APC Chair Links Four Decades of Economic Decline to Nigeria’s Human Trafficking Surge

|By Chinwendu Nwani

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, has blamed over 40 years of economic collapse for the rising wave of migration and human trafficking in Nigeria.

Speaking on Monday at the public presentation of Vicious Red Circle, a novel by Ambassador Alex Ugochukwu Oriaku, held at the Yar’Adua Centre in Abuja, Yilwatda said Nigeria’s prolonged economic failures created “fertile ground” for traffickers to prey on desperate citizens.

“Our economic decay over four decades created fertile ground for exploitation. When industries collapsed and hope disappeared, migration and trafficking surged,” he declared, recalling his experience as Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Chair of the African-European Migration and Development Team.

He urged stakeholders to adopt grassroots, community-led strategies to combat human trafficking, insisting the fight must go beyond government efforts.

“We can stop this cycle. This book challenges us to do so. It must not remain on your shelf — let it remain in your heart,” he said.

Author of the book, Ambassador Oriaku, described trafficking as “a vicious, self-perpetuating cycle of exploitation, vulnerability, and silence,” stressing that his work was written as a call to action rather than fiction.

The high-level event, chaired by Yilwatda, drew lawmakers, agency heads, and international development partners — all of whom demanded stronger collaboration to dismantle trafficking networks in Nigeria.