[2] The traditional slave trade in Southern Nigeria preceded the arrival of European influence,[4] and continued locally long after the effective abolition of slavery in many other countries.
[4] Although local slavery was officially prohibited by the colonial British administration from the mid-1880s,[6] they tacitly permitted it to continue well into the 1930s,[7] ending completely only in the 1940s.
One example was the trade in Adamawa girls, who were bought by merchants and kept for a year in Cameroon learning Hausa until they could be smuggled in to Nigeria to be sold in Kano for concubinage or domestic service.
[16] Slaves typically worked for powerful elites of Yoruba society, and they were tasked with farm cultivation, clearing land, or other personal purposes.
[16] Yoruba elites such as warriors, powerful kings, chiefs, and wealthy merchants began to participate in slave trading because it was a profitable source of income.
[16] Foreign merchants supplied Yoruba business partners with powerful weapons such as rifles in exchange for slaves.
[18] Due to the differences in perception of this practice, the Nigerian government has had difficulty in “coordinating resources to eradicate the menace in the country”.
[20] The Middle East and North America are also common places for trafficked persons from Nigeria to end up "for the purposes of adoption, domestic and agricultural labor, and for the sale of their human body parts".
[19] Human trafficking is a significant transnational crime, which is seen as similar to a modern day slave trade.
[2] The most prevalent existence of internal human trafficking for labor occurs in Benue (16.4%), Akwa Ibom (13.2%), Kogi (9.5%), Kano (4.1%), Jigawa (4.1%), Borno (3.6%), Edo (3.6), Kaduna (3.6%), Kwara (3.6%) and Niger (3.6%) states.
[21] Juju affects Nigerian human trafficking since many believe that “a priest connected to a voodoo shrine has the power to manipulate outcomes in people's lives”.
[21] Thus, this leads to a stronger hold over women since the mafia then threaten the victims and their families if the girls fail to cooperate.
[21] The Nigerian mafia “handles the travel documents and transportation to Europe” and from here the madams purchase the girls for work.
[21] An incentive for these girls is the future chance of obtaining an income as a madam, resulting in a cycle of exploitation.
[22] Boko Haram plays a large role in the trafficking of women in Nigeria by kidnapping girls and forcing them into slavery.
[26] In Nigeria, there are two main types of child slavery: forced labor and commercial sexual exploitation.
[17] It is hard to identify child slavery in Nigeria due to the ambiguity between work labor and family chores.
[17] Nigerian children are also forced into mining where they are put at extreme risk due to the rigorous labor required.
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) was created to combat human trafficking in 2003.
[19] This agency is involved in the punishment of human traffickers, the investigation of officers, and the reintegration of victims into society.