Nigeria map with flag
Frequent reports of harrowing experiences of Nigerian immigrants in different parts of the world have become an embarrassment to the country.
One of the most recent of these is the revelation that no fewer than 20,000 Nigerians are languishing in prisons and detention centres in the United Kingdom (UK) over immigration offences.
Mr. Fola Rahman, the UK based legal practitioner and immigration consultant who disclosed the bad news, said the Nigerian detainees in UK include young adults, the aged and pregnant women.
The lawyer decried the difficult times Nigerians are facing in the UK.
He cited one instance in which 26 Nigerians were found living in a single room accommodation in that country.
The plight of these Nigerian detainees should be of interest to the authorities.
Negative reports on Nigerians abroad reduce the stature of our country in the international community.
It is lamentable that so many of our compatriots are in detention in UK for flouting the immigration laws of that country.
The situation requires the prompt intervention of our foreign minister, Mr. Odein Ajumogobia.
Our representative in the UK should step in to do whatever he can to ensure prompt and fair hearing for the detained Nigerians.
Robust intervention by the authorities will go a long way to quicken the resolution of the cases against the beleaguered Nigerians.
Our High Commission in the United Kingdom should ensure that there are no instances of racial bias or stigmatisation in the cases against the Nigerian immigrants. Everything should be done to ensure justice for them. However, we need to be strong at home to earn respect for our citizens and our country, abroad.
The government should work harder at improving the economy and managing the exchange rate of the naira to the world’s major currencies.
Most Nigerian immigrants are economic migrants who are lured abroad by the prospects of better economic opportunities and the superior value of the pound and the dollar over the naira.
Unemployment is a major cause of emigration. Provision of an enabling environment for gainful employment will reduce the desperation to leave the country. The government should provide a good environment for productive ventures to thrive in the country.
Nigerians should also strive harder to make a success of their lives here. They should realise that no country has its streets paved with gold. They should eschew improper channels in their bid to relocate abroad so that they do not end up in prison when they flout immigration laws of other countries.
The Sun
Many Nigerians have died as stowaways on aircraft en route Europe, while scores drowned during attempts to access the continent via the Mediterranean Sea. Many are in prisons in different parts of the world. In Indonesia alone, 18 of our compatriots are on death row. Nigerians were among the 18 killed in Libya last Sunday. Our people should learn lessons from these incidents. In addition, government should henceforth take a serious view of the activities of syndicates and fraudsters who lure young Nigerians abroad through improper channels.
However, the seeming antagonism against Nigerians in Britain is unexpected. Britain, as Nigeria’s former colonial authority, should be understanding of our country’s many challenges. She should be more open to our people. Nigeria and Britain have strong relations dating back many decades.
Diplomacy matters a lot in the way immigration issues between our two countries are handled. Britain, indeed, can grant amnesty to deserving cases among the detainees. The country can help to grow the economy of Nigeria and strengthen democracy and good governance, to reduce the desperation of Nigerian youths to escape the harsh conditions in the country.
The cases against the 20,000 Nigerian detainees should be speedily resolved. Every possible assistance should be given to them by the appropriate authorities
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"Fantasy Island" as circumstances Nigerians queue up in foreign Embassy for visa applications.
There seems to be no end to the barrage of bad news indicating that Nigeria is one of the most badly governed political entities in the world.
We already know, through indisputable statistical evidence drawn up by credible international agencies, that Nigeria ranks among the worst when it comes to such indicators as corruption, risk of doing business, and ability of its security agencies to exert effective control over its territory.
Recently, in a rating of universities in the world, Nigeria ’s numerous universities ranked among the worst even in Africa . We were also depicted as a country with one of the worst medical service deliveries in the world.
And now, another damning rating has come to show that Nigeria has maintained its seventh position in the world register of persons seeking asylum in foreign countries.
In its 2009 report, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) disclosed that Afghanistan , Iraq and Somalia top the asylums seekers’ list, followed by people from the Russian Federation , China , Serbia and Nigeria .
Of all these countries, China is the only one that has not been faced with the collapse or disintegration of its former mother state. Perhaps, Chinese are now capitalising on the liberalisation of their country’s economic space to offload some of its humongous population on the rest of the world.
In the case of Nigeria , there was a threat of disintegration, which ended in a civil war that stopped it. That war ended 40 years ago. The trend towards economic asylum seeking in other countries started in the early 1980’s when the full weight of military misgovernance and the myopia of the new civilian regime of Alhaji Shehu Shagari started dawning on the people. Since then, more than six regimes later, the trend of Nigerians drifting abroad for economic survival has continued to heighten unabated.
The Crest
There is hardly a day that passes in our international airports especially Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja Lagos and Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, when Nigerians, in their droves, are not being forcibly brought back from foreign countries to which they had strayed illegally.
On many occasions, forcible deportations have resulted in deaths of Nigerian citizens.
One does not need to look very far to find out the cause of these migrations. Like the proverbial “Andrew”, people are deserting the country in search of economic opportunities. Able bodied Nigerians would rather travel to other countries to live on the streets as homeless, jobless people in the hope that one day something would come along and change their fortunes.
It is this trend which forced many Nigerians to arid country such as Libya that makes Nigeria a laughing stock to eccentric leaders like Muammar Gaddafi, who feel that dividing the country could help in solving its problems which it could not handle as a united nation.
Nigerians have to realise that nothing good comes easy. It is only when we get the good leaders we have been yearning for that solutions to our problems will start coming out.
We cannot get good leaders by sitting in the comfort of our homes and complaining. We must get involved in the process of producing leaders.
This is why the general election of 2011 is an occasion to look forward to because it offers yet another chance for Nigerians to search for and enthrone the calibre of leaders that will bring out the best in one of the most endowed entities in the world.
Source: Vanguard Editorial
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Libya Leader: Mahmoud Ghadafi
Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi has said Nigeriashould be partitioned between the Christian and Muslim communities to solve its sectarian violence problem, the JANA news agencyreported on Tuesday.
He proposed that it should follow the partition model of Pakistan, which was born in 1947 after the Muslim minority of predominantly Hindu India founded their own homeland, led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
“The only thing that could put an end to the bloodshed … is the appearance of another Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who established a state for the Muslims and another for the Christians,” he told African student leaders, some of them from Nigeria, the agency reported.
“The painful situation that Nigeria is enduring resembles the situation of the Indian subcontinent before 1947, at the time of the massacres between Hindus and Muslims,” Kadhafi said in the remarks on Monday.
India’s partition resulted in hundreds of thousands killed, thousands raped, and more than 10 million left homeless on both sides.
Kadhafi suggested that Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo should lead efforts for a Christian homeland in the south with Lagos as its capital, and that a Muslim homeland in the north should have Abuja as its principal city.
Kadhafi, until recently the head of the African Union, said the two communities should peacefully agree to share Nigeria’s oil and other natural wealth.
Several hundred people were killed last week in sectarian violence in Nigeria’s central Plateau State.
Plateau State, with Jos as its capital, is the de facto buffer between the predominantly Muslim north and the largely Christian and animist south.
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Pro. Pat Utomi - Nigerians deserve more from the government
Professor Pat Utomi, notable economist and presidential aspirant in the 2007 general elections, has challenged the President, Alhaji Shehu Umaru Yar’Adua to convince Nigerians that he is really in charge of the affairs of the country.
Utomi, a director of the Lagos Business School, listed some biting issues concerning the country and requested the President to prove he is still in the cockpit of the destiny of Nigeria and Nigerians.
Professor Utomi enumerated some of Nigeria’s ills and the lack of will and wits on the part of the president to fix them.
He was speaking during the popular weekly ‘People’s Parliament‘Television programme, Patito’s Gang, a forum where members of the public sit to x-tray and analyse both government and nation’s social activities as it relates to Nigeria.
According to him, the president needs to assure the country’s citizens of their safety, following the spate of unresolved social unrest currently cripping into Nigerian society. He pointer at the recent spate of assassinations and kidnapping in some parts of the country.
Utomi said: “I call upon the president to answer the question that was reportedly asked of him by Olusegun Obasanjo, who was reported to have asked the president, ‘Umaru, are you in charge?’
Professor Utomi said an answer was necessary in view of some conflicting statements emanating from top government functionaries in recent times.
Utomi also referred to some statement, which had been credited to the Attorney-General of the Federation and which the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions (EFCC) had challenged and contradicted.
“At the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, the Foreign Affairs Minister made statements that have been challenged by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Utomi further reminded.
The economist further referred to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) denial that former (EFCC) boss, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, visited Nigeria, and that when shown pictorial evidence only shifted the blame to the country’s Comptroller-General of Immigration.
“The Nigeria Customs and Excise Service is knee-deep in a monumental certificate forgery scandal, while a self-confessed close confidant of the president and ex-governor, James Ibori, made public statements to the effect that people in political circles believe he has sufficient influence to propel them into high-power positions and influence the judiciary, yet the only reaction from the seat of government is a loud silence.”
He decried the situation whereby persisting insecurity in the country remain unchecked.
According to him, the thinking of Nigerians is that if the Secretary to the Kaduna State government, the third ranking official in the state’s hierarchy, could be kidnapped, “who then is safe?
‘The Presidency cannot afford to keep quiet on an issue like this,” he stressed.
Utomi further said: “Nigerians recall the often touted campaign promise of the president that he would declare an emergency in the power sector. Mr. President followed this up with a bold statement to The Guardian’s editorial board that the emergency would come soon and he would requisition any national asset necessary to meet that emergency.
“We are told in the Webster English Dictionary that an emergency is something that is urgent, important and pressing upon you. Alas, in Nigeria our president has taught us a different meaning of this word.
Utomi deplored a situation whereby only 10 per cent of students passed the National Examinations Council (NECO) exams this year asking for the rationale behind Yar’Adu’s visit to Saudi’s monarch, King Abdullahi, to open a new state of the art university, while the school system in the country was burning with strike by teachers. “Charity must begin at home,” he advised the president.
Utomi, who also agreed with most Nigerians that there is nothing to celebrate about the country’s 49th independence anniversary, also said: “If you take the vision of the founding fathers of Nigeria as the goal for which we gained independence and if you take the degree to which we have attained that goal as a measure, the only conclusion to be drawn is that we have failed and the failure is traceable to our leaders.
News source: Eromosele Ebhomel, PMNews