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Child and Human trafficking have become means to an end for several Nigerians who have lost hope in the system under the present administration.

Reports of these ugly trend are recorded on a daily basis, with the law enforcement agencies struggling to stem the tide.

Baby factories are on the increase while mothers, mostly the young ones, sell their new born babies to cushion the effects of the present economic realities.

Teenagers and adults are deceived into traveling abroad, but end up as prostitutes or slaves. This trend in not abating.

In this interview , the Founder, Spiritual Head and Gran Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that poor governance which has brought about poverty is the major cause of child and human trafficking. Excerpts :

Child and Human trafficking is what a sizable number of Nigerians engage in these days. Why is this so ?

Nigeria was first a country where discipline, control the fabric of all social spiritual sub systems . It was characterized by very low import index and very high export index. Religious laws were in tandem with the societal norms to create a path of sanity for our interpersonal relationship and our general attitude towards values.

Unfortunately, the Nigerian youth in the mufti of the military killed the geese that laid the golden eggs. Since then, value erosion crept in to destroy all agents of socialization for the nation, to stand with very weak legs.

The civil war followed to put us into alien idiosyncrasies, whereby every moral value is replaced with overtures of waywardness and frivolities starting from the home front to push the society into a state of moral decadence.

The most pitiable aspect was the era of searching for greener pastures in the houses of spirituality whereby we replaced sacredness with profanity and we commercialized, against the tenets of the scripture on the word of God.

Sins committed by people became the software which now transformed into the hardware of criminality.

FESTAC ‘’77 promoted culture as if its is a twin brother of satanic practices. We gave voodooism priority to trivialize the essence of puritanism in religious worship, modesty was murdered to be replaced by shameless acts of fraudulent families while dignity of labor was placed into poor second for various malpractices by the youth to be aided by the elders.

The sociopolitical and economic life as well as our state of spirituality thereafter became badly affected.

All media is able to report, is a micro version of the real happenings in the land. The issue of child and human trafficking therefore, emanated in the land as a result of the dichotomy been introduced by the ruling class whereby the suffering masses continue to suffer from impoverishment, while the ruling elite turn democracy into a money makig opportunity through the concept of ego centrism to change democracy into kleptocracy as evident in the rising profile of poverty indices, 15 per cent in the 60s followed by a progressive arithmetic of 28.8 per cent in 1983 , 42 per cent, 54 per cent, 65 per cent under the subsequent military regimes while the National Bureau of Statistics presented the economic experts evaluation in 1999 as 70 per cent.

Since then, up to the 9th National Assembly regime, it is yet to be improved. For example, in 2007 to 2009 more than 849 companies relocated to other African nations because of our bad economic climate for investment.

Many abandoned warehouses became places of worship that could never provide employment for the teeming masses, most especially those who were retrenched as a result of the collapse of companies.

The youth who were mostly affected became ordinary pawns in the hands of dubious elders who played the smart card.

Anti social menace arose, as a result of the emerging proffered alternative to survive in the race and crave for greener pastures. Armed robbery, arson and active participation of the youth in various insurgencies and militant activities were effective as a result of drug addiction with attendant abuses.

The con people hid under the bad economic situation to deceive the youth into the various illicit practices, ranging from visa scam and cases of forgery of documents, with sweet promises of jobs in abundance without consideration for certificate worth.

Many died in transit, most especially those who plied Libya en route the desert to the promised abode of succor. Some of them became victims along the journey, whereby they were always hammered into a corner and their kidneys forcibly removed, resulting in their deaths. This practice brought good money for the smart guys in the medical world of kidney transplantation.

The most popular but destructive form of trafficking , is deceit of the victims by promising them jobs abroad, which later turn out to be prostitution via several underworld conspiracy against legitimate governments.

The bottom line that is making this bad attitude to flourish is the issue of poverty and poor governance which needs to be squarely addressed through the following steps :

One, engaging the citizens through effective sensitization through the National Orientation Agency(NOA), and the mass media on the dangers of getting involved in the trafficking of persons.

Secondly, government must reform all institutions to be effective enough in promoting sanity.

The judiciary must be firm as partners in progress with quick interventions on emerging cases while the agencies which are directly concerned must be rightly strengthened to do their work without fear or favor and timely too.

Thirdly, we must revive, for the purpose of the restoration of core values, all agents of socialization such as the parents, schools, religious houses, voluntary organizations and a host of others.

Be responsive and responsible in the process and crusade of core value restoration.

Above all, let government officials be role models on the issue of decency, chastity, drug free life, with total pursuance of zero tolerance to corruption with no respect for institutional indiscipline.

The issue of role modelling of exemplary lifestyles by parents and the elite is equally sacrosanct to the promotion of the issue of integrity as a key factor to core value restoration.

When government pursues, realistically, the issue of vocation for the establishment of Small Scale Enterprises(SSE) and Small and Medium Scale Enterprises(SME), youth restiveness would be minimized because they would be meaningfully engaged with focus on job creation, self-employment and self discipline.

Let government use the SWOT analysis to re examine the situation to do the needful in order that we can walk the talk to correct all aberrations at 59.

The All Workers Convergence(AWC) has declared that the faulty policies of the Federal Government are fall outs of the external directives under implementation.

The AWC made this declaration through its National Coordinator, Comrade Andrew Emelieze.

‘’President Muhammadu Buhari and his government are obeying directives from unseen foreign forces, to devalue our national currency and the economy, thus the 7.2 per cent increment in the Value Added Tax(VAT). It is more painful that this is coming at a time when workers are making demands for an increase in wages and when such wage increment has not been implemented, government has decided to make goods and services more expensive, thereby, in a way, putting unimaginable burden on impoverished Nigerians.’’

‘’As a matter of fact this policy is not welcomed, it must be rejected by Nigerians and Labor unions should seek its immediate reversal. The AWC joins its voice with Nigerians to call on President Buhari to immediately reverse the unwanted policy’’, Comrade Emelieze stated.

As Nigeria clocks 59 on Tuesday, 1st October, 2019, millions of Nigerians insist that there is no cause to celebrate.

They lament that thousands of lives have been lost as a result of the insecurity in the land, while widespread hunger and poverty have taken root in millions of homes. Corruption is not abating, even though the Federal Government claims to be winning the anti-graft fight. In this interview the Founder Spiritual Head and Grand Imam of Shafaudeen-in-Islam Worldwide, Prof. Sabitu Olagoke opines that those who benefited from the bad governance in the country have cause to celebrate Nigeria’s independence.

Excerpts :

Nigeria will be 59 on October 1st, is there any reason to celebrate ?

Celebration is of two fold, celebration with fanfare and glamour, as a result of chains of achievements, in terms of basic amenities and infrastructure and competitive human development index, that should be almost at par with that of the developed countries. The other side has to do with sober reflection, whereby the wailers will bring us back to how to regain our lost strength and wasted opportunities. The wailers will need to continue to challenge us on the need to make amends to minimize the weaknesses and possible areas of threats for Nigeria, we have lost all virtues, while dancing naked in the market of shame. For example, education was very functional at a time, we were pressing for independence, with emphatic no to colonialism. Collectively we forget about our ethnic differences and shunned tribal sentiments to have our way to the reality of independence on October 1, 1960.

We started with the parliamentary system with a federal system of weak center, to give each region, the liberty to develop on their own, capitalizing on the peculiar value chains, which could be summarily transformed into the North for hides and skins and groundnut pyramids.

The West, with cocoa and coffee among other agricultural products, while the East was known for the best quality of coal,as well as palm produce.

In the area of mineral resources, bitumen and asphalt of the best quality as well as other mineral, resources like gold, lead and various rock types for cement production. What about iron and steel ? The regional management of this, made Nigeria excel with high export index, making our currency to be above the Dollar and at par with the Pound Sterling.

Development became competitive with the West as a pacesetter of development in functional infrastructure. For example, the cocoa house as one of the tallest buildings, the Liberty stadium, WNTV and WNBS, network of good roads and in the area of human capital development,with the first woman drive a car, in the person of the late Mrs. Funmilayo Ransome Kuti, who championed the cause of women.

The first Chief Justice of the Federation from the West and we have the history of Herbert Macaulay been the early and First Engineer. All these series of achievements were replicated in the North and in the East, making the nation be project focused for the development of the country.

Emerging politicians were with ideological goals, unlike these days, when service in office is been replaced by self-aggrandizement and self-enrichment.

How did we now find ourselves in the appalling situation ? This could be ascribed to the following observations :

After independence, we reverted to our ethnic and tribal inclinations, losing focus of the unity of Nigeria and resorting to al under hand methods in power sharing.

Nigeria experienced 29 years of military rule, during this period the economy was battered, while ideological goals were lost.

The economic profile became jeopardized with ever increasing poverty indices, 15 per cent in 1966, 28.8 per cent in 1983, with subsequent characteristic arithmetic progression of 42 per cent, 54 per cent, 65 per cent and in 1999 at 70 per cent.

The economic class lost that of the middle package through the political regime of poverty and the upper regime was now controlled by less than 2 per cent, who govern, through kleptocracy, deviating from the normal norm of justice, equity, divinity, peace, sustainable development, security, transparency and accountability demanded by democracy.

Under these conditions, the celebration of Nigeria’s 59th independence anniversary would be ridiculous to those in the international community, which had expected us to be a role model for other countries in Africa, in terms of good governance.

Let us be reminded of the fact that the environment in which democracy could thrive, includes when there is the culture of having respect for the fundamental human rights of the people. If we are to go by the experiences in the land, human rights violations abound in various forms leading us into a poor environment of endemic corruption and impunity or institutional indiscipline.

Derisively too, when we claim to hold elections, it is yet to be free and fair, though winners do emerge. Worse still, there is fundamental ethnic coloration the way we treat the emerging leaders.

In the religious terrain, those with contrary religious beliefs are bickering, while development continues to suffer.

Unfortunately, the cost of governance is always too high for the overhead to consume the budget, while capital projects continue to suffer from set backs.

Nigeria’s image abroad has continued to be questionable while insecurity at home does not justify government’s defense of Nigerians held in jails, decapitated or been tried for various drug offenses.

The process of reconstruction, reconciliation and rehabilitation after the civil war had a carry over of lapses which has resulted in several agitations and secession threats, with all the groups hiding under the guise of restructuring.

Beneficiaries of the lapses in governance are now owners of universities, without having anything to do with academics, but are into it for commercial purposes.

Various projects were built in other African countries and abroad by the cabals and cartels at the expense of the welfare of all Nigerians, majority of whom live in poverty in the midst of abundant natural resources.

Was President Donald Trump not right about his definition of Nigerians and his perspective about Africans ?

Nigeria needs total overhauling.

The dominant philosophy of the present time is '' What I possess is mine to use  as I wish''.

The enormous wealth of the King were handed back to God. God made the provision for the King's wealth.

This example, has to a great extent influenced people to do same.

Our houses of worship ought to attract the most suitable and the best.

For they thought to say something about the grandeur and majesty of God.

King David in his times, asserted that building temples is no more important than being the kind of person whose life reflects the glory of God.

Indeed, there is no place where God's kingdom cannot be found at work, home, leisure and the Church among others.

Human experiences of life cannot be divorced from the divine. God is involved in the whole of it-happy and sad, good and bad.

The Kenyan government has disclosed that about 2.6 millon citizens face starvation in 23 arid and semi-arid locations in the country.

The government made this disclosure through it spokesperson,Mr. Cyrus Oguna.

The government said that of the number  623,000 were children  while 69,000 were  pregnant and lactating mothers, who were at risk of malnutrition as drought ravages the regions.

It noted that Turkana was the worst affected, with 250,000 children aged under five in Turkana North, Turkana South and Laisamis sub-counties experiencing acute malnutrition,while Another 200,000 in Turkana West and Turkana Central, Baringo, Tana River, Samburu and Moyale were  faced critical malnutrition.

“Eight out of the 23 counties are severely affected by drought and require urgent enhanced relief food assistance. They include Garissa, Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit, Tharaka-Nithi, Isiolo, Embu and Kitui,” the government spokes person stated.

Nigerians have expressed disappointment over the failure of the Federal Government to check the soaring prices of food stuff in markets across the country.

They lament that the high cost of the food items such as rice, tomatoes, pasta among others have made most citizens to opt for items like ‘’garri’’ in particular, coco yam and maize among others.

Millions of Nigerians are now of the belief that the President Muhammadu Buhari led administration in the country is nonchalant and insensitive to the hunger and poverty situation in millions of homes in Nigeria, even though most political office holders and government officials are currently benefiting from the closure of the country’s borders in a sizable number of states.

They passionately appeal to the powers that be to reverse the present order of things in the markets, as a step towards rescuing millions of Nigerians living in hunger and poverty.

The All Workers Convergence has berated the Federal Government for commencing the payment of the new national minimum wage to workers on Grades levels 01 to 06 while negotiations for other grade levels are still ongoing.

According to the National Coordinator of the AWC, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, ‘’the labor movement in Nigeria has been challenged and so they must wake up from their slumber, the recent payment of junior officers in the core civil service, is a wake up call to the Nigeria labor movement.’’

‘’Apart from the fact that what is paid is more of an award, reason been that labor does not have any agreement with government on the final template, therefore the payment is just like an award to the Nigerian workers. It suggests a government that is trying to rubbish the labor movement in Nigeria and divide the rank and file of the Nigerian workers, therefore labor must wake up and face reality and equally stop all forms of romance with government’’, Comrade Emelieze concluded.