Causes And Consequences Of Child Trafficking As Expressed By Married, Adults
[A CASE STUDY OF SHAKI WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE.]

CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Introduction
    This chapter discusses the result of the study. The conclusion drawn and suggestions for further studies are also presented. The purpose of the study was to determine the possible causes and consequences of child trafficking generally in Nigeria and specifically in Shaki West Local Government Area, Oyo State. For this reason, a questionnaire form was developed by the researcher to elicit information from the adults on the causes and consequences of child trafficking in Shaki West Local Government Area, Oyo State.
Discussion of Findings
    The study revealed various possible causes and consequences of child trafficking in Shaki West Local Government Area, Oyo State and these are discussed below;
    The children in this study area are faced with problem of high level of illiteracy and inability of their parents of provide well for them. According to Rogers (1951) “human beings are not just mere objects but organisms possessing some kind of natural force compelling them toward self actualization. Man according to him, has a natural motivation to interact with his environment in ways that would facilitate the achievement of his goals”. According to Olowolabi (1999), what actually triggered off this nefarious behaviour is that the first batch to those children who were innocently trafficked to western countries started sending money and cars to their parents.
    Most of these children were beckoned on by their friends or colleagues over there to come down and rush the lushly green grass of life. From the findings, it was discovered that children without knowledge of child trafficking are the ones that engaged in child trafficking. This took the lion share of first position followed by widespread poverty leading to rush into urban centers. The string desire to be reckoned with among their class or group. For instance, when these children come home during festivity period, they are popularly referred as “italos”. That is, they are well respected by friends.
    The assertion that parents do encourage their daughters to engage in child trafficking due to their greediness for money and wealth contradicts the write-up of. Olowolabi (1999) which says “parent used her building plan as a collateral for the money she borrowed. This is because greed for money and wealth ranked 17 positions out of 19 items of the causes of child trafficking in this findings.
    The findings revealed also that child trafficking as not or rarely occur in families that are intact and of high disciplinary nature than those that are not intact e.g. single parenting, separates and divorces. The finding also revealed that some parents sometimes encourage their daughter to go into child trafficking for other reasons e.g. money rather than social status sake. This in line with Odunuga (2000) when he said “some parents have accused Eki (the wife of Edo State Governor) of truncating the “genuine” efforts being made by these children to live a better life.
    The role of some media houses that are filled with pornographic materials such as films, magazines, photographs and books were also discovered to be having an averagely negative influence on child trafficking interest creation and consequently participation.
    Finally, Olowolabi (1999) reported, the self-assertiveness of the recent children deported from Europe, when they were paraded by policemen before journalists from both print and electronic media, seem to suggest that trafficking in children was for economic purpose alone. One of the girls reportedly called the bluff when she claimed “what is the big deal about prostitution? Why are you people shouting on us? My family was poor, I was hungry and I went to Italy, now, I have built a house, bought cars for my parents and I pay my brothers school fees, I’m not a thief, she declared” in support of the above, poverty and unemployment were ranked 2nd and 5th respectively.
    It is always important to discuss the result of each hypothesis separately to allow for better understanding. It is in that regard that this study has explained the hypotheses as contained below. Each hypothesis was tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance.
    Hypothesis 1 stated that, there is no significant difference in the causes of child trafficking as perceived by adults in Shaki West Local Government Area on the basis of gender. The result of the t-test showed that the null hypothesis was accepted. Thus male and female respondents are similar in their perception of causes of child trafficking. The finding agrees with that of Odunuga (2000) where male and female respondents expressed similar view about causes of child abuse. The reason for the agreement of the findings may be that, both male and female are familiar with different factors that promote child trafficking.