Abike
The passage
of the Bill establishing the Nigerian Citizens in Diaspora Commission into law
in 2017 was greeted with cheers given the rising cases of xenophobia against
Nigerians living in foreign countries, especially in Africa, and the recent
appointment of Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa as first chairman/chief executive officer
has given teeth to the commission. How far will it go in protecting Nigerians
in Diaspora? ELEOJO IDACHABA asks.
Nigerians,
at home and abroad, heaved a sigh of relief following the passage of the Bill
for an Act to provide for the establishment of the Nigerian Citizens in
Diaspora Commission to ensure the protection of Nigerians in Diaspora, promote
and facilitate their effective participation in economic, political and social
development of the nation and for related matters into law.
The Bill
sponsored by Senator Annie Okonkwo was signed into law by the then acting
President Yemi Osibanjo in July 2017, a development that was widely welcomed as
giving teeth to the government’s self-professed desire to partner its citizens
abroad.
However, the
commission may have just got its teeth following President Muhammadu Buhari
appointment of his Special Assistant on Diaspora Matters, Mrs Abike
Dabiri-Erewa, as the first chairman/chief executive officer.
In
confirming her nomination recently, the Senate, through its Committee on
Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations chaired by Senator Rose Oko, said
after a critical scrutiny of the curriculum vitae and other accompanying
documents of the nominee and having been satisfied about her integrity,
exposure, suitability, competence and experience in politics and public
service, found her fit for appointment as chairman/chief executive officer of
the Nigerian Diaspora Commission.
This
development, according to analysts, was long overdue considering the hassles
many Nigerians have been going through in foreign countries they are domiciled.
Over time, following the misconduct of some Nigerians involved in criminal
activities including drug trafficking and smuggling of arms, ammunition and
other banned products, trafficking in persons, as well as cases of Nigerians
absconding during pilgrimage, among others, earned the country negative image
thereby robbing off on innocent and patriotic and law abiding citizens.
Nigerians
have been known to suffer hardship including rigorous immigration processes and
screening as a result of stigmatisation, even as some have been implicated in
crimes they did not commit. A case in point is the arrest of a student of Maitama
Sule University, Kano, Ms Zainab Aliyu, who travelled with her mother to the
Saudi Arabia, on December 26, 2018. Her travel bag was found to have been
stuffed with substances suspected to be tramadol, a medication used to treat
pain but abused among young people, allegedly by some fraudulent officials at
the Aminu Kano International Airport.
It took the
intervention of the Nigerian government through the Office of the Attorney
General of the Federation to secure her release and safe return to Nigeria.
Her case is
one among many in several countries abroad, a spill-over effect of erroneous
impression against few Nigerians.
Also,
Nigerians in the Republic of South Africa have recorded several deaths as a
result of xenophobic attacks, same case with Nigerians in Cyprus, Turkey and
Ghana.
Speaking on
the situation in South Africa, President, Nigerian Citizens Association in
South Africa, Ben Okoli said the lives of Nigerians are so cheap in that
country and it does not matter to the South Africans that Nigerians are being
killed. According to him, while some Nigerians resident in South Africa are
killed through mob attacks, others are shot dead under the guise that they
involved in one criminal activity or another.
He
maintained that recent case of Ebuka Udugbo, who was allegedly killed by South
African Police, called for concern, pointing out that Udugbo was arrested by
the South African Police over a quarrel with his girlfriend, one Miss Linda, on
April 28, 2019, and was later pronounced dead by the police.
“The
information we got initially was that he committed suicide while in the South
African Police custody in Cape Town. We conducted our own preliminary
investigation over the circumstances surrounding his death. What we discovered
was that the late Udugbo had a quarrel with his girlfriend and left the house
at about 9am on April 28, to avoid further altercation.”
According to
him, the girlfriend later called in the police and Udugbo arrested while
driving in the town. “Mr Udugbo’s vehicle was stopped and he was arrested and
handcuffed. The police took his car keys, left the car by the way and drove
with him back to his house in the police car along with the girlfriend.
“There, he
was severely beaten and he fainted. At this point, the landlord’s son was
afraid and told the police to take him to the hospital.
“They,
however, refused and instead they took him to the police station where they
claimed that he had allegedly committed suicide.”
Also,
lamenting over the difficulties Nigerians in the Diaspora face, Folashade
Titilope, a Nigerian living in Ghana, said: “This past week, my morning radio
habit led me to a convoluted talk show on a Ghanaian radio station, 91.3FM, that
could have easily been mistaken for a call to arms against Nigerians in Ghana.
“A guest on
the programme suggested that Nigerians are responsible for the significant
proportion of crimes committed in Ghana. In response, the host, following a
feeble attempt to dissociate himself from this xenophobic sentiment, asked if
the government ought not to monitor Nigerians in Ghana more closely, given our
implied criminal tendencies.”
According to
her, this is the general perception held by many about Nigerians.
Nigerians
react
As the
attacks continued seemingly unabated, many Nigerians had reacted angrily to the
development, including the chairman of the Presidential Committee on
Anti-Corruption, Professor Itse Sagay.
He said the
trend had continued because South African authorities never took any concrete
step to punish those who perpetuated those acts and urged the Nigerian
government to react by closing down South African firms in the country or out
rightly nationalise some of them in retaliation.
“The Nigerian
government should close down some South African establishments or nationalise
them. That may be the only resort to self-help that the South African
government would appreciate. Right now, they are taking us for granted; even
when we complain, they pretend that they are not aware. It is just envy killing
against the success of Nigerians. Nigeria was the head of the United Nations
anti-apartheid committee until South Africa got her independence but they have
forgotten all of that,” he stated.
Also speaking,
Chief Mike Ozekhome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), however, took a swipe
at the Nigerian authorities over their lukewarm attitude of towards the
treatment many Nigerians get from other countries, especially South Africa.
In a recent
interview, the fiery lawyer said, “President Muhammadu Buhari should pick his
phone and call his South African counterpart to tell him that if they do not
want diplomatic row South Africans should put a stop to the killing of
Nigerians. The call should be followed by a letter that should be discussed in
the South African parliament.”
He noted
however, that a government that does not have the capacity to protect her
citizens at home does not have what it takes to shield them from attacks
abroad.
In the wake
of these attacks and subsequent killings in 2017, former Chairman of the
National Human Rights Commission, Professor Chidi Odinkalu, reacted stating
that the federal government needed to do more to ensure that every Nigerian
life matters.
He said, “If
one white person gets killed in France, our president sends a condolence
message. It is disappointing that our president does not take it seriously when
Nigerians are killed. Rather, we get condolence messages being sent out to the
rest of the world when their own people are killed. If all the Nigerians that
are being killed don’t matter and one white person killed matters to our
president, that tells that you we have a lot of work to do.
“I know that
there is no perfect human rights situation anywhere because everywhere it is
work-in-progress and Nigeria is the same but we don’t have a choice; we have to
make progress. Nigerian lives must matter.’’
Odinkalu
said that though he was not against condoling with the rest of the world,
Nigerians also deserved condolence and protection. He said that this was
because Nigerian lives were just as important as European and American lives.
Nigerians
Diaspora lauds commission
The Nigerian
Diaspora Commission is the best thing to have happened to Nigerians abroad
according to Nigerians living in America. Reacting to the signing into law of
the Act, Nigerians in the Diaspora in America (NIDOA), through its image maker,
Bukola Shonuga, stated: “The enactment of the bill is further testament of the
recognition of the critical role of Nigerians in Diaspora in Nigeria’s
development.
“Over 15
million Nigerians reside in the Diaspora and Nigerians have been cited as the
most educated immigrant group in the West and they are represented in every
professional field.
“The average
Nigerian professional holds at least a Bachelor’s degree and the annual median
income is about $65,000. The World Bank recently noted that Nigerians in
Diaspora remit $23bn a year, a significant fuel to their country’s economy.”
Also
speaking on the development, a London based Nigerian publisher, Mr Dotun
Israel, told Blueprint Weekend that what is happening to Nigeria is the
long-year spill over effect of the bad image the country had gained especially
in the area of corruption and crime.
Many
Nigerians he noted had given a dubious image to the country in times past due
to their involvements in crimes. He however noted that with the creation of the
Nigeria Diaspora Commission, it is one step ahead in government’s effort
towards boosting the image of the country abroad.
“It was a
good thing that the government has finally come up with this idea of setting up
a Diaspora commission. Its assignment may be synonymous with foreign affairs
but it will deal with the specific issues of manhandling many Nigerians go
through in foreign countries. I believe Abike would use her experiences as a
former aide to the president in that capacity to give Nigerians a fresh breath.
It requires a lot of diplomacy but I know she can bring about a change of
attitude on the part of foreigners against Nigerians.”
Chairman/COE
of the commission, Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, during a recent meeting with the Ghana
High Commissioner, Mr Rasheed Bawa, expressed deep concerns over the attacks on
the businesses of Nigerians Ghana by some Ghanaians who were protesting the
involvement of some Nigerians in the abduction of two Canadians and other
criminalities in that country.
She,
therefore, demanded assurances from the Ghanaian government on the safety of
Nigerians living in that country, insisting that their investments should also
be protected. “We have come to demand the protection of Nigerians in Ghana and
to ensure that the xenophobic attacks against them don’t re-occur again. The
whole nation should not be maligned and attacked for the crimes of a few. We
want assurances that the attacks on Nigerians and their businesses will not
occur again,” she said.
Responding,
Bawa assured that henceforth, his home government would not allow her
relationship with Nigeria to be destroyed by anyone.
