Tomorrow, African leaders will gather in the Russian capital for the Third Russia-Africa Summit, which runs on 28 and 29 October. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov says 48 African countries have confirmed their participation, and President Vladimir Putin will co-chair with Burundi's Évariste Ndayishimiye, the current African Union chairman. The summit's theme is "For peace, security and development", the same motto used at earlier editions, and Ushakov says the aim is to strengthen the sovereignty of African countries. Expect more big words like "partnership", "trade" and "human capital", and promises of deals in energy, education, technology and media.
Set that theme beside the reality on the ground, and the contrast is sharp. Peace is hard to preach while a war rages on Ukraine's soil, and Africans are being pulled into it. Security means little when young Nigerians are lured abroad and end up on a frontline they never chose. Development rings hollow when a job advert promising a better life ends in a drone factory or a military contract no one can read. Before Nigeria shakes hands and signs papers, Nigerians deserve to know one thing. Will our young people be safe?
That contrast is not rhetorical. On 21 September, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine gave an update to the Human Rights Council. It reported that Russian strikes on Ukraine's power and heating systems have continued, and that millions of civilians endured last winter without light or warmth, with temperatures as low as minus 20 degrees. Commission Chair Erik Møse warned that the attacks are making living conditions "increasingly unbearable for civilians", and that the coming winter may be harder still. The Commission also found that Russia is pushing "patriotic" and military-style education on Ukrainian children in occupied areas. Some are as young as three, and from age 14 they face weapons drills.
The part that touches Nigeria is the recruitment of foreigners. The Commission says many foreign nationals joined the Russian army knowingly and by choice. Others did not. Agents and middlemen lured them with promises of civilian jobs and arranged their travel. Soon after arrival, they were pushed to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence. Most could not read Russian, so they did not understand what they were signing, and many ended up on the frontline. Many died quickly, went missing, were wounded or were captured. Their families were left searching for news while the recruiting agents blocked their calls.
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Later findings by the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said Russian authorities, working with recruitment agents, trafficked men from 29 countries into the Russian armed forces through deception or coercion. The Commission named Nigeria among the countries and said recruits were lured with false civilian-job offers, then made to sign Russian-language Defence Ministry contracts.
Nigeria is already part of this story. A February report by the investigative group All Eyes on Wagner said at least 36 Nigerians had been recruited by the Russian army, and five were killed in combat. That is the group's figure, not an official government count. But Abuja treated the matter seriously. Nigeria's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Nigerians in these situations were "misled and coerced into signing military service contracts". The statement did not name Russia, which is itself a reminder of how delicate this issue is for Abuja. Ukraine's military intelligence has separately confirmed the deaths of two Nigerians fighting on the Russian side.
Russia rejects the charge. Its ambassador to Nigeria, Andrey Podyelyshev, told journalists in Abuja on 10 February: "There is no government-supported program to recruit Nigerians to fight in Ukraine." Note the careful wording. It denies a government programme, but says nothing about the private agents and middlemen the UN describes. The European Union's ambassador to Nigeria, Gautier Mignot, has said Russia has been recruiting Nigerians and other Africans for quite some time. Ukraine says it has identified at least 1,436 citizens from 36 African countries fighting for Russia.
Ukraine is a party to this war, so its claims must be weighed with care. Even so, its military intelligence agency, HUR, says Russian recruiters target Africans through job adverts on Facebook and WhatsApp. In HUR's words, for hundreds of Nigerians "promises of employment in Russia turn into a one-way ticket". Whatever one makes of the messenger, the pattern matches what the UN, the EU envoy and Nigeria's own ministry have described. Every one of them points to the same trick: a glossy offer, a one-way journey and a contract no one can read.
Then there is Alabuga Start, a programme advertised to young women aged 18 to 22, with monthly pay, housing and Russian lessons. An Associated Press investigation, based on satellite images, leaked documents and interviews with African recruits, found that some women were misled into assembling Iranian-designed attack drones at the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan. The BBC and DW, drawing on research by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, have since reported allegations of long shifts, poor pay, dangerous conditions and deceptive recruitment. These remain allegations in individual cases, but they warrant independent scrutiny, and Nigerian women already in the programme deserve to know someone back home is checking on them. The summit will run a youth forum on both days, so young people are clearly part of what Russia is courting. That makes these questions all the more fitting.
There is also a danger that carries no gun. The summit includes a media forum. Reports say Russia has used fake journalists, AI-made personas, and borrowed local anger to spread its messages in Africa. A jobless, frustrated young Nigerian is exactly the audience such campaigns look for. Real pain can be dressed up as support for someone else's war, and the person never notices the hand behind it.
Critics also question the very idea of equal partnership. One commentary notes that this is the third summit in a row held in Russia, which it says exposes a gap between the talk of a "partnership of equals" and a relationship still organised largely from the Russian side. Nigeria should keep that in mind when it is offered a seat at the table.
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None of this means Nigeria should shut the door on Russia. Nations talk, trade and bargain, and Nigeria has every right to seek energy deals, training and technology wherever they are fairly offered. We are Africa's most populous nation, and we should walk into that room like it, with a clear list. Our delegation should demand written protection against forced or tricked recruitment. It should insist that every job and study scheme be verified before a young person boards a plane. It should secure consular access to any Nigerian in trouble and a clear path for bringing people home. And it should call for an independent investigation into the cases already reported, led by Nigerian officials rather than foreign recruiters.
Government also has a duty at home. Families should be told plainly that a job abroad that sounds too good to be true must be checked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or NAPTIP before a single kobo is paid.
Peace, security and development are lovely words, and the summit will use them many times, along with sovereignty. But they only mean something when a mother can trust that her child will not become a stranger's soldier. Nigeria should go to the summit, listen to the offers, and ask the one question that matters most. Who is watching our people?
