The concept of surrogacy in Nigeria: Issues, prospects and challenges

The journey from girlhood to womanhood in Africa begins with betrothal to marriage. This journey is not complete and the place of an African woman is not secure in her matrimonial home until such time as she is able to procreate. As such, reproduction is an essential aspect of the African family system. The inability of an African woman to fall pregnant within months of marriage is usually seen as a cause for anxiety and if this condition continues for some years, the woman is tagged barren and treated as a woman with a disability, seeing that the inability to conceive is seen as such. In most cases the husband's family mount pressure on the husband to either marry an additional wife or another wife in order to produce a child. This leads many women to make desperate decisions which may not necessarily be legally recognised, including the practice of buying babies. The article examines the legal framework for surrogacy in Nigeria. It adopts a comparative method and compares the legal frameworks governing surrogacy in Nigeria and South Africa. It concludes that there is a lacuna regarding surrogacy in the laws of Nigeria which allows for abuse during the surrogacy, and makes policy recommendations to provide the legal architecture to protect stakeholders in surrogate agreements in Nigeria. Key words: Africa; 'baby factories'; infertility; Nigeria; surrogacy