BABY FACTORIES: MODERN ANTIDOTE FOR CHILDLESSNESS AND SURROGACY IN
NIGERIA
*Titilayo Aderibigbe, PhD
Key Words: Gender and Sexuality, African Law and Society
Introduction
‘Baby factory’ or ‘baby farming’ is a method where young, pregnant and unmarried girls are
given shelter and housed in a home by a proprietor of the home called by many names such as
‘madam’ or ‘mama’ until they are delivered of their pregnancies. The girls are of two categories.
The first is where unmarried girls with unwanted pregnancies voluntarily go to seek shelter in the
home until the delivery of their baby for the purpose of adoption to childless couples or women.
The second category is where girls from low-income homes voluntarily accept to get pregnant
and have babies who are given to childless women or couples for economic benefits they would
derive from the exercise for the sole purpose of taking care of their own financial needs. In this
case, there is usually a male ‘stud’ whose duty is to get these girls pregnant. The pregnant girls
are given medical care, fed and kept, mostly indoors in shelters that are disguised as hotels,
churches, mosques orphanages or charity homes for the duration of their pregnancy.
Baby factories are the cheapest and most discreet places is where childless couples go to buy
children of both genders. The prices vary from location to location and depend on the bargaining
power of the intending purchaser and the age of the baby. There is a movement of people across
Nigeria and from all over the world for the purchase of these babies. There is a syndicate that the
Nigerian police and State governments have been unable to stop. The price for a male baby is
slightly higher and usually estimated at $4,400.00 while for a female it is $4,000.00 according to
a Swedish undercover journalist, Therese Cristiansson, who visited some of these baby factories
with a hidden camera situated in a state in the southern part of Nigeria. 1
In this paper, I argue that there is a breakdown of the traditional African value system that
provided for avenues for childless people to have children. It is the consequence of the
*BA, LL.B LL.M PHD, Senior Lecturer, School of Law & Security Studies, Babcock University, Ilishan Remo, Nigeria.
Email: [email protected], [email protected]
1
Therese Cristiansson ‘Baby factories in Nigeria are pumping out babies for sale on the illegal adoption market’,
http://www.asafeworldforwomen.org/global-news/africa/nigeria/4388-baby-factory.html (accessed 11-10-15).
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movement from the indigenous African way of life to the more individualistic modern city life
that has led to the emergence and proliferation of baby factories. I argue that government can not
stop the explosion of baby factories, unless they find an avenue to legitimately incorporate it into
the Nigerian legal system. Closing, demolition the homes and arresting the owners of the baby
factories and the women who patronize them will not stop the trend. Doing so is merely
revolving the cycle of poverty for the pregnant women and hiking the price of the women who
seek their services. There will always be women willing to act as surrogates in an unconventional
manner in baby factories for various reasons, and there will always be a ready market for
childless couples to patronise them.
The question that comes up for answers are why has this phenomenon escalated in the last 10-15
years in Nigeria? Why is there an escalation of ‘Baby farming homes’ predominant in the
southeaster parts of Nigeria?
The place of children in African Societies and Traditional Surrogacy
Indigenous African societies place emphasis on children. Children are seen as a link between one
generation and the next. Jurisprudentially when an African leaves offspring (especially male
children) behind, it is believed they live forever. This is a value system that is persists in African
societies until today. 2
To lift the veil of shame from childlessness, the African society had a culturally acceptable
method of surrogacy and legitimization of children that was encouraged. A childless woman
could “marry” another woman for her husband who will bear children on her behalf. The barren
woman paid the bride price and maintained the woman. When the number of children is attained,
the younger woman is free to leave that household and marry someone of her choice. She will
have no claim to the children she bore on behalf of the barren woman who are regarded in every
respect as the legitimate children of the older woman. She may, if she so desires also stay and
make a life with the man and his wife as a second wife. Another method of surrogacy or
adoption is where a widow who remains in her late husband’s house has children by another man
outside the dead husband’s family. The child born is regarded as the legitimate child of the
2
Titilayo Aderibigbe ‘’Broken Calabashes: Yoruba Traditional Faith’ in Eric Blyth and Ruth Landau Faith and Fertility
Attitudes towards Reproductive Practices in Different Religions from Ancient to Modern Times Jessica Kingsley
Publishers: London & Philadelphia), 2009 P.179-204 at 199.
2
deceased husband who will be able to carry on the name of the dead man. These practices are
found in almost all cultures in Africa and the Nigerian courts have stated they are acceptable and
not contrary to natural justice and good conscience Nwaribe v President Oru District Court &
Another 3.
In the traditional African society, a home was always filled with children. Once a woman got
married, at least a younger member of her family would follow her to be nurtured and cared for
by the bride. This formed the immediate nucleus of her own family. It was also customary for the
less privileged member of an extended family to allow their children to be raised by the more
affluent ones. In some cases, these children grew up bearing the name of their adoptive parents
as their family name. Traditionally, a woman once married was not called by her personal name,
but an appellation that incorporated the name of her child. Thus, the extended family would call
a woman “ Mama Ngozi” (i.e. the mother of Ngozi-Ngozi being her child).
What the traditional practices solved was that it kept a marriage intact. Traditional forms of
surrogacy keeps in abeyance the pronatalistic nature of traditional Nigerian society, which cuts
across all traditional African ethnic societies. The African society has a vertical line of tracing
lineage, and for the African, lineage is a spiritual link with the past. It is important for the
African to be able to trace their lineage and know the ancestry of their offspring because the
belief is that spiritual connectivity with past ancestors are important to connect the spirituality of
the lineage to future generation. The African method of surrogacy ensured that the couple knew
the lineage of their offspring, since the surrogate woman was carefully chosen to bear children
for the childless woman. It removed the societal stigma owing to childlessness. It enabled the
continuity of the family lineage forever, therefore ‘the person never dies’ since they lived on
through the children. It was culturally acceptable and for the childless woman and gave her
respectability. For the child born he had a legal status within the family. Though the child was
regarded as the legitimate child of the childless woman, the biological mother was treated with
respect, whether she chose to remain within that family or leave to start a life of her own with
another man.
3
(1964) 8 ENLR 24
3
In modern times, because of this belief that pervades till today, a typical African will do almost
anything to have a child. Childlessness is stigmatized, seen as a form of disability and a childless
couple is looked upon with pity and scorn because it is regarded as a curse or punishment for
some past misdeeds of the ancestors or the couple themselves. In traditional as well as modern
times, the childless couple faced psychological, relationship and emotional trauma. For this
reason, surrogacy was acceptable. However, due to the individualistic nature of the modern
family structure and the movement away from polygamy to monogamous forms of marriage, the
traditionally acceptable form of surrogacy is no longer feasible, acceptable or fit into the modern
concept of family structure. Baby factories thus became a means by which couples could acquire
children away from the prying eyes of society.
Choosing a baby from baby farmhouses are done in secrecy, mainly to remove shame from
childless couples, or from the infertile woman. Baby factories are secretive, less cumbersome
and the childless couple could easily pass-off the baby as their biological child without questions
being asked by society.
Clash of the old and the new method of surrogacy
With the movement from a communal life to the modern individualistic city life, the Western
concepts of adoption and surrogacy were introduced. Adoption is backed by legislation,
surrogacy is not. Adoption is thereby the legitimate modern method available for childless
couples to have children. But, the legal procedure for adoption of a child is cumbersome,
expensive, traumatising and invasive. For these reason couples still prefer to buy children from
baby factories.
Some of the pregnant girls are in the home out of their own free will in order to escape the
stigma of unwanted pregnancy and a safe place to have the child secretly taken by a couple who
wants the baby. The most common, however is where homeless girls who for some reason are
sheltered until they deliver the child. The girls are there for a variety of reasons. Some
voluntarily go to the home for the proceeds of the sale of the baby to maintain themselves or
their families or to further their formal or vocational education. Some of the girls are coerced and
kept there specifically to have babies that are sold upon delivery. There is usually a male stud,
whose duty it is to have sexual intercourse with the girls and ensure they get pregnant. There is a
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fee for all concerned-the male stud, the girls, the agent, while the proprietor gets the lion share of
the proceeds from the sale.
People who desire children found baby factories a cheap, non-cumbersome and discreet way of
having children. Baby factories have become rampant in the southeastern parts of Nigeria due to
the positive activities of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons
(NAPTIP) 4 that has curbed the movement of girls across states and countries for prostitution and
menial works. Baby factories are another source of income generation for the girls formerly
engaged in prostitution and trafficking syndicate. NAPTIP has been able to curb the flow of girls
from impoverished homes who went to Europe for prostitution to sustain their families.
Surrogacy is another alternative to ease the financial constraints faced by these girls.
Modern Form of Surrogacy in Nigeria
Surrogacy means ‘to substitute’ in Latin. It is derived from the Latin word ‘subrogare’. The
modern method of surrogacy involves money and medical experts. Largely, anonymity for the
childless couple and the surrogate mother is not totally achievable, because the hospital that
anchors the surrogacy have all the records. There are two methods of surrogacy-the traditional
and the gestational.
Traditional Surrogacy: This method is known as the “traditional surrogate motherhood” It
involves a husband’s sperm being implanted into a third party known as the surrogate through
the method of artificial insemination. The surrogate is the biological mother of the baby born. 5
Gestational Surrogacy: The second type of surrogacy is where an intending mother due to some
reproductive problems with her womb cannot carry a pregnancy to term but she ovulates
normally. Her eggs are harvested, fertilized with her husband’s sperm through a process of in
4
The Agency was established under the Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Law Enforcement and Administration
Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2003.
5
Umeora OJ, Umeora MC, Emma-Echiegu NB, Chukwuneke FN. Surrogacy in Nigeria: Legal, ethical, socio cultural,
psychological and religious musings. Afr J Med Health Sci [serial online] 2014 [cited 2016 May 24];13:105-9.
Available from: http://www.ajmhs.org/text.asp?2014/13/2/105/144579 (accessed May 12, 2016).
5
vitro fertilization and then implanted in the surrogate mother. 6 The baby is genetically that of the
intending couple who has contracted the surrogate to have the baby for them. It is often referred
to as IVF surrogacy.
Adoption, Surrogacy, and Baby Factories
Adoption: Adoption is Legal in Nigeria and all the states of the federation have adoption laws that allows
couple to adopt children in a manner that ensures the safety of the children. Adoption is not as popular
as being able to have one’s own child simply because the African belief system believe in the genealogy
of the child as a link with the ancestors. It is difficult, therefore to have a child that the parents are not
sure of their lineage. Researchers however believe that with awareness and child adoption could be
more acceptable in Nigeria. 7
The Child’s Right Act, (CRA) 2003 8 is a national legislation that has been domesticated and
incorporated into the laws of several States in Nigeria. Under the CRA, adoption is legal in all
the states in Nigeria that have domesticated the CRA. Those States that have not domesticated
the CRA still use the old Adoption Laws. So far, there is no specific law on surrogacy in Nigeria.
CRA sections 128 to 133 spell out the process and conditions precedents for adoption in Nigeria.
Restrictions do not allow the free movement of the parents with their adopted children without
reference to the authorities. These ate some of the reasons why adoption is not readily embraced
in most African societies like Nigeria.
In Vitro Fertilization (IVF): IVF as another method of having children is expensive, not always
certain and only available to people with the financial capacity to pay for the services.
There is no statistical evidence so far on the acceptability of adoption over surrogacy, or baby
factories.
Report however shows that there are websites where would be surrogates register their names to
be surrogates. In Lagos state there are 103 registered surrogate mothers, Edo State has 14, Abuja
the Federal Capital Territory has 7, Enugu, Rivers and Ogun States have 5 each. Anambra,
6
Peter R. Brinsden, "Gestational surrogacy." Human Reproduction Update, Vol.9, No.5 pp. 483±491,
2003 http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/content/9/5/483.full.pdf,.
7
Olanike A. Ojelabi, Pauline E. Osamor, Bernard E. Owumi, ‘Policies and Practices of Child Adoption in Nigeria: A
Review Paper’, Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences MCSER Publishing, Rome-Italy Vol 6 No 1 S1 January 2015.
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Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.
6
Kaduna, Ondo, Cross-River have 2 each, while Akwa-Ibom, Benue, Ekiti, Kwara and Oyo States
have one each. 9 The fact that medical centres in Nigeria are able to patronize these would be
surrogate mothers shows that there is a ready-made market for surrogacy. The danger in its
existence is that the hospitals are left to determine everything that has to do with surrogacy for
the entire process because there is no legislation to regulate the activities of these hospitals. The
cost of surrogacy varies from one medical centre to another. Generally, however it ranges from
$80,000 to $120,000. In local currency, Nigeria, the cost would be from N400, 000 to a Million
Naira. This means only the affluent can readily afford to patronize clinics offering surrogate
procedures. The surrogate mother gets about N200,000 on the average while the remaining cost
goes into the clinical process of surrogacy from the minute the contract is entered into by the
hospital with the would be parents to the day the baby is born and handed over to the contracting
parent. 10 Many, but not all of the surrogate mothers advertising themselves on the websites or in
fertility clinic often do so for commercial purposes.
Legal Aspects of Surrogacy
As I earlier stated there are no laws regulating surrogacy in any form in Nigeria. There has been
a call for a legislation to be put in place to legitimize an already growing form of alleviating the
stigma of childlessness in Nigeria. Across the world, surrogacy legislation varies. Some
countries do not allow compensated surrogacy, that is surrogacy for commercial purposes but
accept altruistic forms of surrogacy within clearly defined parameters. There are countries where
commercial surrogacy agreements are allowed and some Nigerians who have the economic
means do visit these countries to have babies through surrogacy. These people can be referred to
as “international surrogacy seeking tourists”. A former Nigerian beauty queen was able to have
her desired twins from India and made no secret about it. Countries like Cyprus, India, South
Africa, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and in the United States of America, the states of
9
NIGERIAN LADIES PAID TO GET PREGNANT FOR CHILDLESS COUPLES
PM NEWS NIGERIA MARCH 28 2013 http://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2013/03/28/nigerian-ladies-paid-to-getpregnant-for-childless-couples/ (accessed 12-05-2016).
10
Nigerian Surrogacy Contracts, VDNKSesjaCzVi7MkJNc2VmnqmU6lpjHW8_qZ8JZkM6MOTHER OF ALL
CONTRACTS- Girl hired to carry pregnancy for another woman• Earns N.2m compensation By AGAPTUS ANAELE
(23-05-16).
7
Arkansas, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas, Massachusetts and Vermont allow both
commercial and altruistic surrogacy. On the other hand Australia, Canada (except Quebec),
United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark. Hungary, Israel, in the USA (New York, New Jersey,
New Mexico, Nebraska, Virginia, Oregon and Washington) allow altruistic surrogacy only.
Some countries across the world totally ban all forms of surrogacy. These are Germany, France,
Belgium, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Estonia., Moldova,
Turkey Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, China, Japan, Canada (Quebec), United States (Arizona,
Michigan, Indiana, North Dakota). 11
Nigerians who choose either method of surrogacy outside Africa often travel to Asia and Europe
to get surrogates if local legislation of the host country accept non-altruistic surrogacy. This
entails financial capability since there is no formal legislated method of surrogacy available in
Nigeria. Baby factories on the other hand are unregulated, surreptitiously done, with babies
passed off as the biological baby of the purchasing mother. It is thus open to abuse, but it thrives
in Nigeria because it is a cheap alternative to adoption and surrogacy. So far, the continuing rise
of baby factories all across states in Nigeria shows there is a ready market. Government treat the
baby factories as illegal homes and often release the pregnant girls into poverty from which they
had hoped to escape from the sale of the babies sold to willing couples. The homes are also
demolished so the girls also lose their shelter. Government need to do a proper socio-cultural
analysis of the prevalence of baby factories and find means of regulating it as an alternative form
of surrogacy,
Summary
Baby factories is a socio-legal problem brought about by movement across cultures, new
boundaries to a concept that the modern African and specifically Nigerian society has not been
able to assimilate. So far, law enforcement agents have simply arrested the occupants of the
factories and the girls are released to the same poverty they tried to escape from. Childless
11
Surrogacy laws by country,
file:///C:/Users/aderibigbet/Downloads/Surrogacy%20laws%20by%20country%20_%20Surrogate%20Baby%20C
onsulting.html (23-05-16).
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people will still find ways of getting children through means that are cheaper, discreet and less
invasive than adoption that legislation provides for. The law has not been able to stop it because
baby factories is not specifically provided for under Nigerian legislation since the CRA and
NAPTIP focus on rights of victims, without addressing the social problem that necessitated the
phenomenon. Baby factory fills social vacuum for childless couples and poor homeless girls
from poor backgrounds. The seekers and providers of the services offered by baby factories find
them mutually beneficial, as it fits the cultural and traditional demands of the former and meets
the economic and social needs of the latter. It can be argued that there is benevolence on both
sides. Their aim is non-maleficence, though non-justiciable, but it is a societal need. While it can
be a form of exploitation, the social problem associated with this problem has to be addressed
holistically through a reform of the Adoption laws and IVF services that the indigenous society
took care of.
Baby factories can be reformed and legalised in a culturally acceptable manner. It is hereby
recommended that baby factory can be used as another method of surrogacy that could be
legitimately combined in a surrogacy law whereby women who are willing to provide children
for childless couples can be allowed to do so within clearly defined legislative boundaries. This
will protect the surrogate who are willing to carry children for other people in return for their
care and maintenance during pregnancy and maybe a few months after delivery while the woman
recuperate. Demolition of the homes and releasing the girls into society without adequate
provision for their care will not stop the proliferation of the practice.
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