20 Jan 2009 |
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Checking The Check-Out syndrome: A Caveat From Moscow. Stating that Nigerians are precariously fixated with this intriguing issue of leaving to live outside of the shores of ones own country is undoubtedly not reinventing the bicycle, it only amounts to restating a well established fact. People leave their native countries for several reasons, in fact, every average human being would certainly have dreamt of jetting out to some new places, may be not to permanently reside but at least to explore the world we live in, its innate but there is something aberrant the way Africans and specifically Nigerians are going about it. So many of them, like those heading the East, specifically Russia seem to be completely unaware of the danger inherent with that adventure they are embarking on. My experience as the president of The Association of African Students and The Nigerian Students Union in the Peoples Friendship University Russia, an institution with students from about 140 countries, and the only place with high level concentration of foreigners in the Russian Federation is anything but pleasant and this literally forced me to punch the keyboard. The story was told of a Russian dissident who spent all his life in exile in the United States but later returned in the 90’s after the fall of the Gorbachev’s USSR; having had an exploratory tore of Moscow, he was quoted to have retorted “Woah! Moscow is still terribly white!” It cannot be stated any better, Moscow and indeed Russia is still terribly white, it is therefore not bizarre that the first point of destination by most of the black immigrants who arrive Moscow on daily bases without any clear idea of where they are headed to or what they have come to do usually find themselves one way or the other in the territory of the Peoples Friendship University and not strangely in 80% of the cases, the next thing anyone that encounters them does is to dial my number “presido, there is an African or a Nigerian here or there, just came in, doesn’t know anybody here ……” am confronted with a load I know nothing about, am faced with a moral burden, to blatantly state that I was not the one who invited him and therefore should be left alone or seek a way to help. My heart bleeds of pain when these people recount their stories, the huge amount of money they spent, as a rule, the amount ranges from 450 000 to 1 million naira, I have tried without success to comprehend the single reason that will force someone in his right state of mind to spend such amount of money to get a visa to Russia or any other country for that matter, it beats my understanding why someone will pay to be sent to a strange land to suffer, to a land where he has no slightest idea of what is awaiting him. Some dim-witted ones are even completely unaware that Russia has its own language, they startle you with questions like “ah na waoh, does it mean they don’t speak English here, what type of hopeless country is this uh?” “I was told that Russia is an emerging economy, Russia is one of the G8 countries, I was assured I can “cross over” to Mars and Jupiter from Russia, all I needed was just to enter Moscow and the whole of Europe will be mine etc”. Every new person you meet will say even more stunning things than the former. They all end up exposing the level of inanity on the side of the adventurers themselves and the echelon of unimaginable act of callousness on the part of those sending them here. Nigeria is definitely not the best place to reside but certainly not the worst, lots of people will never appreciate that home is home even when its not homely until they have had first hand experience of trying to live in a strange land, with strange people, with strange language, with strange attitudes, with everything about them strange. The issue becomes even more appalling when you try to do that without clear sense of direction; you are coming in with one week tourist visa, but plan to spend years with little or no cash in hand to survive, in a city rated as one of the most expensive in the world, in a city where renting a room for $500 per month is basically impossible, in a city which temperature drops as low as -35 during winter. This is where you sold all your things, borrowed money from families and friends to give one hardhearted gold digger to get you into. Yes, of course you were told a different story, you were told that immediately you get out of the aircraft your life has changed for good, that could explain why you arrived with only $200 on you, however, I had hoped that Nigerians are now smatter, I thought that internet had revolutionized the way we get information, I was previously convinced that every sane human being will google down information about any country he or she plans to travel to, but my daily encounters with Africans and specifically Nigerians have rubbished all these thoughts, conviction and hopes. Now am totally convinced that check-out syndrome has nothing in common with common sense, they have proved the saying that common sense aren’t really that common. You can be fast to point out such reasons as the unbearable economic hardship in the middle of plenty in Nigeria; you can go further to point out the insensitive corrupt attitudes of the egocentric cabals who claim to rule Nigeria but are completely numb to the social welfare of the citizenry, reasons abound, and many of them have the right to existence. And of course when societal norms seem to encourage emulation of people who live deranged lives, and when huge sections of the population is viewed as subservient to an elite minority who in our local setting no one really truly cares how they amassed their affluence, we ask for trouble. Now we have it, everybody wants to make it by all means even if it means endangering their lives by moving to lands of implausibility. But does that rationalize why people could irrationally spend thousands of dollars; embark on a journey, to a strange land where he knows no living soul, without making any effort to inquire, to understand or to even look up the location of the country in all available world maps? Most foreigners in Russia are students, soviet education used to be revered as one of the best in the world, though the gradual blind replication of everything West is slowly making the once strong soviet education system a shadow of itself. The fees used to be comparatively cheaper, not anymore, now courses in different universities range from $4500 to as much as $10000 or more per annum. No student has legal right to seek employment, meaning that as a student you are 100% dependent on your sponsors. To avoid institutions sending invitations indiscriminately, the Nigerian Embassy has made obtaining a letter of non-objection from the Embassy a requirements to apply for a student invitation from universities in Russia, but evidently it’s not stopping the unscrupulous elements from carrying on with their deceptive games. Here is the advice; if your true intention is to study in Russia and you have capable and willing sponsors, then, there is a chance for you to get a fairly standard education, however, if your intentions are to hustle in Russia or to cross over to EU countries from Russia, save your money and stay back home, if as a young lady you are been told that you can make thousands of dollars from plating hairs in Russia, it’s fictitious, you are been lured into prostitution, as an aspiring footballer, they will try to sell the idea that thousands of clubs will be fighting for you right from the airport, don’t buy it, if you can raise up to five hundred thousand naira simply to check out to the land of uncertainty keep that money and take your chances in the society you know – your home land. Home is home even when is not homely. Okoh Emeka
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