Osinbajo Advocates Simplification of Adoption Process in Nigeria

• Says many world leaders were adopted

The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo has said the process of adoption in the country must be simplified to cater for many children in need of a happy home all over the country.

The vice president revealed that many world leaders, including a former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela and former presidents of the United States of America – Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton – were also adopted.

Osinbajo noted that the sheer number of little children all over the country is disheartening.

The vice president spoke yesterday in Lagos at the 2nd Annual Conference of the Heritage Adoption Support and Advocacy Group (HASAAG).

He said having been to virtually every state in the country, he found that many abandoned children were everywhere.

According to him, these children could have been given a better life but for the process of adoption which is very cumbersome.

He urged more Nigerians to embrace the idea of adopting children, stressing that many of the greatest leaders in the world were actually adopted.

According to him, former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, former presidents of the United States of America – Gerald Ford and Bill Clinton – were also adopted.

He therefore, called for the simplification of the process so that more children should be given a home.

Speaking earlier, the Managing Trustee and Project Coordinator of HASAAG, Mrs. Eme Akenzua, had decried the stigma of not having a child and the difficulty of accepting the adopted into a family.

She disclosed that UNICEF has estimated that there are about 17.5 million orphaned and vulnerable children in Nigeria while over 25 per cent of married couples are childless.

“Adoption can to a very large extent reduce the numbers of both sides,” she said.

She pointed out that adoption is “not happening enough as adoption is still viewed with a negative mindset and women struggling from infertility are stigmatised, abused and even ostracised by family, friends and the society at large, mainly because of ignorance.”