Chains to Contracts: The Evolution of Slavery in the Modern Age

By George Omagbemi Sylvester

When we speak of slavery, the mind drifts to shackles, auction blocks, and the haunting cries from the belly of slave ships. Yet, the horror of slavery is not buried in the past. It walks among us in suits, uniforms, sweatshops, and the dimly lit rooms of human trafficking dens. Slavery has not died, it has evolved. The faces are familiar, the chains invisible, the cruelty repackaged.

It is not that humans today are still being bought and sold in open markets though in Libya and parts of the Middle East, they are but that their dignity continues to be auctioned off for profit, power, and silence.

As the American philosopher Noam Chomsky once said, “The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.” This is the nature of modern slavery: hidden beneath systems, laws, and economics that present themselves as “normal.”

A Mirror to the Past
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Africans were deemed subhuman beasts of burden, creatures of muscle without mind or soul. Slave traders and their wealthy patrons justified this evil with religion, pseudoscience, and imperial law. French philosopher Voltaire once wrote shamefully that “negroes are inferior to whites.” Such beliefs laid the foundation for centuries of inhuman treatment.

Today, slavery has become more sophisticated, but no less brutal. According to the Global Slavery Index 2023, over 50 million people worldwide are currently trapped in modern slavery. This includes forced labor, child marriage, debt bondage, and sex trafficking. India, China, Pakistan, and Nigeria rank among the highest in prevalence. In the Gulf States, African and Asian workers live under “kafala” sponsorship systems that rob them of freedom. In Eritrea, conscription is lifelong. In parts of Southeast Asia, women are groomed, raped, and sold. Slavery now wears a suit and calls itself industry.

Yet what binds the slavery of the past to that of the present is one thing: a lack of understanding and empathy.

Understanding Is the First Step Toward Justice
In the days of the transatlantic slave trade, African slaves were deemed less than human. Today, victims of trafficking are called “illegal immigrants.” Workers in sweatshops are seen as statistics. Street children are dismissed as delinquents. Refugees fleeing war are labeled threats.

This is not just ignorance, it is the weaponization of ignorance.

As Ghanaian philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah argues in The Ethics of Identity, the failure to see the other as fully human “with dreams, fears, histories, and hopes” is what makes exploitation possible. “Recognition is the first human gift we owe one another,” he wrote. Without that recognition, oppression festers.

Philosophers, Prophets, and the Common Man
Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave turned intellectual giant, once declared, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave.” That is as true today as it was in 1855. The more we understand the interconnected systems that perpetuate human suffering, the less likely we are to participate in them silently.

Jean-Paul Sartre, a French existentialist, warned us that freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you. The enslaved of old were beaten into obedience; the modern slave is conditioned into silence by poverty, patriarchy, and precariousness.

Listen to the market woman in Lagos who cannot afford to send her daughter to school, only to later find out that child has been trafficked to Europe. Hear the cries of the boy from Bangladesh, working 16 hours in a factory for global brands. Are they not as human as the plantation slave of Georgia or the rubber-tapper of colonial Congo?

Capitalism, Complicity, and the New Chains
Karl Marx once said, “Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor.” That vampire has grown fangs. Under today’s global capitalism, workers are expendable, outsourced, and underpaid. Tech companies boast billions while their workers sleep in tents. Brands celebrate “diversity” while profiting off child labor in cobalt mines.

Even in developed nations, slavery thrives, subtly. Undocumented immigrants labor in farms, homes, and factories, afraid to speak out. Domestic workers suffer abuse behind closed doors. Prisons, especially in the U.S., operate as labor mills, where disproportionately Black inmates work for pennies.

Slavery is no longer a crime against humanity, it has become a business model.

Black Child, Think!
The hashtag #THINKBLACKCHILD is a cry for mental emancipation. It is not enough to learn about slavery in school and shake our heads in pity. We must trace its living roots in our modern institutions, from education and law enforcement to global trade and entertainment.

Bob Marley once sang, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; none but ourselves can free our minds.” The Black child must learn to question systems, to trace patterns, to see the world through the lens of justice, not convenience.

Solutions or Silence?
We must start by naming the evil. Modern slavery must be declared a global emergency. Governments must criminalize and dismantle the structures “legal or illegal” that permit exploitation. Rich nations must stop preaching democracy while buying cocoa, diamonds, and garments harvested through suffering.

Education must be decolonized. Economic systems must be people-centered. And every citizen must ask: Who is paying the price for my convenience?

A quote often misattributed to Edmund Burke says, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Whether said by Burke or not, the truth stands.

The Fire Next Time:
The legendary James Baldwin warned, “If we do not now dare everything, the fulfillment of that prophecy, recreated from the Bible in song by a slave, is upon us: God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.”

We have run out of excuses. The chains may look different, the auctions may be digital, and the plantations may be replaced by factory floors, but the crime remains. Slavery still walks among us. What are we doing about it?

To compare animals to enslaved humans, as some do, is not only offensive to history but distracts from the ongoing slavery of humans today. The better comparison is between the enslaved of yesterday and the exploited of now, both victims of a world that too often sees people as tools, not souls.

Until every child walks free, until every laborer earns with dignity, and until every woman’s body is hers alone; the fight is not over.

₦10 Billion Solar Panels at Aso Rock: Tinubu’s Silent Vote of No Confidence in Nigeria’s Electricity Sector

By George Omagbemi Sylvester

In a country where over 90 million citizens live without reliable access to electricity, where epileptic power supply continues to stifle businesses, education, and healthcare, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has sanctioned the installation of ₦10 billion worth of solar panels at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa. This ostentatious project comes in the same breath as recent assurances by his Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who boldly claimed that Nigeria’s national grid had “greatly improved” and that electricity supply was now “more stable than ever.”

But the irony here is impossible to ignore, painfully loud and bitterly revealing. The same administration that forced Nigerians into Band A tariffs under the pretense of improving service delivery has chosen to insulate itself from the very grid it coerces the populace to depend on. Tinubu’s decision to power the seat of government independently through solar energy is more than just symbolic, it is a deafening, silent vote of no confidence in Nigeria’s electricity sector. It is, quite frankly, a betrayal of public trust and a scandalous contradiction that undermines every reform narrative being pushed by this administration.

A Public Relations and Moral Disaster
This isn’t just a case of bad optics; it is a strategic blunder and a public relations nightmare. It is a spit in the face of millions of ordinary Nigerians who wake up at 2 a.m. to iron their clothes or charge their phones during the brief window when “NEPA” brings back light. It is a harsh insult to small business owners who spend half their earnings fueling generators. It is a cruel reminder to students forced to study under candlelight and hospital patients whose lives hang in the balance due to erratic electricity supply.

What message does it send when the Commander-in-Chief cannot trust the very system his government is supposedly reforming? Nigeria has reportedly spent over $25 billion on the power sector since the advent of democracy in 1999. Yet, we still generate an embarrassing 3,500 to 4,000 megawatts for a country of over 200 million people, a mere fraction of our real demand, which exceeds 30,000 megawatts.

According to a 2024 report by the World Bank, Nigeria loses an estimated $28 billion annually to power sector inefficiencies. In the same year, the national grid collapsed twice in one week, affecting all 36 states. These systemic failures make Tinubu’s solar insulation not just hypocritical but a confirmation that Nigeria’s energy sector is in shambles—and that even those in charge no longer believe in its redemption.

Who Is the Minister Fooling?
In March 2024, Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu stated:

“Electricity has improved greatly across the country, and the grid is more stable than ever.”

This statement aged like spoiled milk. Less than a month later, Nigeria’s fragile grid failed twice in one week, plunging the country into darkness and mocking every word of the minister’s fantasy.

If the grid is truly stable, why can’t the nation’s seat of power rely on it?

Renowned economist and former Presidential Economic Adviser, Dr. Doyin Salami, once stated:

“Any leader who cannot trust the system he oversees has already admitted failure without saying a word.”

By quietly opting for solar energy while publicly touting grid stability, President Tinubu has, in essence, conceded defeat on one of the most critical components of national infrastructure. Instead of leading by example and investing in holistic grid rehabilitation, he has chosen personal convenience over public confidence.

Band A: A Policy of Deceit
In April 2024, the Federal Government introduced Band A tariffs, a controversial policy that saw the cost of electricity skyrocket from ₦68 per kWh to ₦225 per kWh for select urban areas; mostly populated by the middle class. The government justified this hike by claiming it would ensure a minimum of 20–24 hours of daily supply to Band A users.

However, less than a month in, Band A areas reported frequent outages, sometimes worse than before. Nigerians quickly realized that the promise of improved power was a farce, another deceptive policy dressed in economic jargon. This tariff structure, instead of driving efficiency, has widened the inequality gap, where only the affluent can afford consistent electricity while the poor remain in darkness; taxed, yet unrewarded.

Aso Rock’s move to solar is the final nail in the coffin. It shows that even with Band A revenues pouring in, the government still has no faith in the reforms it is selling.

The Broader Economic Implications
Electricity is not a luxury; it is the foundation of any modern economy. Without it, industrialization is a myth, digital transformation is a joke, and economic growth remains a pipe dream. Nigeria’s perennial power problems have discouraged foreign investors, stifled domestic innovation, and eroded citizens’ trust in government capacity.

The hypocrisy of spending ₦10 billion on solar panels for the presidency while universities, hospitals, and factories continue to grope in darkness is not just a leadership flaw, it is an economic crime. That money could have funded mini-grids in underserved rural areas, equipped teaching hospitals with stable power, or supported local businesses through solar cooperatives.

As Dr. Charles Soludo, former CBN Governor, once said:

“Economic reforms must begin from the top, and credibility is the capital of leadership. If people at the top show double standards, the bottom will implode.”

Silence Is No Longer Golden
What is perhaps most appalling is the deafening silence from the Presidency regarding this project. There has been no official justification, no detailed explanation, and no roadmap for scaling solar beyond the Villa. This opacity feeds public anger and fuels conspiracy theories. Is the contract for the solar project another front for looting? Were due processes followed? Who are the contractors? Is there a cost-benefit analysis?

Transparency is not optional when public funds are involved. Citizens deserve answers.

A Call to Action
It is time for Nigerians to demand better. We must ask hard questions, challenge double standards, and hold leaders accountable, not just for their words but for their actions. The Tinubu administration cannot continue to speak reform while acting in contradiction.

If the President believes in solar, then let him lead a solar revolution across Nigeria, not just within the comfort of his official residence. Let every ministry, school, clinic, and rural community benefit from decentralized, renewable energy. Let this ₦10 billion solar project be a pilot, not a personal luxury.

Let this be the moment when Nigerians stop accepting excuses and start demanding delivery.

Final Word
In the end, leadership is not about comfort, it is about credibility. The installation of solar panels at Aso Rock is not just a quiet act of energy diversification; it is a silent vote of no confidence in Nigeria’s power sector. And if the President himself has abandoned the national grid, why should the people keep paying for it?

Until Nigeria has leaders who live within the system they administer, who experience the daily power failures, the darkness, the frustration, there will be no change. You cannot reform what you refuse to endure. And you cannot fix what you quietly flee from.

President Tinubu’s solar-powered fortress is not just an energy policy. It is a metaphor for the widening gap between government and the governed.

And that is the real national emergency.

A HISTORIC VISIT : COALITION OF YORUBA YOUTH LEADERS MEETS THE NEWLY CROWNED ALAAFIN OF OYO

Yesterday, Monday, April 21st, 2025, marked a significant day in the annals of Yoruba history as the Coalition of Yoruba Youth Leaders paid a courtesy visit to the newly crowned Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade I, at his palace. The visit was a testament to the youth leaders’ commitment to unity, progress, and the preservation of Yoruba heritage.

The youth leaders were warmly received by the Alaafin himself, who greeted them with the traditional Yoruba hospitality. The atmosphere was filled with excitement and anticipation as the young leaders eagerly awaited the opportunity to pay their respects and seek guidance from the revered monarch.

The National President, Prof. Tolani .A. Hassan, Ph.D, who was present alongside his executives addressed the Alaafin, extending warm felicitations to him on his ascension to the throne. They wished His Majesty a successful tenure, praying for divine guidance, wisdom, and strength to navigate the complexities of leadership. The youth leaders expressed their commitment to supporting the Alaafin in his endeavors, promising to work together to promote the welfare and prosperity of the Yoruba race.

In response, the Alaafin offered words of wisdom and counsel to the young leaders. He emphasized the importance of unity, hard work, and dedication to the growth and development of the Yoruba nation. His Majesty charged the youth leaders to be ambassadors of peace, progress, and positivity, using their positions to inspire and uplift their communities. He also advised them to put their youthful energy, creativity, and innovation to good use, harnessing these qualities to drive development and transformation in their respective domains.

The meeting was productive and enlightening, with both parties exchanging ideas and insights on how to foster progress and unity among the Yoruba people. The youth leaders left the palace with a renewed sense of purpose and determination, inspired by the Alaafin’s words and guidance.

The visit by the Coalition of Yoruba Youth Leaders to the newly crowned Alaafin of Oyo was a resounding success, marking the beginning of a fruitful partnership between the youth and the traditional institution. As the Alaafin embarks on his reign, it is evident that the future of the Yoruba nation is in good hands, with the youth leaders committed to working together to build a brighter tomorrow.