AFRICA ( Commonwealth Union) _ No level of authority can afford to witness its generation of young girls being mistreated and wasted, given that the quality of children and adolescents nourished by societies around the world greatly influences their posterity. If they are children, it is terrible. This is true even as the moral growth of the nation’s population as a whole depends on the future role of the girl child as a mother and first teacher in each person’s life.
The Nigerian military conducted an operation against child brothels in Maiduguri, Borno State, in response to a recent story in this publication. The brothels are situated at Kasuwar Fara in Shagari low-cost district. Ironically, though, locals have accused the military of being a part of the mob that keeps the brothels busy and the streets lively for the most of the night, despite the fact that they raided the establishments to stop underage prostitution.
However , many of the young sex workers were forced into prostitution by poverty, hunger, and family obligations. In fact, one of the young prostitutes claimed she had experienced sex in exchange for food in an IDP camp. The 15-year-old girl described how Boko Haram militants stormed her hometown of Bama and killed her father before she was able to flee.
The same young prostitute said that security guards and IDP camp staff had introduced her to sex in exchange for food. She remembered sharing a bed with soldiers and camp staff in exchange for food and payment. An older woman counselled her to use what she had to pay the camp officials when they refused to accept her. She later travelled to the Barka-da-Zuwa region, where she engaged in prostitution, after leaving the camp to seek sanctuary elsewhere. These young ladies sleeping with up to seven men in one night is inexcusably cruel. Many of them have sadly developed drug addictions in addition to running the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases.
Hauwa Abubakar, the Borno State commissioner for justice, expressed regret for the state of affairs, stating that in addition to teen prostitution, an alarming number of rape cases had been reported there recently. According to her, rape cases, particularly those involving children, accounted for 80% of all instances reported to the ministry each day. Zainab Abba Bashir, the zonal head of the Public Enlightenment Department for the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) in Maiduguri, acknowledged that abuse of kids has been a widespread problem in the region.
We urge Governor Babagana Zulum and the state legislators to review current laws on trafficking and prostitution with a view to enacting stiffer penalties for violators, including people who patronize the brothels, in order to protect the future of juvenile sex workers and protect them from abuse by IDP camp officials and soldiers. Demolishing buildings that house young sex workers is one possible punishment. It is unacceptable for parents to allow their children to go back to brothels after saving them, and this behaviour must end.
