By Zik Gbemre

When a President of a ‘developed country’ sets out to project and protect the integrity and socio-economic interests of its country and citizenry, like US President, Donald Trump has done, other ‘developing nations’ like Nigeria and its political leaders and citizenry should not be surprised, or make a fuss out of it. This is hinged on the fact that it is “Their Country”, their America, while we have “Our Nigeria, our country and our headache.” The difference is what both countries’ leaders and people are doing differently, to improve the lot of their individual citizenry amongst the international community. This is my take, when it was recently reported that the US Trump administration’s controversial visa and travel bans has now been extended to include more countries, with Nigeria on the latest list.

The ban, which is one of the US President’s signature policies, now includes six new countries, who have been blocked from obtaining certain types of visas. All immigrants from Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria will be banned from the US. Other countries like Tanzanian and Sudan citizens will no longer be able to apply for the “diversity visas,” known as the Green Card lottery, according to the US Department of Homeland Security. Nationals of the six countries already in the US, or those with a valid visa to come to the US, will however not be affected. Though, the extended ban does not affect tourism, business and student travel but it could have an impact on US citizens who want to be reunited with family members living in Nigeria, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar.

As expected, Nigeria’s government through President Muhammadu Buhari’s Spokeman, Mr. Femi Adesina, has reacted by issuing a statement saying they will work with the “US Government, INTERPOL and other stakeholders to ensure all updates are properly implemented.” While some Nigerians believe that everybody should have freedom of movement, and they do not see any reason for Trump to have done what he did. Others are of the opinion that the ban was justified, and would encourage Nigerians to stay at home and build their country. Some other Nigerians blame President Muhammad Buhari’s policies for lowering the country’s standing in the world. Mind you, the US has been a strong ally in Nigeria’s fight against terror group Boko Haram and Cybercrime, among other causes. It is also Nigeria’s main trading partner and a close Diplomatically since 1960. In fact, according to the CNN report on this issue: “Nigerian immigrants in the US are considered one of the most successful and educated immigrant groups in the country.”

Another social commentator, Princewill Odidi. who tried to decipher the real reason US suspends Immigrant travel Visas on Nigerians, noted that: “It has little or nothing to do with Boko Haram, has nothing to do with Buhari, has nothing to do with arrest and detention of journalists, has nothing to do with Nigeria’s ban on gays and lesbian, but has everything to do with the absence of a workable system in our identification and verification processes. The main reason Nigeria is suspended from Immigrant visas category is because Nigeria does not have a credible background investigation system that groups like INTERPOL can rely on to vert and certify originality. What that means is that if someone commits a crime in Lagos and relocates to Kano, there is no system in place that can be used to track crimes and people across State lines. Virtually all African countries have such systems. Even Ghana has it. Cameroun, and everyone has original birth certificates. But Nigeria prefers to have multiple identity cards not because they are interested in monitoring and tracking people, but because they want to make money. Our country is a transaction society, you can buy anything, even the human conscience.

“Most responsible modern states in the world have tracking systems, but Nigeria does not. A typical example, if you are about 40 years, if you go to your primary school to get your records, they do not have it. Principals and headmasters do not have computers in the 21st century. Now, only States that are considered ‘rogue nations’ or ‘failed states’ that do not have workable systems. Most nations in this category are nations at war. Nigeria is not at war, but the irresponsible nature of our Government makes Nigeria a war zone. Now, back to US suspension, let me make it clear that only Immigrants visas are affected. Non-immigrant visas are not affected. An immigrant visas is a type of visa that allows you to stay, work or even become a US citizen after you travel. This category involves the type of visa you get when you marry an American citizen and have to relocate or the type of visas given to parents when their American citizens file for them, or the visa you get through lottery. Another category of visa affected is birth visas. These are medical tourism visas to come to America and have a baby. It is those categories of visas that are affected. Some waivers do apply. However, non-immigrant visas like visitors or business visas are not affected. However, going forward it will be difficult to get

“What America is saying is that we cannot continue to give immigrant visas to your people if our investigators have no tools to work with to verify the true identity of your immigrant populations. Example, someone who wins a lottery or marries a US citizen, the investigators will want to check him up to his/her primary school level. But we have no records. Our government should be ashamed that we do not have a reliable working system to track Nigerians instead of deceiving the people to assume it is unfair what US has done. Our government should be ashamed that today we are grouped with countries like Eritrea and Sudan. A sensible country, what they should be doing now is to put such a system in place, but they will not. Last year, two of my American friends visited Nigeria and came back with Nigerian international passports. That can never happen in Ghana or even Liberia. But with money you can buy a man’s conscience in Nigeria.

“With as little as three to five hundred dollars people are ready to subvert the law and do the unthinkable. With just Ten thousand Naira anyone can get local governments origin letters, worst still, today traders who never stepped their legs in universities are given degrees and people even serve youth service with fake results. If you are America, will you continue to give immigrant visas to a country you cannot verify a simple certificate? If you are America, will you continue to give citizenship to immigrants whose entire documents for relocation to your country may have been forged? We forge ID cards, we forge bank statements to get visas, we forge birth certificates, we forge marriage certificates, we forge election results, what is it that we do not forge? We should not blame the US, the truth is we have failed as a nation. More disturbing, those who are clamoring that we need a working system are those who are arrested and locked up on frivolous reasons, charged with hate speech and ostracized by society. According to my good friend Frank Anoh, he says we are a nation of criminals. I somewhat would agree with him. We are a nation of criminals. However, I blame my generation more, we continue to subvert the system for a plate of porridge. Until this independence era politicians leave the scene, Nigeria will continue to operate in the 16th century. God help us.”

Strong and harsh words from Princewill Odidi. But are very true, of the state of Nigeria. We, as Nigerians, are the worst enemies of ourselves as a people. When I say “we”, I am referring to both (past and present) public/political leaders at the helm of affairs in Federal and State levels, and of course the entire Nigerian elites and masses. In other words, whatever we see wrong today in Nigeria was created, and is still being created by Nigerians. We are, and have been our own undoing. Though, majority of the blame goes to those set of Nigerians that have been privileged and given the opportunity to be in one political position or the other as custodians/deciders of our collective wealth, but they are still part and parcel of that flock called Nigerians. So, our problem is not foreigners or externally oriented – that part is obviously allowed by Nigerians. Hence, our problem in this country is us – that psychic construct that makes us Nigerian. No foreigner will come and address our problems as a nation for us. That onerous task can only be actualized by Nigerians themselves.

Until Nigerians in and outside Government change their orientation, and until they start taking Government as a place for serving the public and not a business enterprises or factory; Nigeria will continue to move two steps backward and one step forward in its developmental strides. And until the general masses start condemning these people for who they are, and start making their own individual adjustments as Nigerians, we will remain an undeveloped nation that is heading to become a failed nation. In fact, the US ban will just be one of the many that will yet come from other nations, if we do not get our acts together as a nation.

Zik Gbemre.
National Coordinator

Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NPDC)

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