‘Why AU Summit must focus on accountability’

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The youth advocate described the phenomenon as the grim evolution of economic desperation, representing what he termed the final, grotesque stage of migration patterns.

“First, our best minds leave for legitimate opportunity abroad. Then, our skilled labour follows. Now, we have reached the final, grotesque stage: the trafficking of our hopeful youth under false pretences. They are not migrants; they are commodities in a geopolitical supply chain. Their dreams are packaged as ‘opportunity,’ only to be unwrapped on a production line for war,” he stated.

He argued that the reported exploitation represents a direct violation of the African Union’s own 1977 convention on mercenarism and contradicts every pillar of Agenda 2063, the AU’s 50-year blueprint for continental development, which speaks of “inclusive growth and decent work,” “good governance and human rights,” and “people-driven” development that empowers women and youth.

“We speak of ‘The Africa We Want,’ but this reveals an Africa that is taken from. Our work is to build futures through education and mentorship, to turn the latent potential in our communities into tangible progress. But what we are witnessing is the systemic harvesting of that potential for destruction,” Omoyele observed.

The DFTS founder noted that the violation is multifaceted, affecting individual dignity, national sovereignty, and the continent’s collective promise, reducing African lives to disposable inputs in a geopolitical conflict.

He particularly criticised what he described as the fragmented response from AU member states, with South Africa investigating a single high-profile recruiter, Kenya speaking of diplomatic protection, and Nigeria’s education ministry allegedly once advertising the very Alabuga program after a reported hack, while many other countries remain silent.

“The silence is a louder statement than any declaration,” he observed. “It tells our young people that their lives are negotiable, that their aspirations are secondary to diplomatic convenience. At DFTS, we teach that your community must see your value to invest in you. When the highest continental body fails to protect that value, it dismantles the very social contract we are trying to build from the ground up.”

The youth empowerment advocate identified the crisis as sitting at the intersection of every major AU agenda item, including peace and security, human rights and governance, geopolitical agency, and multilateral engagement.

According to him, the issue presents a fundamental test of the AU’s credibility: if the continental body cannot muster a unified stance to protect its citizens from clear trafficking, it undermines its ability to credibly demand a seat at reformed global tables or negotiate climate reparations from a position of strength.

He noted that the assumption of the AU Chair by Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye, with his reported focus on diplomatic normalisation and security in the Great Lakes and Sahel, adds particular relevance to the crisis, as it represents a security issue with direct human toll. He drew a parallel between the summit’s water security theme and the protection of human resources, arguing that there is no resource more vital than a continent’s people.

“The water theme reminds us that sustainability is about protecting vital resources. To discuss water security while ignoring the trafficking of the youth who must build that future is an untenable contradiction,” he said.

Omoyele challenged the summit to engage in frank, strategic reflection, asking what sovereignty means if citizens can be deceptively shipped to die in foreign wars, and what unity means when faced with such a blatant assault on collective dignity.

He called for concrete action, including a unified condemnation, a mandated investigation, the activation of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and direct, high-level engagement with Moscow, treating the issue not as a side concern but as a litmus test for the AU’s credibility.

“Leadership is protection. Anything less is a betrayal of our future. Their dreams, which we work daily to nurture in the slums, must not become the fuel for nightmares in foreign fields,” Omoyele noted.

He warned that African citizens, especially the youth whose empowerment Agenda 2063 champions, are watching the gap between aspiration and reality widen.

He urged that the crisis be moved from corridors of whispered concern to the main stage of collective action, emphasizing that the agency of a continent is proved not only in claiming justice for the past but in defiantly protecting its future in the present.

“When the history of this summit is written, let it not be recorded that African leaders discussed the water their people drink, while quietly letting the blood of their sons and daughters be spilled, and the labour of their daughters exploited, in a war that is not their own,” Omoyele stated.