In recent times, the country has been inundated with media reports on several baby factory rings uncovered by security operatives. The frequency of these discoveries is disturbing. It is even more so when it is realized that babies born in such circumstances are treated as articles of trade. So immoral, so decadent! It is quite easy to conclude that the only reason the so-called baby factories exist is because there are people who patronize them.
Now, we are all human being who cherish procreation as ordained by God. Having a child gives a sense of fulfillment, peace, stability and love. About 80 per cent of most threatened marriages survived the trauma because children were involved. In fact, a popular musician in one of his songs said that whenever you see a man, the first thing you ask after is his child. An Igbo adage adds that ‘Ishi uba wu nwa,’ which means the beginning of wealth creation is a child. As long as religion and African culture permit, men and women go the extra mile to have a child, which is a worthy cause.
Unfortunately, situations of couples who believe God to bless them with a child attract a lot of sympathy and empathy. At most fellowships, special prayers are offered for both men and women for this purpose. So many people go through nightmare or at most go through the extra mile to get just a child. It is in the quest of having a child that most vulnerable ladies fall prey into the hands of dubious and fraudulent agents, who procure newborn babies in ways that God did not ordain. Most of these ladies know very well that they are not pregnant yet, parade and pretend as if they are pregnant women. Some who know the truth do not care about the process, all they want is a child in their hand while some are deceived to the last point.
I am canvassing for outright, straightforward, proper adoption by sisters instead of that level of deception. I have not forgotten a visit to one of the miracle baby centres in the East. While I sat and pretended to see the director of the centre, I made small talk with other ladies who were also waiting to see her. Their responses to my questions convinced me that I was in the right place. I saw women who looked like overfed babies because of their stomach and they claimed they were pregnant. I laughed out my heart when one was eating cooked noodles and still claimed to be in labour already. Only God knows what the woman who claimed to have a magic finger gave them. I threw a question to them. Have you seen anyone give birth in this centre? The answer was not quiet straight. Then I knew that something was fishy there. The owner of the centre apparently has her eye on a baby factory from where she would source a baby to be handed over to an anxious mother. When that happens, all the drugs administered to the woman to produce the fake pregnancy tummy and the other external signs a pregnant woman shows would be stopped.
I have met with ladies who travel at will to various parts of the world. When they are involved in this kind of fake pregnancy, they will not travel abroad to deliver the babies. In most cases, those fake pregnancies turn out to be a set of twins, a boy and girl, to seal the family. I have also encountered women who target a naïve pregnant girl. The moment she delivers her baby, the bundle of joy is swindled off her to be raised by another family all in his or her life. It’s so bad that some women would walk into a hospital pretending to be health workers and steal babies from nursing mothers.
The good news is that instead of sisters to be stealing babies, they could go for outright, proper adoption of babies. My simple submission is that any woman who has adopted a child legally or illegally to nurse, raise, care and train for herself as her own child is 100 per cent a mother, except there is another purpose for the adoption of the child. There is no difference between you and a biological mother. There is no strange experience in raising a child by a biological mother and an adopted mother that would be strange for both. All the midnight attention, happy moments, trying moments, playing pranks, are all experiences for both mothers except the adoptive mother chose to resent her child because the child did not come through her womb. A properly raised child is a properly raised child anytime and any day. After all, there have been cases where biological children disappointed their parents and families in various ways. They have gone into armed robbery, cybercrime, fraudulent activities, prostitution and many other things. Adopted children have also shown strengths in academics, sports and other field of endeavour. Mockers of adopted children and their parents are devil’s incarnates. Anything about procreation is the business of heaven not for the earth to judge.
Various testimonies have been recorded on how an adopted child opened doors of opportunities to traumatised couples who wholeheartedly, sincerely and genuinely adopted them, and put in their best to raise them. Over the years, so many women have resorted to stealing babies from young vulnerable girls who have nowhere to rest their heads with the newborn babies. Some of these girls could be house helps, children from low-income families, result of polygamous homes etc. When these girls become pregnant and have nowhere to go to, baby-trading women take advantage of the situation and lure them into their custody, take care of them and swindle them as soon as the babies are born. There have been some terrible scenarios where perpetrators of such act pretended to be caregivers and deceived these gullible women. With fake-pregnancy drugs, these women bloat up admiringly without realizing that it is all a scam. But an eagle-eyed woman quickly notice that the kind of weight-gain has no relationship with pregnancy. Meanwhile, the perpetrators who front as either doctor, nurse or midwife would have his or her eyes on a particular victim. While the fake pregnant woman is basking in the euphoria of a would-be-mother, pregnant victim who will complete her joy is closely monitored. This is a business network that does not accommodate chicken-hearted men and women who cannot weather the storm. In their criminal nature, they know how to mislead their client who they have charged exorbitant amount of money in exchange for a child.
While these deceived women are in top celebration announcing the birth of the baby “through biological means,” the real mothers of the babies might be languishing in pain and bitterness over the loss of the baby forever. Those men and women who engage in this practice know themselves.
It might also interest you to know that why some people resort to fraudulent means of having a child, some have gone for proper adoption process even though the procedure looks very difficult.
Government agencies responsible for the adoption process should smoothen the process. The turn down, tedious long process and all manner of documents that have to be filed by couples seeking to adopt babies, often put them off and they start looking for shortcuts and illegal means. Of course, there is need for the government officials to be thorough in evaluating applications for adoption of babies or children, placing unnecessary obstacles before couples might encourage them to pursue illegal means to achieve their desire.