"WHEN THE ENEMY LOOKS LIKE US"

Today, I came across a post on social media warning people about trafficking happening in several African countries. Curious, I opened the comment section and what I read there shook me deeply. It made me pause… and think. Then, I started having a conversation in my head. How did we get here? This trafficking of our own brothers and sisters is not accidental. It’s organized. It’s structured. It is rooted in systems. There are people making it happen, and sadly, those people are often fellow Africans. They sell out others for money. For greed. For selfish gain. They work with transport officials, passport handlers, immigration staff people in positions meant to protect not destroy. We cry about colonialism. We mourn our history how we were sold into slavery by white men. But what do we call this? A black man selling a black woman. A black woman selling her brother.For sex trafficking. For rituals. For modern slavery. For labor. Some lose their lives. Others their dignity. And yet... it’s not outsiders doing this. IT'S US. And so I ask,how do these people sleep at night? How do they find peace, knowing someone out there is crying, being used, or dying because of their actions? Then my mind moved to politics. Everywhere I turn in Nigeria, people are complaining. "The system is corrupt." "The president is greedy." "The government doesn’t care." But I ask, how did this corruption begin? It started with us. At the grassroots level. In schools, favoritism wins over merit. In estates and communities, chairmen embezzle funds. In student politics, people rig elections with money, promises, and power. So how then do we expect national leaders to be any different? How do we fight corruption at the top when we nurture it from the bottom? Our foundation is weak. We keep blaming the fruit, forgetting that the rot began from the root. You can’t heal a sick tree from the leaves. You start at the root. Until we fix our foundation our schools, our homes, our communities we are not ready for change. We talk about unity, peace, and brotherhood. But how can we preach those things while selling our own people?How can we demand fairness when we practice tribalism, favoritism, and bias every day? Change is not magic. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time and intentional steps. So I ask again: How then do we make the change?How then do we build unity? How then do we stop selling ourselves? It starts with you. It starts with me. It starts from the roots.

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