Adoption of children has come to stay in Nigeria. It is legal and most cultures in the country has embraced the process as a means of getting child/children for the childless couples. Before now, most adopted children were not recognized as a bonafide member of the family especially in the Eastern part of the country. The plethora of cases on this misconceived issue has whittled down the stigma attached to adopted child/children, even if it exists now it’s barely significant.
Adoption is a legal process whereby the rights and responsibilities of the natural parents of a child is transferred to another person known in law as adoptive parents. In other words, all the rights the natural parents have over a child, all the responsibilities which includes shelter, feeding, education, healthcare, clothing etc will be transferred to the person adopting the child. The child automatically becomes the adoptive parent’s child and the child also bears the adoptive parent’s name.
Read:ADOPTION IN RIVERS STATE
What are the process of adopting a child from the Orphanage?
As a prospective parent, you do not walk into any orphanage to adopt a baby. There are laid down procedure to follow. There are 2 types of Orphanages operating in Nigeria.
- Government owned Orphanages
- private owned Orphanages.
The private owned orphanages can be owned by individual or institutions like churches.
For the purpose of this write-up, we will focus on the process of adopting a child from the Government orphanages.
The process of adopting a child from the government orphanage are as follows;
- The prospective parent will write and submit a formal application letter of request to adopt a child to the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation.
- The Director of social Welfare will fix an interview with the Prospective parents. It is in the interview, the prospects will state the sex of the baby they want and the age bracket of the baby. They will be asked their occupation and other personal details.
- Forms will be given to the prospective parents to fill and submit back to the Ministry and obtain list of requirements; Administrative processes/ screening Sessions;
- A date will be fixed for the inspection of the home of the prospective parents to ascertain whether it is conducive to shelter a child. They will also find out if it’s a rented apartment or not.
- After the inspection the prospective parents will wait for the approval of their application. Once the application is approved, the parents will be called upon to pick up the approval letter
- Collection of Letter of Approval to search for an adoptable child in government approved homes; Payment of prescribed fees;
- There will be mandatory Pre-Counselling Session (on appointments), Panel Session, Post Counselling (Proper Parenting);
With the approval letter, the prospective parents can go to any government orphanage to collect a child if its available. Once the child is picked up the couple will engage the services of a lawyer to legalize the process in court.
Read also: ADOPTION OF CHILDREN IN NIGERIA (STEPS AND PROCEDURES)
Challenges of adopting a child from an orphanage
- The genealogy of the child is unknown; most children in the orphanage home their parents are unknown. And because their parents are unknown one may not know the traits from the natural parents, both character traits and hereditary traits.
- Some of the private orphanages are not duly registered. Adopting from any of such orphanage not duly registered can be detrimental.
- Corruption on the side of orphanage officials. This is mostly seen in government orphanages. The highest bidder takes it.
- Delay in getting a baby. As a prospective parent once you receive the approval letter you will be included on the wait list. It can take months or years for your turn to pick up a baby.
In conclusion, adoption is good but before you embark on the journey of adopting a baby you need to make enquiries, duly search and ascertain that the orphanage is duly registered. You need a lot of patience too! The stage of legalizing the adoption is crucial to the process and so you must engage a lawyer at this stage.
For further enquiry:
Email: info@verazadvocates.com.ng
WhatsApp/ call: +234 8116486356
