have gone fully cashless who have not gone completely cashless, it's going to cause them a lot of inconvenience, challenges and also may increase the cost of doing business."

The initiative allows for a monthly withdrawal above specified limits but that carries a 5% processing fee for individuals and 10% for corporate entities.

The CBN said it will sanction banks and other financial institutions that fail to comply with the measure.

In late November, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari unveiled the redesigned 200, 500 and 1000 naira notes initially scheduled for launch in mid-December.

Public finance expert Isaac Botti supports the move, saying it is the only way to ensure the new currencies are not stashed away.

"For me, it's a commendable policy because it's a way to also curb corruption and looting of public treasuries,” he said. “I don't have concerns over it affecting SMEs because they're not expected to carry out solely cash transmissions. The only concern I have is about making the system more effective to be able to accommodate cashless policy."

Onyekpere also cites the lack of internet banking services as a major hindrance. More than 40% of Nigerians, mostly in rural areas, do not have bank accounts and rely on mobile money agents for their daily transactions.

Abuja bakery owner Eseoghene Eghove said the tightening of accounts will affect her business.

"As a business owner I go to buy flour, sugar, butter and many other things. How do you pay? It is not reasonable, they'll just make things more difficult for people," she said.

The old naira bills will cease to be legal tender by the end of January. The CBN has promised to monitor the rollout of the new bills and make sure not too much money is withdrawn.

By Timothy Obiezu, VOA

Attack aircraft, helicopters, and drones to be delivered to Nigeria

Nigeria is expecting to take delivery of 54 new air assets, including attack aircraft and helicopters as well as aerial drones, to boost its capabilities to fight insecurity in the country, Chief of Air Staff Marshal Amao said on Thursday.

A 13-year-old Islamist insurgency in the northeast and kidnappings for ransom by gunmen in the northwest are Nigeria's biggest security threats that will confront the country's next leader after a presidential election in February.

Amao said President Muhammadu Buhari approved the delivery to the Nigerian Air Force of m-346 attack aircraft, T-129 ATAK helicopters, Agusta 109 Trekker multi-role helicopters as well as Chinese-made Wing Loong II drones, among an assortment of air assets.

He did not say when exactly these would be delivered, how much was paid for them or which country or countries they were bought from.

Last year, Nigeria received 12 A-29 Super Tucano planes, four years after the United States agreed to sell the West African country the light attack aircraft to fight insurgents.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters

Nigeria government denies Reuters report of mass ‘abortion programme’ of Boko Haram victims

Nigeria’s military has denied conducting a years-long illicit programme to carry out abortions among women and girls who have been victims of armed groups in the northwest, a claim reported by Reuters on Wednesday.

“Since at least 2013, the Nigerian military has conducted a secret, systematic and illegal abortion programme in the country’s northeast, ending at least 10,000 pregnancies among women and girls,” the news agency said.

It said many of the women and girls had been kidnapped and raped by armed fighters, adding that those who resisted an abortion ran the risk of being “beaten, held at gunpoint or drugged into compliance.”

The report was based on witness statements from 33 women and girls, five health workers, and nine security personnel involved in the alleged programme, and on military documents and hospital records “describing or tallying thousands of abortion procedures”.

Most of the abortions, Reuters said, were carried out without the woman’s consent and some were conducted without their prior knowledge, through abortion-inducing pills or injections passed off as medications to boost health or combat disease. The agency was unable to establish who created the abortion program or determine who in the military or government ran it.

United States Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said on Wednesday that Washington was looking into the report.

“It was a harrowing report. … It’s a concerning report and for that reason, we are seeking further information,” he said.

Northeastern Nigeria is the epicentre of a conflict spearheaded by armed groups, most notably Boko Haram in 2009.

More than 40,000 people have been killed and about two million people displaced in the long-running conflict, which has spilled into neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.

In its reaction, the Nigerian army lashed the report as “a body of insults on the Nigerian peoples and culture. Nigerian military personnel have been raised, bred and further trained to protect lives,” it said.

“[The] Nigerian military will not, therefore, contemplate such evil of running a systematic and illegal abortion programme anywhere and anytime, and surely not on our own soil.”

Religion plays a core part in Nigerian life, with Islam as the dominant faith in the north of the country, and Christianity in the south.

Abortion is illegal in the country except when the mother’s life is in danger.

In the north, illegal pregnancy termination carries the risk of a 14-year jail term.

Al Jazeera