It is fashionable these days to blame all our woes as a nation on Britain, the colonial master that coupled together the northern and southern protectorates of the territory around River Niger in 1914 to birth a country christened Nigeria.
The British no doubt have had more than a hand in our fortune or misfortune as a people since we were forced to be together as a country a century ago next year, but we should take the praise for what we have done well and accept the blame for every misfortune that might have befallen our dear country.
Among the colonial masters that Britain sent to administer Nigeria before independence in 1960, one name stood out and will forever be remembered as long as we remain a country: Lord Frederick Lugard.
He, it was that merged the northern and southern protectorates to create the country Nigeria, so named by his girl friend then (we were told) to describe the area and the people around River Niger.
Down the years up till independence the British sent different officials to administer the country and their decisions had profound effect on us as a people. Independence did nothing to reduce the British tendencies to make policies and legislations that have impacted well or badly on us. Remember the botched Anglo/Nigeria Defence Pact immediately after independence that was fiercely opposed by Nigerians, especially students of the University of Ibadan.
There had been more, and one in particular that is still with us today was the decision of the British under their iconic Tory Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher to impose visa restrictions on Nigerians traveling to the United Kingdom. Prior to that time, Nigerians, as citizens of the British Commonwealth (of nations) had easy access to the UK, but Thatcher changed that and today hundreds if not thousands of Nigerians queue at the gate of British High Commission every week day seeking entry visas into the United Kingdom.
By the way, the visa is not for free and some of them even had to borrow to raise money to pay for the visa and even some among the very few that were lucky to be granted the visa had to sell or use their properties as collateral to raise money to buy air tickets and meet other sundry expenses. Some emigrated to seek better life in the UK only to be disappointed by the reality of the situation that the streets of London are not littered with Pounds Sterling. To come back home became a problem to them, not only because of the shame of being labelled a failure by their folks back in Nigeria, but most importantly because the resources to return were not just available. So they became a burden on the British.
And now to heap more miseries on these unfortunate/desperate Nigerians who still believe they can’t succeed in life unless they get to the UK, another Tory Prime Minister David Cameron plans to introduce a £3,000 indemnity fee for all Nigerians seeking visa to enter the land of Queen Elizabeth. The money would be forfeited to Her Majesty’s government should they overstay the time on their visa. And if and when they are caught, its straight back to Nigeria.
Immigration is a hot political/economic issue all over Europe and even the United States and Cameron might just be pandering to the extreme right of the political spectrum in the UK who blame every economic, social and even political misfortune of the British society on immigrants, especially those of Africa and Asian origins.
While the British are within their rights to regulate entries and even departures into their territory, singling out Nigeria and a few other so called high risk countries for this new visa regime is discriminatory and smacks of racism. Are Nigerians the only people that overstay their visa in the UK?
It is good that the Nigerian government has decided to fight this new British visa regime, but that is not all. Our government should vigorously pursue and implement policies and programmes that would make going to Britain unattractive to Nigerians especially our youths. It is a fact that most of these people emigrate for economic reasons. Millions of our youths are not employed and in some cases unemployable. I am sure if there is something good for them to do at home they wouldn’t be rushing and desperate to emigrate to any other country. So, while the federal government fights to get Britain to dump this new visa regime targeted at Nigerians, it should also fight to create employment, make our schools and hospitals better, world class, and make the roads and other social infrastructures better. We can start with uninterrupted power supply and we would be amazed at the number of jobs, especially small scale businesses that this would create.if we can achieve this it would be thanks and no thanks to Britain.
May be we need to fight this battle harder so as to safe our youths in particular from being exposed to the kind of sexual culture that is so pervasive in the western world including the UK. The other day Prime Minister Cameron was chiding Nigeria for our government’s (national assembly) strident opposition to same sex marriage. Leaving the insult aside that Britain still believes she can dictate to us, especially our social life, same sex marriage is alien to our culture and it is those demented few amongst us who engage in it that wants to destroy our culture and the fabric of human existence. Under the guise of protection of fundamental human rights Cameron, Barack Obama and their co-travelers in Europe and America want to destroy us and our culture, tradition and existence, we should not allow them. They should let Africa be.
The other day some of these demented Nigerians protested against the arrest and prosecution of some members of the so called Nigerian Gay and Lesbian community by the police in a Magistrate court some where in Anambra state. It was also recently reported that some of them had a meeting in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital and even issued a press statement to that effect. What is this country turning into? Sodom and Gomorrah? I think the police should be alive to their responsibility here. Anybody that violates the law against same sex conduct or marriage should be made to face the music. The problem with our police is that before you know it, some bad eggs in he force would turn the law into an opportunity to extort and even frame innocent people. Yes our police men and women are poorly paid and badly treated, but extortion is not the way out of their plight.
May be the government has found a way out of the problem of underfunding of the police with the recent decision to give one percent of revenue from the federation account to the police. The amount would be treated as first line charge, meaning that the money would be removed first before whatever is left is shared among the three tiers of government. This is good. But can we trust the Nigeria Police and indeed the politicians in the Ministry of Police Affairs, the Presidency and even the Police Service Commission to spend this money judiciously and for the right purpose?
Over the years there have been reported cases of massive corruption in the police. Some former Inspector General of Police have been indicted and even convicted on fraud, in some cases, outright stealing of police funds. If they could do that with the ‘little’ that gets to them now, you can imagine when one per cent of our consolidated revenue is remitted to them in addition. But this is not enough reason to deny the Police better funding. One strongly believes that poor law enforcement and not inadequate laws is responsible for most of the crimes committed in this country, including fraud, election rigging, money laundering et al. If our police are well trained, remunerated, and properly quartered they will curb most of these crimes and our society would be the better for it. But if we leave them the way they are, then we should be pleased to live with the consequences of such a rotten system. The way you lay you bed is the way you sleep on it.
Finally, the Sunday newspapers were awash with the photograph of President Goodluck Jonathan and Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi shaking hands at the Port Harcourt International airport. That the two are sworn enemies is not in doubt, but let’s hope this photo op is not a photo trick after all. This is hoping the hatchet has been buried. The better for the nation.
