Though it is fast becoming a viable alternative to childless couples, child adoption in Nigeria is still comparatively unpopular given the cultural beliefs, then the many hiccups to successful adoption do not equally help matters, writes OGECHI OKORONDU
Chioma Uba (not real name) and Jules Uba have been married for over a decade without a child. After several medical check-ups confirming the couple was medically fit, they decided to wait on God. After waiting for a year or two with no results, Jules had suggested that they opt for child adoption, which his wife rejected on the grounds that she could not bear the thought of raising another woman’s child.
Out of frustration and pressure coming from her in-laws, she succumbed to her husband’s plea to adopt a baby who will wipe her tears away.
Another couple, Bob and Karen tried for years to have a child. After six miscarriages, they finally agreed to adopt. “I brought up adoption several times, and we could never agree on whether that was our next step,” Karen explains. “Then one night he came home and said he thought we should adopt a baby. When he pictured himself as a parent, he imagined holding a little girl. That is how we began our journey to finally become parents”.
In a society where a barren woman is considered an outcast and a curse to her kinsmen, such a woman would do anything in her powers to find justification for living as a woman and as such will choose to undergo any form of humiliation to be crowned a mother.
Women in this precarious situation are driven into the comfort of these motherless babies homes who claim to proffer solutions to their childlessness and provide them with children. These women who go through different forms of abuse and trauma come out triumphant with the birth of a child which may not be theirs.
Adoption for a vast majority of Nigerians is not an option because of our cultural beliefs. Some give reasons ranging from not knowing the roots of the child to causing an imbalance in the family structure. A few others think that by adopting a child, one has accepted the defeat of barrenness and so many would rather go through the trauma of childlessness than opting for adoption.
Adoption is a legal process pursuant to state statute in which a child’s legal rights and duties towards its natural parents are terminated and similar rights and duties towards his adoptive parents are substituted. It is also an order vesting the parental rights and duties relating to a child in the adopters, made on their application by an authorised court. Adoption is important in society because it touches on status and therefore affects the rights and obligation of an adopted person.
In Nigeria, adoption may be effected either under statutory law or customary law. However, as with all adoption procedures, rules differ from state to state: adoptive parents must foster their children for at least three months in Lagos, but must foster for at least one year in Akwa Ibom. Abuja allows adoption if and only if one parent is a Nigerian. The government office responsible for adoption in Nigeria is the civil court. The institution of adoption is wholly a statutory creation; common law does not provide for nor recognize adoption. Prospective adoptive parents are advised to fully research any adoptive agency or facilitator they plan to use for adoptive services.
Adopting a child in Nigeria is a very sensitive issue especially with the new wave of child trafficking that is becoming rampant in the country. The social welfare office, one of whose main concern is with adoption, custody and guardianship of minors in Nigeria is very cautious as regards the adoption of a child.
The social welfare office scrutinises to the utmost the main intent of the applicant for adoption. The reason is not far from the recent problems of child sales and trafficking happening in the country.
An expert on child adoption, Mrs Ojochide Atojoko said, “the original concept of adoption from early times was providing a child for the comfort of a childless couple or for continuity of a lineage devoid of male off springs, generally speaking for procreation but recently there has been a shift”.
Mrs Atojoko added that, “the outstanding development in modern law of parent and child is the transformation of parental power into parental care and responsibilities. Side by side with this had developed the principle that welfare of children is the paramount consideration, which means that in any adjudication in respect of children, courts are primarily and essentially concerned with the welfare of the child.
“In modern law the protection of the interest of the child has become the fundamental policy of law, although it cannot be said that the development of the policy of laws has been uniform in all systems of law.”
In recent times, the country has experienced baby boom and baby factories. This is a situation where women most especially young girls are kept for child breeding purpose and there after paid for the child who is in turn put up for sale. Although there are laws against illegal adoption, most people are not aware of it because of lack of information on it, and this is the reason why, unscrupulous people cash in on it to make quick money and maneuver things to their own favour.
According to Mrs Atojoko, information on adoption in Nigeria is quite scarce and one of the reasons adduced is to keep vital sensitive information from people whose sole reason for adoption is not in the best interest of the child.
“Until the early 1990s adoption was not generally practiced in Nigeria. There were other ways of keeping a child under the care of another who is not a natural parent by fostering guardianship as the case may be. The overall reason for the unavailability of information on adoption to the public is to guide against child trafficking and child labour and also to be able to ascertain the intentions of the adoptive parents.
“In Nigeria there are no registered adoption agencies saddled with the responsibility for the adoption of the child. The first step for anyone intending to adopt a child is often at the Social Welfare Office of the State where such child is resident”.
This is done in accordance with The Child Rights Act which states, “Every state shall, for the purpose of adoption, establish and maintain within the state and, in the case of the Federal Government, within the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja a service designated to meet the needs of a child who has been or may be adopted
(a) Parents and guardians of the child specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection; and
(b) Persons who have adopted or who may adopt a child and for this purpose, every Government shall provide the requisite facilities or ensure that the facilities are provided by approved adoption services as may be prescribed by the appropriate authority. The facilities to be provided as part of these services maintained above include a temporary boarding and lodging where needed by the child and where the need arises, such may also be extended to the mother of the child, arrangements for assessing the child and prospective adopters and placing of the child for adoption and counseling for persons with problems relating to adoption.”
The decision to adopt a baby is very much a journey. For people unacquainted with adoption, the trek can be over-whelming but with endurance it can be rewarding.