30 Oct 2009 |
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Nigerians: When everything fails, ask for asylum By Levi Obijiofor Friday, 30 October 2009 It must have come to many of us as a shock that, at a time of relative peace, when our politicians are still celebrating the “dividends” of democracy, many Nigerians are queuing in western countries pleading for recognition as asylum seekers. What could have driven over 7,000 Nigerians to lodge asylum applications in western countries within the first six months of this year alone? Take a look at the figures contained in the report, released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (also referred to as the UN Refugee Agency), and published in The Guardian edition of Tuesday, 27 October 2009. The figures are startling. If our political leaders have any sense of shame and responsibility, they must be concerned that in 2009 alone, Nigeria has shot into global notoriety as one of the “main countries of origin of asylum seekers”. Worst still, Nigeria has also made history as the country with “the highest percentage increase among the major source countries of asylum seekers”. When reference is made about the source countries of asylum seekers, we expect to see in the list countries that are experiencing political instability such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia. We do not expect to see Nigeria in the list. Now, the reality has hit us. According to The Guardian, in 2008, the number of asylum seekers from Nigeria rose to “2,471 in the first quarter, 2,761 in the second, 4,014 in the third quarter and a record 4,442 at the end of the last quarter. While the rise between last year and this year is 47 per cent, the rise between 2007 and 2008 was higher at 69 per cent.” While some people might argue that these figures are insignificant when considered against the background of Nigeria’s population, yet the notion that Nigerians are asking for asylum in progressively large numbers in developed countries should alarm everyone. Just between 2007 and 2008, the UN Refugee Agency recorded a surge in the number of Nigerian citizens requesting for asylum in the developed world. The trend is deeply worrying. Why? Nigeria is blessed with human and natural resources that could easily have been harnessed by other less endowed countries to propel themselves into positions of economic strength and international recognition. Nigeria symbolises the prodigal son who squandered glorious opportunities shoved onto its laps. The terms “asylum seeker” and “refugee” are often misused or misapplied when public debate ensues about who is qualified to be classified as an “asylum seeker” or a “refugee”. The UN Refugee Agency makes a clear distinction between an “asylum seeker” and a “refugee”. According to the agency, “An asylum seeker is a person who has left their country of origin, has applied for recognition as a refugee in another country, and is awaiting a decision on their application.” What about a refugee? How should we describe a refugee? The UN agency also defines a refugee as someone who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…” So, how are refugees different from other categories of people seeking protection from other countries or the UN agency? The UN Refugee Agency states categorically that “Refugees are forced to leave their countries because they have been persecuted or have a well-founded fear of persecution. Refugees run away. They often do not know where they will end up. Refugees rarely have the chance to make plans for their departure such as packing their personal belongings or saying farewell to loved ones. Many refugees have experienced severe trauma or have been tortured.” Some human rights advocates tell us that some asylum seekers fit that description perfectly. Some people equally argue that the difference in the definitions is all about semantic ambiguity. Semantics or not, Nigeria is now associated with countries that produce high numbers of people seeking asylum in the developed world. Why are Nigerians applying for asylum in other countries? The answers are inside Nigeria. If we want to understand why many Nigerians are seeking asylum in other countries, we must look at the failure of leadership, the disappointments we have lived with since independence and the lack of hope in the horizon. We boast about our precious oil resources but we can’t demonstrate how we have used oil revenue to develop our country. In a disorderly country such as ours, strange things will continue to happen. Nigeria has been experimenting with western democracy for the past ten years (1999-2009). Regrettably, we have nothing to show for it. We were promised in 1999 that democracy would herald economic prosperity, that foreign investors would make Nigeria their second home, that democracy would engender greater accountability and responsibility in government, that politicians would spurn corruption and that ours would be a healthy deliberative democracy in which everyone would be free to participate. All we can show after 10 years of noisy parliamentary debate and the ritual of yearly presidential budgets are growing poverty, unemployment, decaying infrastructure, a decadent public service, public mortuaries that serve as public hospitals, poor quality of tertiary education worsened by constant disruptions to academic calendar, failure to use new technologies to improve our socioeconomic conditions, failure to generate and sustain electric power to serve the country, and a ravenous appetite for illegal acquisition of public property. In a sense we are all guilty of the Nigerian situation. How? We failed to respond vigorously to certain aspects of Nigeria’s political culture that have continued to undermine the progress of the country. How do we expect things to work in Nigeria when we watch apathetically as politicians mess the economy, when we vote during elections and politicians manipulate the results, when oil prospecting and drilling licences are issued on the basis of political party membership or ethnic and religious affiliation, while people in the oil producing parts of Nigeria are confronted with grinding poverty, including the deleterious effects of oil production and gas flaring on their environment? Things have deteriorated in Nigeria because of the failure of civil society to hold the leaders accountable. The more indifferent we are to our situation, the worse things will get. Nigeria has remained a failed state essentially because everyone failed to act when things went wrong. When senior government officers are picked up for fraud, we feel astonished. It is not common in our environment for the untouchables to be prosecuted. That’s why the nation was awed this week when a Lagos High Court sentenced Olabode George and five of his associates to years of imprisonment for various crimes. In our society, jailing high profile politicians and public officers is not common. In sentencing Olabode George and his accomplices on Monday this week, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole demonstrated uncommon valour. He set out to correct the long established impression that certain categories of political leaders and public officers cannot be reprimanded or jailed when they abuse the law. He was adamant that George and his associates had committed serious crimes against Nigeria and that they must be punished. In a judgment that reverberated across the country for its legal and social implications, Justice Oyewole said emphatically: “When public office is abused, the entire populace is assaulted. This must not be condoned or treated with kid gloves. If the quality of service in our public life is to be altered to the appreciable standard of the civilised world, the right deterrent should be given. For the right deterrent to be served, therefore, sufficient firmness must be demonstrated.” Justice Oyewole deserves public commendation and recognition by his peers for his courage and determination to use high profile persons as examples to illustrate the point that in civilised societies no one is deemed to be above the law. For a long time, Nigeria has been perceived as a jungle where no law exists or where existing laws are largely disregarded. It is good to see that the judiciary is determined to ensure that laws are respected in our society, regardless of anyone’s social status, political class and place of birth. There are many genuine and serious reasons why people seek asylum in other countries. However, seeking asylum in other countries must not be our natural response to failed leadership, economic hardships, social disorder, insecurity, corruption, lack of basic infrastructure, poor quality of education, and high crime rate in Nigeria.
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