I’ve always known that child trafficking is a serious issue in Nigeria, but I never understood the depth of damage until I saw a case happen right in front of me.

Earlier this year, I went on a road trip to Ghana for a writer’s fellowship where I was a facilitator. I was supposed to return to Nigeria in a night bus but annoyingly my plans were truncated as the last night bus left before I could book. To worsen the scenario, I couldn’t return to my hotel room as it was already so late in the night and I had no mobile network or Ghanaian phone number to contact my host with. After ranting about the transport company’s deceit (I had been asked to wait until another bus was coming “soon”) I resigned myself to fate. I had to sleep in the terminal till morning and leave with the first morning bus.

As I say on the aluminium seats, I was so uncomfortable and unable to sleep. Apart from the fact that I never sleep in a strange location , the seats were grossly uncomfortable and the Ghanaian mosquitoes were something else.

After turning and tossing for hours, wondering how all the passengers snoring around me were able to even close their eyes, I gave up and I sat up. This reminded me of the time I had to wait in the Kenyan Airport for my connecting flight back to Nigeria. My eyes wide opened, I felt grossly uncomfortable. Then I decided to watch movies on my phone. My head ached terribly and as I rubbed my temples it didn’t get better. I Iooked around and took mental note of everyone. Around 12.30am the bus going to Togo came in and the passengers heading in that direction left. I then knew that the people left were all probably headed to Nigeria.

I got tired of looking around and I knew I had to do something to remain sane since I couldn’t sleep and I couldn’t just stare into space. So I forced myself to keep watching the movie I was struggling to follow on my phone.

I must have dozed off briefly but at around 2:30am because I checked the time, I saw a young boy hurry into the bus terminal. He did look more than 16 years old but he was tall and rather skinny. He had a small luggage, and he looked like he would give anything to get on a bus that midnight.

He walked up to me as I was the only one awake, and asked me if I was going to Nigeria. I replied him, telling him that I was waiting for the first bus to Nigeria in the morning. I showed him where he could buy a ticket but there was no Chisco staff in sight. He asked me for the price and I saw the dejected look on his face on hearing it.

He however went back to sit in one of the available spaces. I dismissed him as probably a student trying to visit. His accent sounded ibo.

I focused on trying to get some sleep and relaxing as my head throbbed more but all to no avail. About an hour after the buy walked in at midnight, three angry looking adults hurriedly entered the bus station. They looked suspicious and really angry as they scanned the faces of everyone in the terminal looking for something.

Immediately, they walked up to the young boy, who had also dozed off at this time, and hoisted him to his feet forcefully. Not asking him any questions or waiting for him to speak they dragged him out of the terminal. I was dazed, and confused at the same time. I had never seen a thing like that before.

The boy looked so helpless and defeated the moment he was held. As they took him out, I kept wondering why three adults, two men and a woman would forcefully lead a teenage boy out that way. I immediately stood up and rushed outside to see which way they went but unfortunately they had vanished. That’s when I saw one of the bus terminal officials who happened to be awake.

I told him what I had just witnessed and he immediately raised an alarm. According to him, many Nigerian young boys and girls rush into the Chisco bus terminal for help back to Nigeria daily. Many of them had been deceived and brought into Ghana for prostitution, yahoo yahoo or hard labour.

We all rushed out again, to search around to no avail. By this time more staff members were awake.

After a few minutes of scanning the vicinity to no avail, we returned to our different locations in the terminal. But a few minutes later, they showed up again suddenly. Lamenting angrily in the ibo language.

The suspicious trio had returned with the boy to boldly request if the boy had bought a ticket yet so they could get a refund. Their audacity was amazing.

The terminal attendant, obviously irritated, then began to question them, why were they holding the boy forcefully? Who were they? And what gave them the impression that the boy had money to buy any ticket yet?

It was obvious he was running from them, and by this time more people had become awake trying to get a hang of what was going on.

The strange trio began to tell tales of how the boy was their brother and had stolen money, and was running from punishment. As they spoke the boy looked still, staring into space. He was too afraid to speak. He looked so terrified and defeated. Almost like he was deaf and dumb.

The attendant looked at the boy, seriously ready to help. He asked severally, “ I know you don’t have any money for a ticket because since you came in here you haven’t been to the cashier desk to ask for a ticket. Who are these people and why are you running from them?”

The boy couldn’t give any answer. And before anyone could say Jack Robinson, the suspicious three individuals had led the boy out hurriedly the same way they had initially. Everyone who witnessed that incident knew the boy was finished. I was dissappointed.

The staff at Chisco park told me that there was nothing anyone could do in the circumstances since the boy was too afraid to speak up. If he had been bold enough to say what he was going through, the police would have been invited, and those people wouldn’t be allowed to leave with him.

The staff members started telling me tales of how many young boys and girls Chisco had taken back to Nigeria free of charge to save their lives. How some had died as prostitutes, some had gotten pregnant, some had died of starvation after having been starved and maltreated, some had been killed after being trained to do yahoo yahoo scam but failing to bring in any client to be swindled for months. I was deeply affected by all of these stories.

All through my journey back to Nigeria, my mind kept flashing back to the incident with the unknown boy. I felt really pained that a lot of young people were still falling victim.

With many being deceived and promised of a better life outside Nigeria. They get on board a shop or a bus and find themselves in Ghana or other African or Arab countries doing what they never expected. Being exploited for forced labor, sex trafficking, and other forms of exploitation.

Solutions and Call To action 

To address trafficking in Nigeria more awareness campaigns need to be made to educate the literate and illiterate communities as well as the general public about the dangers of child trafficking and the importance of protecting children.

More policies that protect children from trafficking and hold traffickers accountable should be advocated for and support services, such as counseling, education, and job training, should be provided to victims of child trafficking.

We must also engage with local communities to identify and address the root causes of child trafficking. Why do some parent release their children easily following promises they get? Also why do young people with no formal education get to the limit where they’re deceived into thinking they will make money in a platter once they leave Nigeria?

These are some of the things that government interventions and awareness campaigns using social media, radio, and other channels to reach a wider audience can help address.

There are still a lot of young boys and girls out there in different parts of Africa and Arab countries going through hell and unable to return to their motherland. Let’s keep pushing for a stop to trafficking. If you suspect a child is being trafficked or abused, you can note down time, date, location, physical descriptions, vehicle plates, and any conversations or behaviors that seem suspicious. Or you can reach out to local NGOs or government agencies such as NAPTIP (National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons).

Save any photos, videos, or voice recordings only if safe and legal to do so.

The story I shared above isn’t the only case I experienced on that trip, I will continue my experience in my next post.