By Patience Ogbo PhD
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The arrest of a 36-year-old woman, Anulika Onyeanusia, popularly known as Princess Anulika, by the Anambra State Police Command over the alleged sexual abuse of her six-year-old daughter during a TikTok livestream has triggered widespread outrage and renewed concerns about the growing commodification of children in Nigeria.
The woman was arrested in Onitsha after disturbing material allegedly showing the sexual abuse of a minor during a TikTok live broadcast attracted the attention of members of the public, who alerted the police.
Following the information, operatives of the Anambra State Police Command reportedly tracked the suspect to her residence and arrested her.
The operation also led to the rescue of four children aged two, three, six and nine years, while sex toys and other items considered relevant to the investigation were recovered.
The suspect’s husband is also being interrogated by investigators to establish whether he had any connection with the alleged offence.
The case has generated anger across social media, with Nigerians condemning the alleged exploitation of a child for online entertainment and financial gain. Social media commentators, including personalities such as Ugo Boss, have joined other Nigerians in expressing outrage over the alleged treatment of the child.
The incident is particularly disturbing because the alleged victim is only six years old and would depend entirely on adults for protection, care and safety.
Children becoming commodities
Beyond the immediate case, the incident raises a much larger and disturbing question: Are Nigerian children increasingly being turned into commodities in different forms of criminal and commercial exploitation?
For years, Nigeria has battled child trafficking, baby factories, illegal adoption, child abduction and the sale of babies and children.
Children are trafficked and sold. Babies are allegedly exchanged for money through illegal adoption networks. Some children are exploited as domestic workers, while others are subjected to sexual exploitation.
The alleged Anambra case introduces another disturbing dimension—the use of children in sexually exploitative online content allegedly to generate financial rewards.
Claims circulating about the case have alleged that the suspect made about $300 from a livestream involving the alleged sexual exploitation of the children. However, that specific financial figure has not been independently verified from the police statement available to this newspaper and should be treated as an allegation pending confirmation by investigators.
Whatever the eventual findings of the investigation, the case demonstrates the danger of allowing children to become sources of financial gain for adults.
A child must never become a means of generating TikTok gifts, social-media views, subscriptions or cash.
Is there a South-East problem?
The Anambra case may also revive questions about why a number of high-profile baby-trafficking and child-exploitation cases have emerged from the South-East.
There have been documented cases involving baby factories, illegal adoption and child trafficking in states including Anambra, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi. This makes the region an important area for investigation by journalists, law-enforcement agencies and child-protection organisations.
But the answer should not be reduced to the claim that South-Eastern women are inherently more abusive or that the Igbo people are responsible for child trafficking.
Child abuse and domestic violence occur throughout Nigeria, involving perpetrators from different ethnic groups, regions, social classes and genders.
Indeed, women can be perpetrators of child abuse and trafficking, but they can also be victims, recruiters acting under coercion, intermediaries or members of wider criminal networks. Men are also involved in many forms of trafficking, exploitation and domestic violence.
The more important investigative question is therefore why particular trafficking markets and networks have developed in certain locations and what economic, social and institutional conditions allow them to survive.
Economic desperation and demand
Child trafficking does not occur in a vacuum.
Where there is a willing buyer, there will be people prepared to supply the commodity. The illegal adoption market, demand for babies, sexual exploitation, domestic labour and other forms of child exploitation create financial incentives for criminals.
Poverty, unemployment, family vulnerability, weak birth-registration systems, inadequate social protection and ineffective prosecution can make children particularly vulnerable.
But demand is equally important.
Those who purchase trafficked children, pay for illegal adoption, consume child sexual-abuse material or reward the exploitation of children online are also part of the ecosystem that keeps the market alive.
This is why arresting individual perpetrators, although necessary, is not sufficient.
Authorities must investigate the entire chain of exploitation—the recruiters, facilitators, financiers, buyers, online audiences and platforms through which money changes hands.
From baby factories to online exploitation
Nigeria’s child-protection crisis appears to be evolving.
The traditional image of a “baby factory” involved women being housed, becoming pregnant or giving birth and babies subsequently being sold.
But child commodification can take many forms.
A child can be stolen and sold.
A baby can be illegally transferred for money.
A child can be trafficked for domestic labour.
A girl can be sexually exploited.
And, increasingly, children can potentially be exposed to online exploitation where adults profit from the production or distribution of abusive content.
The Anambra case should therefore be treated as a warning that technology has created new avenues through which vulnerable children can be exploited.
Social media platforms must take responsibility
Social-media companies must strengthen their mechanisms for detecting and immediately removing child sexual-exploitation material.
Users who encounter such content should not download, circulate or repost it for entertainment or engagement. It should instead be reported to the platform and relevant law-enforcement authorities.
The public’s intervention in the Anambra case demonstrates the importance of responsible digital vigilance. Instead of simply watching disturbing content, concerned citizens alerted the authorities, leading to police intervention and the rescue of four children.
Urgent national response needed
Nigeria needs a coordinated national strategy against the commodification of children.
The police, NAPTIP, state ministries responsible for women and children’s affairs, social-welfare agencies, schools, health institutions, civil-society organisations and technology companies must work together.
Investigations should not end with the arrest of one suspect.
Authorities should determine whether the children were previously subjected to other forms of abuse, whether other people were involved, whether money was exchanged and whether similar activities are taking place elsewhere.
The rescued children must also receive appropriate medical, psychological and social support.
Most importantly, Nigeria must begin treating child trafficking and exploitation as an emergency requiring sustained intervention rather than a series of isolated scandals.
Children are not commodities.
They are not merchandise.
They are not TikTok content.
They are not sources of online gifts.
And they must never become instruments through which adults make money.
The Anambra case should therefore serve as another wake-up call: Nigeria must confront the growing commercialisation of childhood before the exploitation of vulnerable children becomes an even larger underground economy.
The suspect remains presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court of law.
Tighten the headline and opening
Reduce graphic detail about the child
Separate confirmed facts from allegations
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