A PLACE TO CALL HOME: THE POLITCS OF ADOPTION IN NIGERIA
CHINYERE UGWUEGBU
ABUJA, NIGERIA

(CHILDREN PLAYING AND LAUGHING)

UGWUEGBU:
It’s Thursday’s morning.
I am at the home of James Humphrey.
Fifteen year old James and his siblings are not in school today.
Their mother, Esther, is sick again.
She’s also HIV positive.
Because she’s sick, James has to stay home and take care of Esther.
At times like these, James has to play the role of mother and father.

JAMES:
Life has been so difficult. Sometimes when my mom is sick like this, I’ll be the one to do other works at home because there is no one to come and assist her.

UGWUEGBU:
James and his family live in Utan - about three kilometers from Jos city.
Utan is famous for its tin deposits and beautiful landscapes.
But it is also becoming famous for its share of Orphaned and Vulnerable Children. James Humphrey and his siblings are part of the long list of OVCs in the city.
Like James, many children are forced to care for their sick parents and missing school instead.
The Federal Ministry of Women Affairs estimates that there are about six million OVCs in Nigeria.
That figure could rise dramatically in coming years.
What is needed now, are new efforts to improve care and support for children who lose one or both parents.
For James and his siblings, that may be far-fetched.

(CHILDREN PLAYING AND LAUGHING)

Since their father died two years ago, James and his siblings have changed home three times.
James says that is having an impact on his studies.

JAMES:   
Sometimes because of that I normally don’t have time to study my books.

UGWUEGBU:
James’ mother, Esther is getting weaker each day.
She is also poor in health.
Although she’s weak, she wants to work and take care of her five children.
But her failing health would not allow her.
Like when she recently enrolled in a skills building class with a local NGO.
She wanted to learn how to sow.

ESTHER:  
I was just learning when I started falling sick, so I was not able to continue going.

UGWUEGBU:
That NGO is the Mashiah foundation, based in Tudunwada.
Mashiah cares for widows and orphans whose bread-winners have died from AIDS related complications.
The foundation recently stopped supporting Esther and her children.
Esther says help stopped because the foundation could no longer cope with the growing number of people who need help.
So she started looking for other options.

CHILD:
I can’t afford them and really now that I’m falling sick. I am not strong to go and work, to feed them, to solve their problems. That is why I made the decision to adopt them out to the white people.

Adoption, Esther says, could secure a better future for her five children.

CHILD:
I want a brighter future for my children. I don’t want my children to end up in the streets.

Pastor Bayo Oyemade supports Esther’s decision for adoption.
Mr. Oyemade heads the Mashiah foundation.

(CHILDREN PLAYING SAYING DADDY)

He’s everyone’s “daddy” at the foundation.

PASTOR BAYO:
Nobody knows what’s going to happen to her. She is very weak. She’s having HIV/AIDS. And she’s got two white people from the US who want to adopt her children, but our law says no. This lady is living with her children and the lady kept on saying what is going to happen to my children when I die?

UGWUEGBU:
Pastor Bayo is talking of two American families who have offered to adopt three of her children.
But the country’s Child Rights Act on adoption is blocking the process.
The law passed three years ago, forbids child adoption beyond local government boundaries.
Pastor Bayo says the law should be revised.

PASTOR BAYO:
What I expect Nigeria to do, is to say: Who is this person that is coming to pick  our child? Does he have a good income? Does he have a good home? Can he take care of these children properly? We must put that in our law  -  that if these children go to the US, these children must go to school. We must say our children must go to university level. Anybody who wants to come and pick our children, we go okay, you are committed to sending these children to university level.

UGWUEGBU:
Bayo has worked on child rights and child care issues for fifteen years.
He says the provision in the Act that forbids a person from adopting children outside his local government area is not in favor of vulnerable children.

PASTOR BAYO:
Something must be done about these children. There must be a concrete program that will absorb them. Well, many Nigerians want to adopt them, where are they? You see one person adopt a kid and go to Nigerian television and say that “I’ve adopted HIVs.” Is that the solution? No! There must be a program where we can absorb hundreds of thousands.  

(NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AMBIENCE)

UGWUEGBU:
Here at the National Assembly, Honorable Saudatu Sani and her colleagues continue to look at the provisions in the Child Rights Act. 
She chairs the house committee on Women and Children’s Affairs.
She’s also part of the committee that has been set up to review the Act.

HONORABLE SAUDATU SANI:
If you look at adoption, the law says that you cannot adopt a child from Abuja to Kaduna, which is just two hours drive. However we are going to put a committee which will look at the request on the amendment and they will look at it to the benefit of the child, not to the detriment of the child.

UGWUEGBU:
Honorable Saudatu Sani admits the Act needs to be reformed to include OVCs.

HONORABLE SAUDATU SANI:
As far as the children with HIV/AIDS or orphaned by HIV/AIDS are concerned the law itself did not take care of them. That’s why we said when laws are made these are laws made by human beings. So there are bound to be gaps. Because of those gaps we are considering the amendment of the Child Rights Act.

UGWUEGBU: