THE CHALLENGE OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY
Government should do more by reducing poverty
Like last year, it was very telling that the 2026 edition of the International Day for the Remembrance of Slave Trade and Its Abolition was not marked in our country last Sunday. Perhaps because of the mistaken belief that slavery has been abolished in Nigeria. But as we keep repeating, someone does not have to be in chains and ferried across the Atlantic Ocean or Sahara Desert to be a slave. They become slaves when transaction is made with them as commodities. Today, stories abound of how many young women were lured into travelling to some countries in North Africa and the Middle East by traffickers who promise them jobs only to turn them into domestic slaves.
Although the Global Slavery Index (GSI) 2023 by the Walk Free Foundation (WFF) commends Nigeria’s response to the challenge of modern slavery by taking steps to support survivors and addressing some of the risk factors, the report also states that “Nigeria is among the most vulnerable countries to modern slavery in Africa and has the fifth highest prevalence of modern slavery in the region.” The 2023 GSI estimates that on any given day in 2021, there were 1.6 million individuals living in modern slavery in Nigeria. In effect, there is prevalence of 7.8 people in modern slavery for every 1000 people in the country.
Available reports indicate that majority of the affected persons are forced into domestic, industrial and commercial labour, marriages or are simply given out to relations under innocuous circumstances. Not surprisingly, this shameful profile reflects the severity of the scourge across Africa: a continent that has been identified as home to the largest prevalence of slavery on earth, with more than seven per cent of every 1000 people as victims.
No human being deserves to be a slave at any time, going by the definition of modern slavery, “the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.” According to the Slavery Convention of the League of Nations (now United Nations) adopted in 1926, it is “the situation of exploitation that a person cannot refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception, and/or abuse of power.” To worsen the impact of the practice, the exchange could be with or without the victim’s prior knowledge, usually unaware of the full extent of the predicament at the beginning.
What makes the Nigerian condition more worrisome is its ignoble recognition as one of the world’s leading culprits in three critical areas: source, transit and destination. Europe and North Africa have continued to benefit from the growing incidents of emigration among Nigerians in search of the proverbial greener pastures. But instead of actualising their dreams, many of them end up being sexually exploited – one of the most widespread forms of present-day captivity. Sadly, not even stories of the tortuous and precarious journeys across the Sahara Desert have been able to dissuade our young men and women from gambling with their lives. Consequently, many of them have caused themselves harm, brought sorrow to their relations and further tarnished the already battered international image of our country.
The main factors promoting this contemporary bondage, according to many experts, are poverty, economic crises, physical conflicts, and environmental disasters. The abundant presence of these evils in Nigeria today requires bold, well-designed and executed government interventions which could hopefully serve as catalysts for more productive involvement of the private sector in this campaign. Only concerted, collaborative efforts aimed at empowering the populace and restoring the dignity of the citizenry can effectively curb the current manifestations of servitude.