Perhaps its time to come to terms with the reality of losing our population as a result of bad governance and poor leadership across
Africa. Shocking revelations by the Deputy Head of European Union (EU) delegation in Nigeria, Mr. Richard Young, on the increasing number of illegal migrants from Nigeria to Europe which from January and September rose alarmingly to 22,500 this year as against 23,000 recorded throughout the previous year. This negative tide have been on for ages and calls for urgent public concerns.
While the figure may cause little surprise to many, facts are like bikini hence will only depict a fraction of what the real situation is. Given the state of our economy, the degenerate level of societal decay and other sundry reasons, one is tempted to search for alternative elsewhere without weighing the residual consequences. Afterall, we all have to survive. Many of those young abled persons merely compound their miseries in some form –even though forced by circumstances– because what awaits them at their chosen destination after the voyage are no longer colorful opportunities for a better living but mostly subhuman treatment, slavery and often detention. While prostitution is the order for many young girls.
These facts and figures are just for Europe i.e. north across the Sahara, what then can be imagined for America and Asia? Thousands of young men and women and children from Africa risk death at the high sea on a daily basis for a greener pasture off shore that they are made to believe from what they see in movies which is further reinforced by the perils of livelihood obtainable in our countries. But instead of accepting our fate and bracing up for the challenge by our leaders, they seem indifferent to the situation and some even live in denial.
While there are serious debates the world over on finding lasting solution to this growing tide of young people embarking on what is best described as fatal journeys across the Mediterranean Sea for the utopia of better life, much is needed to be done particularly by African leaders. With the rising anti-immigrant sentiments resurfacing in both Europe and America, as we saw in Brexit and the continued relevance of far right political parties and more recently the election of Trump, collective serious action on how to stem this embarrassing tide is timelier than ever before.
With dwindling opportunities and corruption friendly economy, frustration has made those victims of mass migration to embark on their dangerous voyage without remorse or fear because they feel they are fleeing from what is worse than whatever they will encounter enroute or at their chosen destinations.it is equally sickening that our authorities have yet planned any action to arrest the menace now or in the nearest future.
In urging Nigeria to grow its economy and tackle the challenge of poverty, Young was unequivocally clear that if the immigration issue was not addressed, it might have long-term impact on EU-Nigerian relationship.
Threat!
Well, we deserve it in my opinion, because any economy that seem not only to make the poor poorer and the rich super-rich, with the caliber of tycoons that never saw it viable the option to invest in their country as a means to resuscitate and grow its economy. Rather they prefer to stash away their wealth in some off shore companies or business syndicates elsewhere that will not have any impact on their country or its citizenry. This bring us to the argument that while the poor and vulnerable youth, women and children flee their country for an unknown destination in a blind search for improved livelihood, the wealthy flee our collective wealth and investment potentials to some unknown destination for some speculative reasons. We are not only poor, but even the most basic livelihood earnings in our country is inaccessible in a bleak economy.
In this saddening circumstance, vivacious youth are migrating out of their fatherland to embark on journeys which for many of them tragically end at sea. Some unfortunately fall prey to human traffickers and ritualists as a cost for their vulnerability. There are also those who promote this unscrupulous act by luring these vulnerable young men and women with fake promises of better life in Europe or America only to enslave them or subject them to inhuman labor in those foreign countries. These predators recruit their victims mostly young girls from villages and communities with the promises of securing better means of livelihood for them abroad only to land them into prostitution.
Cross-border crime and human trafficking are becoming endemic due to their lucrative nature that has compounded with our governments’ inaction and crass political unwillingness to arrest the growing tide. Nigeria is regarded as transit route for such illegal trade with our citizens packaged as merchandise. It’s actually lamentable and disheartening that such pervasive act continues to strife even with the little better than none government agencies like NAPTIP, Customs, Immigration and the Police all in place.
While our governments at various levels are urged to take the bull by the horn in addressing the menace of losing their viable population to mass illegal migration which we all know is not unconnected to frustration resulting from bad governance and deteriorating economic condition. Conferences and coffee-table discussions and endless lamentations must be substituted for pragmatic and proactive actions backed by serious political will to fix our leadership lapses and economic retardation. Which is the nemesis for alienation and disconnect manifesting from the conduct of our youths in various format and dimensions. Setting up prosecution agencies to punish and hunt down perpetrators may not be the first step in as much as the breeding ground for such offences/practices thrive unabashed. Putting the cart before the horse approach may not yield fruitful results as we are known for – Africans, and indeed Nigeria.
Next to qualitative leadership and good governance is sustained sensitization of our youths and indeed the entire citizenry, whom are willing to forfeit anything including their dignity to travel abroad for a supposed greener pasture. These individuals have already made up their minds that only outside the shores of Nigeria will they be able to make it and survive.
Let our actions refute the perception of Western countries about what we are. We can choose to be as educated, hardworking, courageous and rich as we want to be when we are better governed by our leaders. Outrageous effrontery of a racist Trump who asserted that “[h]ow do you trust even those who have run away to hide in the United States, hiding behind education? I hear they abuse me in their blogs but I don’t care because even the internet they are using is ours and we can decide to switch it off from this side. These are people who import everything including matchsticks” can be proved WRONG.
Abubakar Bello wrote from Jos.
babubakarsadiq@yahoo.com
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