They are everywhere – city, village, internet, school, market, streets, even our homes. Nowhere is safe and nobody is free. They lie low, monitoring everyone’s movement; waiting for the right time, the opportunity to spring into action. They lure; they deceive; they abduct; they use people’s challenges as weapons and never rest until their target becomes their prey. That is who they are: the traffickers.

Human trafficking is illegal or deceptive recruitment and relocation of individuals of various ages, genders, races, and classes. It knows no one. It does not decide which class to prey on and which to avoid. It goes for the white and the black, the male and the female, the young and the aged, the educated and the uneducated, and the rich and the poor. Yes, human trafficking is a global problem; it is not peculiar to Africa or to Nigeria as many of us were made to believe. And unlike the stories we’ve heard, it does not only target the poor, the female gender and the young. No one is safe from human traffickers.

Nevertheless, traffickers do not strike unless they see opportunities. In developing countries like Nigeria, they use the poor economic status of the country to lure their kills. In the rural areas, where there is poor infrastructural development, people are deceived with the story that they will be taken to places, where they will have access to better education, good jobs, healthcare, good quality water, and even electricity. Many are lured with stories of people making millions within weeks in the cities and that alone draws them off their villages and farming occupation to “cities”, where they won’t have to “suffer” again.

What about the ones in the cities? Why are they victims too?

Everybody wants to “run” out of the country. The watchword is, “if you see a way to leave this country, please take it”. Well, there are so many “easy ways” out of the country and the easiest of them all is through traffickers. But how do these people capture those in the city, considering many people in urban areas are educated? Your guess is as good as mine. But I can bet you traffickers are equally good at brainwashing. They step in gradually until their victims believe solely on what they (the traffickers) fed them. At this stage, it becomes difficult to change the minds of the hoodwinked. Worse is, it is hard to determine whether they were falling into the nets of traffickers or just some Good Samaritans. It becomes hard to draw the person out of trouble because you don’t know if you were “messing up his destiny”. It is hard to tell which is which until it hits the person. And by then, it becomes too late.

Many of us know what victims of traffickers encounter. The commonest predicaments they face are sexual exploitation and cheap labour. We have also heard of those sold into slavery and child marriage. You must have heard about the ones, whose organs were harvested and the “suppliers” of babies for illegal adoption homes, aka baby factories. There are those sent into prostitution (even child prostitutes exist), drug couriers, combatants (even child soldiers), and so on. The one of domestic servitude is common; I don’t even want to go into it.

Some lucky victims are rescued, while many still wallow in bondage. Worst is, it is hard to apprehend these traffickers because of how shady they are. Hence, the only way to fight them is by blocking their access to their preys.

In Nigeria, I only know of NAPTIP (National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons) as the agency that fights human trafficking. I also know of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) because of Abike Dabiri-Erewa’s untiring efforts towards rescuing Nigerians trapped in Diaspora. Apart from these two, I don’t know if there is any other agency or organisation that comes to the aid of Nigerians in such circumstances. If there are others, they are very silent; and that is not how it is supposed to be.

Like I asserted earlier, traffickers crawl in on their preys. Most of the times, people are recruited by those that are close to them (friends and family) or those they met through social media (or any other place). But one thing is certain: once a target is sighted, there is constant follow up. Like we say in Nigeria, they follow the person bumper to bumper to make sure he doesn’t change his mind. It only takes the person’s analytical abilities or the efforts of people around him to not fall victim.

But then, when you realise that your person, (or even you) is about to be recruited by a trafficker, what will you do?

This is where experts should come in. There is a need for more organisations with experts on tracking and apprehending traffickers to be established in Nigeria. There is great need for every household to have lists of organisations they can call in cases of suspicion of trafficking. But many of us don’t even know who to call. NAPTIP is a government agency; it is likely overwhelmed. More nongovernmental organisations are needed.

Now that the news of recession (and bad governance) is making it seem like the world is coming to an end for all Nigerians, the traffickers are getting ready for their field day (if they have started already). People need to be at alert to stop them before it is too late.

It is with a very heavy heart that I received the confirmation that for the second time in five years, Nigeria has entered into another recession. Heaviness of heart, because this could have been avoided had this administration taken heed to patriotic counsel given by myself and other well meaning Nigerians on cutting the cost of governance, saving for a rainy day, and avoiding profligate borrowing.

Yes, the COVID19 pandemic has exacerbated an already bad situation, however, we could have avoided this fate by a disciplined and prudent management of our economy.

Be that as it may, it serves no one’s purposes to quarrel after the fact. We must focus on solutions. Nigeria needs critical leadership to guide her back to the path of economic sustainability.

We cannot afford hand wringing and navel-gazing. We must act now, by taking necessary, and perhaps painful actions.

For a start, the proposed 2021 budget presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, October 8, 2020, is no longer tenable. Nigeria neither has the resources, or the need to implement such a luxury heavy budget. The nation is broke, but not broken. However, if we continue to spend lavishly, even when we do not earn commensurately, we would go from being a broke nation, to being a broken nation.

As a matter of importance and urgency, every non essential line item in the proposed 2021 budget must be expunged. For the avoidance of doubt, this ought to include estacodes, non emergency travel, feeding, welfare packages, overseas training, new vehicle purchases, office upgrades, non salary allowances, etc.

Until our economic prospects improve, Nigeria ought to exclusively focus on making budgetary proposals for essential items, which include reasonable wages and salaries, infrastructural projects, and social services (citizenry’s health, and other human development investments).

Additionally, we have to stimulate the economy, by investing in human development, and increasing the purchasing power of the most vulnerable of our population. Only a well developed populace can generate enough economic activity for the nation to exit this recession.

We must invest in those most likely to be impacted by the effects of the recession, the poorest of the poor. As well as stimulating the economy, this also ensures that they do not slip further into extreme poverty.

For example, a stimulus package, in the form of monthly cash transfers of ?5000 to be made to every bank account holder, verified by a Bank Verification Number, whose combined total deposit in the year 2019 was lower than the annual minimum wage.

Now, how will this be funded? By more profligate borrowing? No. I propose a luxury tax on goods and services that are exclusively accessible only to the super-wealthy. A tax on the ultra wealthy to protect the extremely poor.

A practical approach to this is to place a 15% tax on all Business and First Class tickets sold to and from Nigeria, on all luxury car imports and sales, on all private jets imports and service charges, on all jewellery imports and sales, on all designer products imported, produced or sold in Nigeria, and on all other luxury goods either manufactured, or imported into Nigeria, with the exception of goods made for export. The proceeds of this tax should be exclusively dedicated to a Poverty Eradication Fund, which must be managed in the same manner as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, or the Ecological Fund.

I further propose that a 1% poverty alleviation tax should be legislated by the National Assembly on the profits of every International Oil Company operating in Nigeria, and international airlines doing business in Nigeria, which should also go towards the proposed Poverty Eradication Fund.

It is inhumane for us as a nation to increase the cost of goods and services that affect the poor, while keeping the cost of luxuries fairly stable. We must flip this, and flip it immediately.

And above all, Nigeria must stop borrowing for anything other than essential needs. Again, for the avoidance of doubt, borrowing to pay salaries, or to engage in White Elephant projects, is not an essential need. This is particularly important as we need cash at hand, because the world and our economic and development partners are also focused on helping their home economies overcome effects of COVID19. We must be our own saviours.

The more we borrow, the more we will need cash to make interest and principal payments, and the less cash we will have to make necessary investments in our economy and our people. If we keep borrowing, we stand the risk of defaulting, and that will make recession a child’s play, because we will lose some of our sovereignty.

I urge the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to swallow its pride, and accept its limitations, so that they can open their minds to ideas, without caring who the messenger is. For as Deng Xiaoping said “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, so long as it catches mice.