When The Pasture Is Greenless: Nigeria, Libya and the Return of Slave Trade in Africa

There has been a serious apprehension about Nigerian youths leaving the country in search of the proverbial greener pastures. Similarly, a fundamental shift in migration patterns occurred when the routes through Libya, long used by economic migrants making their way to Europe, became formalized as highway for modern slave trade. This paper adopts a qualitative research design with reliance on secondary sources of data and argues that Nigerians have been trafficked into slavery either in the transit country as Libya or the country of destination mostly in Europe. It observed that there seem to be a failure of expectations from Nigerians who on arrival in these countries realize that the pasture is no longer green as they are sold out as slaves, used for sex labor or thrown into torture chambers on accusation of irregular migration. The paper discovers that there are syndicates and cartels responsible for this illicit trade while a lot of money is made through the conduits used to lure these youths into the illegal business. It equally uncovers that a mere securitization of migration through fences and push-backs will not stop the flow of Nigerians as the Libyan economy seems to benefit from the money made from irregular migrants. The paper concludes that there is need for proper collaboration and intensification of action by the Nigerian and Libyan governments to arrest this ugly trend.