Abstract:
Nigeria has the unenviable reputation of being among global leaders in the infamous trafficking in humans. Consequently, the Obasanjo administration that came into power in 1999 ratified the UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons in 2001 and further enacted the “NAPTIP Act 2003” as the national framework for combating the crime. In spite of these initiatives, human trafficking remains a critical problem in Nigeria. Extant studies attributed the phenomenon to such factors as corruption, adversarial criminal justice system and poor funding among others. There has been little attempt at systematization of data on the role of the state in combating the obnoxious trade. This study therefore focused on the examination of the State and the Control of trans-border Human Trafficking in Nigeria between 2003 and 2012. Its specific objectives were to: (i) Determine whether the enactment of the NAPTIP Act 2003 failed to reduce the Incidence of trans-border human trafficking in Nigeria between 2003 and 2012; (ii) Ascertain whether the victim care policy of NAPTIP enhanced rehabilitation of victims between 2003 and 2012; and (iii) Establish whether lapses in interagency coordination hampered the prosecution of trans-border human trafficking crimes between 2003 and 2012. The study adopted the ex-post-facto research design, made use of secondary data, and anchored analysis on the Marxian theory of the state. It then found that the establishment of NAPTIP has not substantially reduced the incidence of human trafficking in Nigeria, that its victim care policy did not adequately catered for the rehabilitation of victims during the period, and that lapses in interagency coordination hampered the prosecution of human trafficking suspects between 2003 and 2012. It then recommended among others the establishment of an International Human Trafficking Court (IHTC) to try perpetrators of human trafficking as it is clearly a crime against humanity.
