ON FEBRUARY 17, 2016. By Michael
Egbejumi-David
Some thirty years or so ago, Fela had a hit
song titled, ‘Beast Of No Nation’ in which he sang, “I never hear that before
o, make government talk o, my people are useless, my people are senseless, my
people are indisciplined. Which kind talk be that o…?” Fela was referring to
Buhari’s military government.
30 years on, nothing’s
changed: President Muhammadu Buhari is still socking it to his people, still
disparaging his people, still bad-mouthing them in the committee of nations. In
a recent interview with a British newspaper, Buhari declared that
Nigerians abroad have made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept
them because of the number of Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused
of drug trafficking or human trafficking. He finished off by saying, “We
will encourage our countrymen to stay at home, work hard and make a respectable
living at home.” There goes our number one ambassador perpetrating negative
stereotypes again.
Really Nigeria doesn't
need Buhari’s type of unhelpful intervention right now. It will further worsen
its citizens’ marginalization abroad and increase prejudice against all
Nigerians. Secondly, a president who habitually goes Overseas for medical
treatment has no standing at all to tell other Nigerians to stay home. The same
factors, same conditions at home that propels the president into the arms of
doctors in a foreign land are the same that drives many Nigerians abroad.
Everyone’s life and future is dear to them and they’ll do everything possible
to make sure they get the best they can get – not just presidents.
No, Buhari did not say
that all Nigerians abroad are criminals but he abdicated his responsibility
when he threw some of his own citizens under the bus in a foreign land to a
foreign media. That can never be cool. It is already hard for some Nigerians in
the UK in light of the recent recession and the influx of Eastern Europeans
into that country. For our own president to put his boot in is very disheartening.
Buhari has handed the UK government and other racists another (official) weapon
with which to further marginalize Nigerians. Is there more crime in Nigeria
than in the USA? No. Are there more criminals in Nigeria than in the UK? No.
Who are the number one foreign prisoners in the UK? The Polish. Nigeria is not
even in the top five 5.
Without Nigerian Doctors
and Nurses, the UK NHS will struggle very badly – maybe even collapse for a
short while. If all Nigerians in the IT and Social Work sectors in the UK pull
out, those sectors will struggle. What about Nigerian Pastors? Ditto for the
USA; if Nigerian educators down tools, that sector of America will struggle.
Perhaps these were what the president could have flagged up in his interview.
If he later meets with Nigerians in a private Nigerian forum, he could tell
them off. He could remind the few yahoo boys to lay off, return home and stop
giving the country a bad name. Rather it was the President who gave the country
a black eye. I spent 33 years living abroad; Brazil, USA and the UK in that
order. I tell you, sometimes it wasn't easy image-wise. The first stigma we
faced in those days was that we were a brilliant people under un-dignifying
military yoke. Then the Yahoo and credit card boys came in the 1990s and made
life really uncomfortable for every Nigerian. A few drug dealers came later. I
never heard of human trafficking. Back then, even our Embassy and Consular
staffs (from Rio de Janeiro to London) treated their fellow Nigerians like
unwanted people. You’d be lucky if you could get anyone in those places to talk
to you. You’d be luckier if you got your passport sorted in two months. At its
height, one chap who went by the imaginative name of Alhaji Alhaji who happened
to be our High Commissioner (Ambassador) in London, in a fit of undiplomatic
hysteria, declared that most Nigerians in the UK were criminals and wondered
aloud why the British government issued them visas. Only God and a few
privileged angels knew what provoked the man.
However, things began to
improve in the 2000s thanks in part to the efforts of former president Olusegun
Obasanjo, and largely due to the excellence and achievements of second
generation Nigerian Diaspora. It is Buhari’s primary task to make our image
problem abroad better. However, in his second coming, it seems to me that
Buhari is only interested in bending over backwards to please and pander to our
erstwhile colonial masters when there is absolutely no need for it. It took the
government of Murtala/Obasanjo in the mid 1970s to take on the British head-on
and get us some much deserved respect. We seem to be going backwards in that
regard again. We seem to be taking instructions from Downing Street, in
particular, and the European Union in general before we make any moves in
Nigeria.
The Wikileaks
revelations of a few years ago where our very senior government officials were
falling over themselves and couldn't wait to blab to low level Western
diplomats was a painful read. I do not see how Buhari’s latest remark would encourage
any potential investor to come to Nigeria. The president ought to know that his
main job is to defend Nigeria and Nigerians everywhere; not to put us down in
foreign media in the hope to please foreign leaders. That is old and it is
unproductive.
*Dr. Egbejumi-David , a
medical practitioner, wrote from London.
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