30,000 NIGERIAN GIRLS IN SEX TRADE IN MALI AND BURKINA FASO

I want to beg President to rescue more than 30,000 Nigerian girls in sex trade in Mali and Burkina Faso. I implore the government of President Muhammadu Buhari to save the Nigerian girl child in sex trade in Mali and Burkina Faso by providing free education for them because education bestows on women a disposition for a lifelong acquisition of knowledge, values, standards, attitudes, competence and skills. Let us say no to illiteracy, no to early child marriage, no to prostitution, no to poverty, no to gender inequality and no to anything that has held down our women. The young girls should have the mentality of educated women; we must make unusual efforts to succeed. If we fail no one will say we do not have what it takes. Thus, the time for saving the Nigerian girl child in sex trade is now.

I want to appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari to save Nigerian girls from sex trade and slave auctions in Mali and Burkina Faso. There is urgent need to rescue more than 20,000 Nigerian girls trafficked to Mali and 10,000 in Burkina Faso. There is urgent need to protect Nigerian citizens from sex trade and being sold into slavery. I want to describe the slave trade as a “sickening crime against humanity.” I am wondering why Nigeria is “indifferent”, despite being one of the most affected countries. This is a humiliation not just to Nigeria and Africa, but also to human civilization and the fundamental principles of human rights under the United Nations Charter. Malian government does not have the means or the commitment to crack down on the perpetrators as their hands are full, hence these people smugglers are killing, torturing, extorting and detaining migrants at will.

The Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Ramatu Ahmed, has said that no fewer than 10,000 Nigerian girls are forced into prostitution in Burkina Faso. The Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Ramatu Ahmed says no fewer than 10,000 Nigerian girls are forced into prostitution in Burkina Faso. She said the victims of sex-trade were mainly underage girls kept in appalling conditions in Ouagadougou and in mining camps across the West African country. Ahmed who had been in Burkina Faso since August 2017, said that over 200 Nigerian girls had been voluntarily repatriated this year. According to the Ambassador, many of the girls who were promised jobs in the country and Europe by the human traffickers are not willing to return home. The spate of human trafficking here in Burkina Faso is a big concern to the embassy because at present, we have nothing less than 10,00 Nigerian girls who have been trafficked into Burkina Faso as commercial sex workers and most of these girls are underage, most left school and are roaming about doing commercial sex work in Burkina Faso.

I am pleading with Nigerian parents that they should know what their children are doing, most of the girls said that their parents don;t know what they are here and some will tell us that their parents know and some will say that they were sent by either their father, mother, Uncle. “This is problem that emanates from the family, for the girls, i wish to tell them that anybody they see that comes to tell them that he is taking then to somewhere, either employed as hair dressers or work in the shop, these are human traffickers. Anybody that will tell them not work in Nigeria but to move outside is simply a human trafficker and they should be weary of such persons. she said

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) says it is making efforts to rescue the girls trapped in different parts of Mali. Mrs Julie Okah-Donli, the Director- General of NAPTIP, who made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja, said the victims were trapped in different parts of Mali, for prostitution. Okah-Donli said that the trafficked victims were discovered after NAPTIP sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last December following some security reports. She said: ”We sent a fact-finding mission to Mali last month and the mission came with a report that about 20,000 Nigerian girls had been trafficked to different parts of Mali. Many of the girls said that they were deceived that they were being taken to “Malisia”, making it sound like Malaysia to work in hotels, restaurants, hairdressing salons and some other jobs. “Some of the girls arrived there in their school uniforms, meaning that they were kidnapped on their way to or from school,” she said.
The NAPTIP boss decried the living condition of trafficked Nigerians, adding that some of the girls were sold for N600, 000 and were made to service, mainly miners. “There are over one million Nigerians residents in Mali out of which about 20,000 are trapped into forced prostitution. The conditions are horrible; they are kept in shanties in the thick of the forest where they cannot escape and with the “madames” watching over them. Their job, mainly, is to service miners from other parts of Africa who are predominant in Northern Mali. They are bought for N600, 000 and they are made to pay back N1.8million or N2million within six months before regaining freedom and also becoming madams.”
According to late Nelson Mandela, “safety and security don’t just happen; they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear”. That should be the utmost priority of every leader and government. In Nigeria, the girl child lives in fear of the unknown as she is faced with many challenges which includes: child trafficking, rape, gender discrimination, illiteracy, early marriage, prostitution, unwanted pregnancies, abduction, domestic violence and so many others.

I want to call for serious actions by government and relevant agencies to save Nigerian citizens from unnecessary humiliation and sexual molestation abroad. President Buhari should work out plans to enact laws against human trafficking, as part of the ongoing measures to tackle illegal migration and drastically reduce the trade in human beings.

President Buhari should work on a law to ensure perpetrators who aid human trafficking and illegal migration are sentenced to jail without the option of fine. All hands must be on deck to support this drive in curtailing the menace, which has damaged the reputation of our country
Inwalomhe Donald, Bamako, Mali