By Sam Adeleke

Few months ago, I found myself thinking about a client I had never expected to see in the headlines. His name is Ridwan Adisa Balogun. Before his name became associated with the Russia-Ukraine war, Ridwan was simply a Nigerian looking for opportunity abroad. He approached us seeking a one-way ticket to Russia on a tourism visa. He told us he was travelling in search of work. We advised him against it. The circumstances did not make sense to us, and travelling on a tourism visa in search of employment raised obvious questions about what would happen when he arrived. He decided not to take our advice and proceeded with his journey.

What happened next is a story I wish I did not have to tell. Ridwan eventually found himself recruited into the Russian military and sent to the frontline in the war against Ukraine. The pay was good and he even sent some money home to his folks. However, that joy was short-lived. In January 2026, he was captured by Ukrainian forces near Lyman. Around the same period, reports emanated from Russia, which somehow filtered to his loved ones in Nigeria that he has been killed on the frontlines. A man who had left Nigeria looking for work was reportedly a dead soldier in a foreign war.

Then came the extraordinary part. He was alive. Ridwan made an SOS appeal for the Nigerian government to intervene and help bring him home. Through a charitable Ukrainian NGO, that appeal reached Nigerians and the wider public. He explained in the video, that trended online in February 2026, that he had travelled to Russia looking for civilian employment as a mechanic or engineer (which was his occupation back home in Nigeria), only to find himself signing a military contract he could not understand. He said the documents were in Russian and he was not permitted to use his phone to translate them. He was subsequently trained alongside others and deployed to the battlefield. As I write this, Ridwan has not returned home. So, for me, this is not an abstract conversation migration, it has a face, it has a name and it is personal.

Over the past decade, my work has taken me across more than 16 countries and into conversations with governments, tourism organizations, mobility practitioners, aspiring migrants, Diaspora communities and young Africans searching for opportunities beyond their borders. I have always believed that international mobility can be a force for good. People should be able to travel, study, work and build better lives across borders. However, mobility only works when people move with accurate information, proper documentation and informed consent.

The greatest danger facing many young Africans today is not the absence of opportunity. It is the growing sophistication of those who sell them false opportunity. Ridwan’s experience illustrates why deceptive recruitment is much bigger than a migration problem. Across Africa, many young people are being targeted with promises of lucrative jobs, security positions, technical employment and other opportunities abroad. Unfortunately, some later find themselves in situations radically different from what they were promised. It is an open secret that somecountries take advantage of desperate Africans with misleading employment offers, contracts in unfamiliar languages and deployment into combat.

As a sovereign nation, Nigeria must move from being reactionary to being proactive by building a system that prevents them. To be fair, the Nigerian government has already recognised the danger. Infact, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has warned Nigerians against deceptive recruitment into foreign armed conflicts and directed Nigerian missions abroad to strengthen consular vigilance. Institutions such as the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCom) have also built significant experience around citizen welfare, migration governance and the protection of Nigerians overseas. However, prevention has to begin before the airport.

Finally, as Africa’s most populous nation and one of ECOWAS’ most influential member, Nigeria has the diplomatic weight to place deceptive recruitment firmly on the regional agenda. ECOWAS can facilitate intelligence sharing, coordinated monitoring, victim protection and public awareness across West Africa. The African Union can take the conversation further by developing continental principles around ethical recruitment and the protection of African workers and job seekers abroad. We cannot tell young Africans to dream bigger and then leave them alone to navigate an increasingly sophisticated global marketplace of deception.

Ridwan Balogun wanted a job. He did not set out to become a soldier; that distinction matters. So, the goal should never be to discourage Nigerians from seeking opportunities abroad. It should be to make sure that when Nigerians cross borders in search of a better life, they do so safely, legally, transparently and with dignity. Our responsibility as a country is to make sure that desperation never becomes an open door for exploitation. Nigeria has the opportunity to lead that conversation for Africa. We should not wait until the next Ridwan becomes a headline.

Sam Adeleke is a tourism and cross-border mobility expert who has worked with governments, development agencies, and private-sector organizations across Africa. Having travelled across 16 countries, his work focuses on migration, labour mobility, ethical recruitment, and the protection of vulnerable populations.