In 1984, the Federal Government of Nigeria under Muhammadu Buhari, the then military head of state, initiated a campaign to discourage the exodus of Nigerians to overseas in search of ‘greener pastures’. Then, “I am checking out”, a phrase by one Mr. Andrew in a TV commercial, resonated across the country because it captured the sufferings and desperations; the realities of the time, then.
Considering the economic downturn that is hitting most economies across the world, the questions remain: is the pasture still green? Are the risks of travelling abroad worth taking today?
While it was easy to check out in the 80s, today, it is very stressful, expensive and risky to travel abroad for whatever reason, yet more Nigerians are leaving everyday while the government seems to cares less.
According to data released by the US Department of State on nonimmigrant visas issued in the 2018 fiscal year, Nigeria accounted for the highest percentage of visas issued to African nationals in the past three years. For the 2018 fiscal year, nationals of African countries got a total of 493,989 non-immigrant visas out of which 143, 783 were Nigerians.
Yet, with a 57.47 percent adjusted visa refusal rate, Nigeria was also listed among top countries like Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Burundi and Burkina Faso with high refusal rate for B-visas, which is issued for short-term business or pleasure travel to the United States.
Sadly, despite the surge in visa denials for Nigerians not only by the United States of America, United Kingdom and other European countries, the number of Nigerians queuing at the embassies and consulates of countries believed to offer ‘greener pastures’ keep increasing every day.
In August 2018, the United Kingdom deported 36 Nigerians for allegedly committing numerous immigration offences, especially for illegally residing in Dublin, Ireland and England for several years.
The UK deportation was barely a month after the US deportation of 34 Nigerians for various immigration and alleged criminal offences.
Luckily, BDSUNDAY was at Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, courtesy of the Nigerian Immigration, when the UK deportees were received.
Sadly, most of the deportees wore sombre looks and complained that they never committed serious offences in their host countries before they were repatriated. One aggrieved immigration officer who was profiling the deportees spotted a female among them with serious health challenge and queried why she was sent back to die here.
The immigration officer, who craved anonymity, said some of the deportees had good cases if they were allowed access to good lawyers over there.
Since then, many Nigerians have been deported from countries across the world for alleged immigration offences, yet many have gone to neighbouring countries to acquire new passports to enable them checkout again, but not as Nigerian citizens. The untiring effort to check out is, however, most intriguing as many others take maximum risk with the Sahara Desert crossing option to Europe, especially youths between 17-30 years old.
During a media chat in January this year, Nigerians were baffled when the National Commission for Refugees, Migrants & Internally Displaced Persons (NCRMI), disclosed that it received a total of 11,494 returnees in 2018.
Margaret Ukegbu, zonal head, South-West, NCRMI, said the returnees were mostly from Libya, Niger, Mali, Morocco, Liberia, France, Ireland, Poland and Austria.
According to her, the commission received about 10,180 Nigerian returnees from Libya. These 10,180, who probably saw hell in the Sahara Desert before getting to Libya, were hanging on despite the sufferings, abuse and even death threats with the hope of crossing the Mediterranean Sea to Europe one day.
As well, on March 14, 2019, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said it received a batch of 174 Nigerians who arrived from Libya.
Idris Muhammed, coordinator, NEMA Lagos Territorial Office, said then that over 4,900 returnees have been trained to acquire different skills under the Assisted Voluntary Returnees Programme, which began in April 2017.
But the reality is that many of the returnees, who acquired skills under programme, are hopeful of making another attempt at checking out; this time with the savings from their skills and through legitimate ways as Europe and America still hold much for them.
While many of the returnees who took the desert crossing option did so because of the sufferings, and probably, lack of good educational qualification to get good jobs back home (as if the jobs are there), the most qualified of doctors, lawyers, engineers, professors and other professionals are legitimately leaving or rather abandoning their jobs here for the bigger offers abroad.
The brain drain is across all sectors and even sports as some Nigerian youths have taken citizenships of other countries and are wining laurels in different sporting events for the adopted countries.
Of note is Dele Alli, an English professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Tottenham Hotspur, a Premier League club and the England national team.
Of course, the youthful footballer, who was born Bamidele Jermaine Alli to a Nigerian parent, chose England over Nigeria for obvious reasons. Considering the growing number of Nigerian immigrants in the UK who want to dump the Nigerian passport for UK citizenship, the likes of Dele Alli will stick to their privileged UK citizenship.
It would be recalled that when Michael Adeyeye, the then Mayor of Brent in the UK, visited Babatunde Fashola, then governor of Lagos State at Alausa, in 2013, he disclosed that the population of Nigerian immigrants in London has hit over 1 million people. That number could be nearing 1.5 million now.
Also, from 1973 to 1991, there were about 3,919 Nigerian immigrants in Canada. Going by the country’s 2016 Census, 68,680 people identified themselves as Nigerians, with almost half (33,580) living in Ontario. As well, there were over 11,000 Nigerian students in Canada today, who hardly return back to Nigeria after graduation because of the better job opportunities, abundant social infrastructure and high standard of living.
Nowadays, the quest for greener pasture has gone beyond the ‘western world’ to places Nigerians ordinarily would not want to go beyond business or short visit. The streets of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and even Cambodia are now dotted with more Nigerians than before.
But is the pasture still green?
Emeka Oduenyi, an executive in a bank in Lagos, whose wife and children now reside in Canada, told BDSUNDAY that the pasture is no longer as green as it used to be abroad. “I have stayed a while in Canada to try out the country for job opportunities, but at my level, the pasture is not green enough because I cannot get the kind of entitlements I get here (Nigeria) in Canada”.
Daramola Ogunleye, a visiting Fine Art lecturer at a UK university, said that the opportunities are no longer as much as they used to be because people from other parts of the world are also visiting like Nigerians to seek greener pastures abroad, so the opportunities are for the most qualified now.
“Most opportunities abroad are now more competitive and there are many qualified vying for such opportunities. Unemployment is also on the rise because of the influx of immigrants, especially immigrant graduates who do not want to go back to their countries,” he said.
Ogunleye said it is now commonplace to see some original UK citizens working in some places formerly left for immigrants. “It shows that the opportunities are shrinking even in abroad”, he said.
However, Mike Ojodu, a lawyer and business man, noted that greener pastures mean different things to different people. “In the 60s and 70s, many who checked out believed the greener pasture is all about travelling to further their education, returning to get decent jobs back home or stay back on good jobs over there. In the 80s, there was a shift, many started looking for quick money and in the 90s till today, the greener pasture is synonymous with hot cash or quick money and not wasting years abroad like one’s uncle or aunt,” he explained.
According to the lawyer, the mindset of the youth is different. They want everything now including money and hence, will do anything to get it; after all, the society glorifies wealth.
Toeing Ojodu’s line, Ogunleye said that most Nigerians in the jails abroad are those born from the late 80s because of quest to make fast and big money, which the society has approved over the years.
“So, someone who is between 18-30 years old and is making efforts to travel abroad without skills or good certificate will likely engage in crime over there. He will not be patient to allow things flow naturally and may end up in jail for one crime or the other. But some succeed and are the reason a lot who see their flashy lifestyle back home are determined to go for their own greener pastures abroad. But the pasture is no longer green,” he said.
For Oduenyi, the taxes, which cannot be evaded, the laws, which must be obeyed, and the ‘unAfrican’ family and society living are among the hurdles one must grapple with while seeking greener pastures in Canada. “The immigration laws have changed a great deal abroad because of recurring issues with immigrants. So, one must be on one’s toes until one gets one’s permanent residency. Yet, I hear that some countries in Europe are planning to enact laws that will cancel permanent residency when one commits certain offences,” Oduenyi said.
Today, many Nigerians take huge risks to travel abroad. Increasingly, despite visa rejections, many Nigerian youths have remained undaunted, embarking on dangerous journeys to Europe and America, by boat. Stories abound of the hazards they are exposed to, but “for every boat that sinks in the Mediterranean, there are those that make it across. These success stories continue to motivate aspiring immigrants.”
Many Nigerians are living abroad today, doing humiliating jobs they would not wish for their enemies in Nigeria.
Someone recalled that “There are those stories of migrants who end up making a living from wiping bottoms in old people’s homes. But the folks back home do not really care as long as the foreign exchange continues to arrive- currencies superlatively muscular against the increasingly weak Nigerian naira. Many embassies in Nigeria, unable to cope directly with the influx at their gates, now contract out the collection of visa application documents.”
Fear of insecurity abroad?
It is sad to pass through difficulties to arrive in the so-called paradise and die from a gunman’s bullet or terrorist attacks.
Recently, Thomas Ewansiha, a Nigerian PhD student at the Limkokwing University of Creative Technology, Malaysia, died in the custody of the Immigration Department of Malaysia. The development sparked outcry and a call for an investigation into the death.
Last year, an unnamed Nigerian student was hospitalised after knife attack in Southern Russia, while Kennedy Taomwabwa, a 28-year-old university student, was reportedly killed by locals in the Turkish Cyprus’s province of Famagusta.
In 2014, two Nigerian students at the Donetsk National Technical University, Ukraine (Theresa Olaoluwa Oresanya, third-year Electrical Engineering; and Bede Olunna Ogbu, a graduate student of Engineering) reportedly died owing to alleged negligence on the part of the hospital authorities where they were admitted for treatment.
Terrorists are also targeting western countries for attacks in recent times. There have been cases of bombings targeted at public places, especially in Europe where many innocent people fall victim, including African immigrants.
Going by the growing rate of mass shootings, America is not safe too. The most recent, at least 29 people were killed in two mass shootings in the United States. If some Nigerians were unlucky to be at the scene, they would probably have been among the victims.
Worse still, students in high schools are not safe as often a dispirited classmate picks gun to kill fellow students. Also, if the white supremacists are on rampage, your skin colour gives you out no matter how friendly you may be to them.
At the height of the killing of Nigerians abroad, Bola Akinterinwa, a professor and former, director general, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, lamented that Nigerians abroad have continued to be the target of attacks because they were not protected by the nation’s foreign policy.
Others urged the Federal Government to initiate efforts to halt the continued attacks on Nigerians abroad, starting with the review of the foreign policy in favour of Nigerians. With such reviews and hard stand, they think that the frequent xenophobic attacks in South Africa, often targeted at Nigerians, will stop as there would be reprisal attacks, even diplomatic war.
But many people think that a better way to curb the exodus of Nigerians abroad and to save them from molestations and even death is by ensuring accountability and good governance, provision of world-class infrastructure, giving education and healthcare the needed attention in order to keep our students in our universities. Professionals must be paid a living wage to discourage brain drain. Poorly paid doctors and other health professionals in the nation’s hospitals have always been at the forefront of those seeking greener pastures offshore. And government must do everything possible to create jobs opportunities to keep the youth out of crime.
OBINNA EMELIKE
