Women and Human Trafficking in Nigeria: A Way Out

Abstract

The number of Nigerian women involved in human trafficking both as traffickers and the trafficked is enormous. It is heinous for a woman who is supposed to be a mother and custodian of human life to be a human trafficker. Trafficking in human beings is a historical phenomenon, right for the time of slave trade. Humanity fought against slave trade and slavery and managed to stop it and abolished it completely. But it has surfaced in our 21^st century due to greedy and inhumanity of man to man under the deception of helping the poor women to get job in Europe and other countries. Nigeria has acquired a horrible reputation for being the leading African nation in human trafficking across trans-border. The objective of this paper was to analyze the activity of women in this criminal trade with a view of suggesting how the problem can be dealt with effectively in Nigeria. The paper utilized secondary data to study the involvement of women as traffickers and trafficked in Nigeria. The study finding showed that the major reason for women involvement in trafficking was poverty and greed. The paper made far reaching suggestions which included government to be more serious in its poverty reduction policy for women and more sensitizing campaign against human trafficking among others.