CULTURAL VIOLENCE AND BABY BUYING IN NIGERIA: STRUCTURAL INSECURITY OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN

Abstract

Cultural violence against women and the girl child has become a common phenomenon in Africa and in Nigeria in particular. Women seem to be at the receiving end of structural violence in the society. They almost unilaterally bear the brunt of childlessness in marriage, disposing them to baby buying with its attendant legal consequences. The media are replete with reports on women nabbed for baby buying and selling. This research interrogates the nexus between cultural violence against women and the rising spate of baby buying in Nigeria as well as the role of other socio-economic factors in fueling the inferno. This study adopted a qualitative research design where secondary sources were used for data collection. The study found that the cultural architecture of society which threatens the position of a childless woman or a woman with no male child in her matrimonial home has created a thriving market for baby factory proprietors in Nigeria. Next to this are the stigma associated with teenage pregnancy and the abysmal economic condition of the citizenry. The paper concludes that if these predisposing factors are addressed it will go a long way in stemming the ugly tide. The study thus recommends that the government should protect childless women from marital insecurity and cultural violence through enabling laws. The government should also invest more in positive peace-building and economic empowerment strategies; promote researches in gynecology and obstetrics to curtail infertility, and make quality health care affordable to the common man.