Late last year, the world was alerted to the disturbing news that Russia was recruiting hundreds of young African women, aged 18–22, to manufacture drones in a military-industrial compound 1,000 km east of Moscow called Alabuga. The reports also said that the recruits—from at least 15 African countries—were promised good salaries and skills training, but that, once there, they were often trapped, facing tax deductions, dangerous working conditions, strict surveillance, and difficulties in returning home.

In the past six months, a ZAM team in seven African countries, including PREMIUM TIMES in Nigeria, investigated the Russian recruitment exercise—and why so many young Africans grab the chance to go, sometimes even after being warned. In Nigeria, Beloved John of PREMIUM TIMES joined a long queue of women trying to apply.

The Alabuga Start Programme says on its Telegram page that only young women between the ages of 18 and 22 can apply because “this is considered an ideal age range to begin building a career from scratch.” This may be so. But after going through the first part of the recruitment process myself, I have come to think that there may be another reason.

Maybe they just target impressionable youth? Maybe more mature adults would not put up with the badly written emails and long silences we get from our Human Resources (HR) recruiters? Or is our -perhaps youthful- desire to ‘japa’, leave Nigeria, so strong that we will put up with anything at all?

When I register, I first find that there is no application window. The process lasts all year round; it has no cycle or deadlines. From messages by other applicants on the Telegram channel, I gather after a while that the process typically spans a minimum of three to four months, but can last up to a year. This is probably partly related to the fact that we are quite a queue here: over one thousand group members, from all over Africa.

My fellow applicants complain about a lack of communication, half-answered and repeated emails, or a deep hole of silence after what appears to be some progress. “(Three months) is if you are lucky. It depends on how fast and responsive your HR specialist is,” Priscilla Eze* (20), one of my co-applicants, tells me.

Not all is what it seems

Russia probably doesn’t have enough ‘HR specialists’ to engage with all of us at once. There must be pre-selection criteria in place; however, we are not told what they are.