Nigeria Migrants. Photo credit: CNN
I’m sure most of us are used to the quotation, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’
The quotation is so popular that some of us would think it’s Nigerian. Yes, most of our so-called leaders use it as an excuse for their lackluster performance.
By the way, the quotation actually came from President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s inaugural address. President Kennedy could afford to go to the hilltops and shout that. The reasons why he could have done that are so numerous even today.
Some days ago, some Americans were arrested for shoplifting in China. Shoplifting is a beautiful terminology that means stealing. Not minding that they had disgraced the US, I understand the American president put in a word for them, and pronto, they were released.
When an American commits a criminal offence in a foreign country, the American government will first send a diplomat to assess the situation. They will even be offered legal assistance. In any case, the US has entered into prisoner exchange agreements with many nations.
Coming back home, it’s certainly another world entirely. In the south west, cassava is currently undergoing a glut. The farmers have produced so much, but middlemen are not offering them prices that are worth their troubles.
A responsive government ought to have bought the excess produce at a good price. This will certainly encourage the farmers. As things stand, most farmers are not likely to cultivate cassava seriously next planting season. So, as a result, cassava will be expensive next harvest season.
Due to the unfavourable economic conditions in Nigeria, many people are flooding out of the country. However, in view of the fact that the western world is also trying hard not to have an excess labour which might bring untoward effects for their own citizens, their embassies and high commissions actually refuse to issue visas to the generality of Nigerians.
Nigerians, as ingenious as ever, then decided to be going through the Sahara to get to Europe. However, they go through real danger in their bids to travel to Italy. Before getting to Italy, they must pass through Niger, Libya and Algeria.
And there the danger lies……
In most cases some do not even go beyond Niger Republic. But as things are turning out, those could be considered as being relatively lucky.
Lucky because in Libya, some Nigerians are being sold for two hundred dollars into slavery. Now, we are not talking of the eighteenth century.
I’m talking of the computer age of freedom!
Indeed, I’m made to understand that it’s not only in Libya that this sorry situation happens. Other countries have been mentioned. Egypt, Dubai and Oman are said to be also guilty.
If they are not sold into slavery, some of them are killed for the purpose of organ harvesting, if they escape that, they may be held in subhuman conditions. It’s when a person is free that they will be talking about Human Rights..
I really don’t think Nigeria is a member of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Maybe that body has gone into extinction. What about the United Nations?
Nigeria has a ministry of foreign affairs manned by a minister. And I believe money is being pumped annually into that ministry.
Nigeria also has diplomatic presence in those countries. OK, their work only ends with the sumptuous meals served at the diplomatic dinners which they attend. The situation is so bad that when the twenty six Nigerian girls who were found dead in the Mediterranean were buried in Italy, Nigeria wasn’t represented.
Nigeria is also fortunate to have a special assistant to the president on foreign affairs and the diaspora. Pray, in what way has that individual been assisting the president.
Meanwhile, most of us in Nigeria are being abused by lack of electric power, no water, inadequate healthcare, armed robbery, kidnapping, ineptitude, corruption, ritual killings, unemployment, underemployment, should I go on?
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