Nigerians love to travel
and for different reasons too. Through this experience some seek to better their
lot through education, work, business and leisure. Most times, it may require
overstaying their legal authority to stay in their host country which is usually
referred to as a visa, before they could actualize their struggle. Also, there
are some who travel to hide our national patrimony in countries like United
Kingdom for selfish reasons which inadvertently have led to the current fiscal
crisis in Nigeria. The majority of the populace travel for business and meagre
minority travel for leisure to various countries of the world.
There is no denying that there are a significant number of Nigerians living
in the United Kingdom. In fact, it feels like a second home to most Nigerians.
This is attributable to their colonial past. Nevertheless, the current
insistence by the United Kingdom to return an estimated twenty-nine thousand
Nigerian who have purportedly flouted their immigration rules is rather
troubling and inhumane. It is clearly appalling and frighteningly wrong to treat
illegal immigrant as criminals, which they are not. Majority of them are mostly
human beings acting on their natural survival instinct.
It is rather ironic that the British, at some point, exercised this same
instinct and came to Africa, and Nigeria in particular, under the guise of
exploration. They did not leave in a hurry but plundered and stripped the nation
of her valuables.
They even committed criminal acts of enslavement and extracted
the sweat of our forefathers to build the so called developed world who now
require a visa before Africans can partake in the benefits of their hard labor.
It is instructive to note that an average Nigerian is not lazy but hardworking
and resourceful. In most cases when put on a level playing field they fared
equally or even better than most citizens of the world. All they require is an
enabling environment which successive governments have failed to provide.
This writer would opine that the action to return Nigerians who had over
stayed their visas should not be applicable to those who had stayed in Britain
for more than ten years. Otherwise, it would be in violation of the United
Nations article on human rights which the United Kingdom is a signatory to, it
also negates natural justice. If anyone had stayed in a country without
committing a crime for that long, it is only natural to deem that individual as
part of the community regardless of their visa status. What is proper is to
encourage such to contribute positively to the development of that society by
legitimizing their stay. After all, they would have developed some roots in the
community and more so they have proved they could survive without the help of
the British government. However, this point of view should not be misconstrued
as condoning or justifying breaking of a host country's immigration or other
laws.
It is simply to elicit the danger and the social implication of this
action.
In actual fact, the very nature of visa smacks of double standards and it is
the bedrock of most of the problems bedeviling Nigerian travelers especially.
For example, if a black British citizen of Nigerian extraction seeks to invite
his or her family member living in Nigeria for a visit, the fact that they are
being asked to bring an arm a leg before making a routine family visit engender
a mindset that makes the visitors stay beyond their intended period because of
the trouble they had to go through before the visit. In most cases, parents are
being denied visas to visit with their children, sibling are not spared in this
ordeal. I doubt if the same standard is being applied when Prince Charles
invites someone to visit with him. Needless to say that the United Nations
article 1 on Human rights states that "We Are All Born Free & Equal. We are
all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated
in the same way."
I could remember when I was in the University in the 80's, students will
travel to London for holidays and will return to their various studies, it was a
fun experience then, all this privilege is no longer available because
immigration policies are now used as political tool in the United Kingdom.
Most of these people when they are forcefully returned, their fate is clearly
akin to those displaced by war and other natural phenomenon.
They might have
lost contacts with families back home and starting afresh becomes such a
harrowing and traumatic experience that they might never recover from. There are
numerous accounts of suicide, depression and general feelings of inadequacy
which crouch the minds of these forcefully returned citizens like a hook thereby
constituting them into social menace. It is rather unnerving how the British
government has consistently confined migration policies solely within the narrow
context of security and border control.
What troubles the writer the most is that this action is construed
discriminatory and prejudicial and it is part of inherent, systemic racial
profiling of Africans in diaspora. When Scotland wanted to leave the union,
there was a vigorous campaign by Westminster to keep them in the union. I can
only leave it to imagination if the Scotts were of black race origin, there
probably would not be such a vigorous campaign to keep them in the union. There
are other nationals with similar immigration problems as these Africans but they
are not being routinely dehumanized. There are millions of Indians living in the
United Kingdom without the rights to live there, they do not get harassed as
much as the Africans. Also, there are illegal American citizens living in
Britain, in the same way many British citizen living illegally in America. Also
there are vast majority of illegal immigrants from European countries that are
not part of the European Union that litter the streets of United Kingdom and
funny enough, they are not being harassed as these Nigerians.
The disproportionate numbers of Africans seeking a different life in Europe
and elsewhere is really not by choice, they are simply the victims of
circumstance. They are the by-product of years of neglect by their various
colonial masters who stripped them naked and left them in the cold. The
infestation of poverty mentality through the British hard-nosed immigration
policies breeds desperation amongst the Africans, because poverty does not allow
you to speak the truth and yet if you do not speak the truth you cannot come out
of poverty. It is only your conscience that can prevail on you.
It is reasonable to affirm that Nigeria and Africa as a continent remains
poor today because it is not in the interest of the so called colonial masters,
if it were, they would not have stalled the payment of reparation that the Late
MKO Abiola vehemently fought for or perhaps they would have converted the
payment to some tangible infrastructure development. In fact, had there been a
direct investment into infrastructure and the strengthening of various
institutions within the Nigeria system, the story would have been different
today. Instead they aid and abet unscrupulous elements that seek to degrade and
abuse our national pride. If there were conscious, genuine and deliberate
efforts by the United Kingdom to actually help Nigeria, let them roll out the
big guns, let them work on direct partnership with various agencies to shore up
the infrastructure base of the country. The effect will be dramatic; most
Nigerian will not be lain about in the cold of the United Kingdom because what
they seek elsewhere is readily obtainable at home.
This exactly what the oil
rich UAE did and it is now the British that seeks employment opportunities and
travel to destinations like Dubai.
The British government through stealth immigration policies has over the
years continued to alienate and disenfranchise Nigerians. In the past, as a
Commonwealth citizen, Nigerians were allowed to work for at least two years in
Britain. Now, It does seems that the category of African's mostly welcomed in
the United Kingdom and western hemisphere in general are the venerable selfish
thieves who steal the little their people have and take it to their accomplice
banks in the UK and other Western countries whilst they turn blind eyes until
someone makes noise. Then the pretense begins, they will pretend to be acting in
our best interest when they convict one out of a thousand whom they knew kept
Nigeria stolen and ill-gotten money in their respective banks to boost their
economy. They should simply post a banner at their border post with the
inscription "The vulnerable and the weak are not welcomed."
The view of this writer is that the British government should apply a wisdom
filter to this purge whilst making the immigration system fairer to others that
have no special education, like doctors, engineer and other professionals who
are given better chances of staying based on their point system.
Considering the fact that Nigeria is a member of the Commonwealth and a
signatory to the Human Right charter, the Nigeria foreign minister and ministry
should be fully engaged at this point in finding a way to exercise their rights
under the various charter that govern our relationship with these bodies.
There is no question about Britain's prerogative in regulating movement
across their borders; however, they must do so in accordance with their
obligations under international law including international human rights law.
Nigerian government should not fold their arms and allow the British
government to continue the cherry picking and our nation pressured into
accepting the returnee without strict adherence to the United Nation Charters
and articles regarding human rights. Especially article 14, which states that
"The Right to Seek a Safe Place to Live. If we are frightened of being badly
treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country
to be safe" And Britain has the moral duty and responsibility to this purported
illegal immigrant under article 29 to protect their rights and freedoms. It is
morally wrong to turn these people away in their most vulnerable state. If they
were millionaire, I bet they will remain in Britain without any disturbance.
This is the time for the newly appointed minister of foreign affairs to
double his efforts in making sure that all Nigeria stolen monies in the United
Kingdom are repatriated with the returnee and confiscate assets belonging to
these calibers of thieves are converted to verifiable edifices in Nigeria. The
British government can no longer continue to feign ignorance of the illegal
billions of pounds of Nigeria wealth in the British economy. It is the firm
belief and conviction of this writer that if we could engage sincere and willing
partners round the world, the country could experience a positive turnaround
within a decade.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment