Nigeria

Nigeria: The Insanity of a Nation

Menre Ayes

Thousands of Nigerians young and old, graduates and uneducated emigrate yearly to do odd jobs including cleaning toilets and streets in foreign nations. For every five surviving Nigerians abroad, at least one has died in the process of trying to travel abroad. In some cases, it would be easier for a camel's head to go through the eye of a needle than for a foreign embassy to grant a Nigerian's visa application. Thus leaving the Nigerian between the devil and the deep blue sea. Due to the severe unemployment problem and economic hardship at home, many youthful and skilled Nigerians venture to travel abroad by endangering their lives in high seas between Africa and Europe. Heaven knows how many make it and how many perish. A few fortunate Nigerians can afford and have the opportunity to travel out of their country by flight but only with the economy ticket.

For every three Nigerians walking freely on the street of a foreign country one is in prison. Many Nigerians languishing in foreign jails are there for things that would not count as a crime in Nigeria. Some have been over exposed to direct racism and are in jail for that reason. Most foreigners are in Nigeria for economic reasons. Nigeria is abundantly rich in human and natural resources. Nigeria is abundantly hospitable, but we should not lavish our hospitality.

Contrarily to the misery of Nigerians, aliens (Asians, Europeans, etc) come to Nigeria by flight mostly in business class but return home in first class. Yes, after they have milked us of our resources and taken away our jobs. These aliens have no problems procuring Nigerian visas or extending their visas in Nigeria. With money easily changing hands between would-be visitors and Nigerian embassy officials, applicants obtain Nigeria visas within twenty-four hours.

In the quest for foreign investment, which has now proved illusory based on events and facts, visas to Nigeria have officially been commercialised. For example, in the UK with just two hundred and thirty pounds (£230) an applicant with a British passport will be issued a temporary Nigeria visa and work permit (http://www.nigeriahc.org.uk/fees_processingonline.html). But how temporary are we talking about? I will come to that later. Many applicants with a Nigerian passport at home could pay more than £230 equivalent in trying to get a visiting visa to the UK and after rigorous interviews their request would still be denied by the British embassy. While working in Nigeria, that visa fee amounts to a half-day's earning for the foreigner and a two-month earning for the lucky Nigerian employed at home. Aliens come to Nigeria to work, they do not pay taxes to the Nigerian government instead they pay taxes to their home government and they are being paid in hard but not local currency. Aliens have chosen not to waste any time but to patronize the Nigerian government's weak visa procedures and then exploit the nation to the full. Nigeria has abundant mineral resources oil, gas etc. Nigerians and indeed Africans are corrupt, so why wouldn't foreigners come to exploit them? Some foreigners travel to Nigeria on tourist visas and while in the country, our ignorant immigration officers help them convert it to work visas and long term or indefinite work permit. Both the Nigerian political leaders and immigration officials have lost all forms of national patriotism. They have become loyal to foreigners and foreign governments. The Nigerian immigration services lack the knowledge and technology required to check the fake credentials and documents some of these foreigners parade on Nigerian streets or work with.

Millions of Nigeria's graduates are unemployed in Nigeria while secondary school dropouts from foreign countries come to Nigeria with bogus certificate to take up employment in the name of expatriate. Nigeria has no affinity with any of these foreign countries exporting their citizens to our land for economic gains. The reasonable questions to ask here are: if the Nigerian political leaders have completely lost faith in Nigeria's universities and their products, what about other Africans who have the skills? Another question is if the Nigerian political leaders feel that the Nigerian graduate is not fully qualified to do the job and that is why they allow foreigners into Nigeria for job's sake, many of these so-called political leaders are also products of these universities, are they fit to be leaders?

A visit to the Nigerian High Commission, London recently revealed how foreigners and agents obtain Nigerian visas. An agent would come with up to thirty passports for applicants wishing to travel to Nigerian (multiple entry for economic and business trips), and all the applications will be granted by the embassy without seeing or interviewing any of the applicants in question. Sometimes, we hear that Nigeria is a potential target for foreign terrorists. In the past, individuals used to plan their visit to Nigeria. But the rules of the game have now changed. Foreign governments now send their citizens to Nigeria through some companies mainly to create employment for their own people. They go to Nigeria to take up white-collar jobs that should naturally be done or reserved for Nigerians.

With such a large number of visionless and unfocused political leaders there are abundant avenues for foreigners and foreign governments to exploit in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has no employment, healthcare, social, educational plans for its citizens. Hence, Nigeria as a nation has become a place for foreigners to gain employment and professional experience. All these happen at the detriment of the Nigerian child. Where Nigerians suppose to give, they have become beggars. Their doors have become widely open in where they suppose to be closed.

Like most patriotic Nigerians, the writer of this article believes the time has finally arrived to make a change. Nigerian's resources are for Nigerians. We cannot amass more number of unemployed Nigerians while foreigners we have no natural relationship with come to take away our jobs. The idea of expatriate quota was a monumental mistake and it has got to be erased completely from the Nigerian system. If Nigeria takes in expatriates from foreign nations how many expatriates does Nigeria send out to these countries? Measures should urgently be put in place to allocate some annual quotas of over ninety-five percent of Nigerian citizens by birth to every oil and large company operating in our country. It does not matter if it is foreign or indigenously owned. Those quotas must be absorbed by the companies, either as full-time employment or as annual work placement for students from Nigerian universities.

It will go a long way in reducing the unemployment level in Nigeria if we refurbish our prisons. Many Nigerians can be employed by the Nigerian prison services. Many of these so-called expatriates have no reasons to work freely on Nigerian streets. Hence, make our prisons their place of abode. It is about time we checked the menace of foreigners and foreign companies in our nation. Nigerians are not hostile to foreigners. But we will not continue to welcome tax evaders, illegal immigrants, economic tourists and economic saboteurs. No nation on earth allows foreigners to come and take away their jobs while its citizens remain unemployed. We would not be different. Whoever chooses to do that in our country should be sent to jail. We love ourselves and the interest of Nigeria and the citizens should be our first priority.