Special Issues

  
Custom Search

Nigerian
News


Joseph Ifeanyi Chikunie
 Head, Space Control
  Opebi Road
Ikeja, Lagos
more articles
 


NIGERIA IS UNFAIR TO HER CITIZENS IN THE DIASPORA; LET THEM VOTE IN THE LIKELY RE-SCHEDULED 2011 ELECTIONS.
 by Joseph Ifeanyi Chikunie
President Jonathan promised that Nigerians abroad can vote in the year 2015 but our question is why not in the 2011 elections especially with the likelihood of a postponement?

Consider the following headliner reports pertaining to Nigerians living abroad in order to understand the great injustice being perpetrated against them by their own government:
 

Nigerians Abroad Remit $10bn Home In 2009 - World Bank (Page 3)

Nigerians abroad send at least $10 billion in remittances to their loved ones at home. This amount makes Nigeria the 6th highest destination for remittances according to the World Bank. That also makes Nigeria the top remittance destination on the African continent.

In 2005, remittances constituted 5% of Nigeria's GDP. With many Nigerians abroad sending remittances home for investment purposes (i.e. real estate purchases); this money allows those in the Diaspora to play a role in the country's development while bettering them.

Nigerian, Murdered by Spain, Does Anyone Care?

(Commentary on the death of Osamuyia Aikpitanhi, published first on 13 Jun 2007 in The Nigeria Village Square)

Osamuyia Aikpitanhi, a 23 year Nigerian, on June 9, 2007, was murdered by Spaniards. They handcuffed him, chained his legs, and gagged him with his mouth completely closed with industrial strength rubber or duck-tape and put a twine-bag or sack, over his head. Once out of public view, they pummeled him, until he suffocated, or choked and asphyxiated! He drowned in his vomit, with excrements or faeces all over him, all these are testament to the torture.

Spaniards unconscionably, injected unidentified chemical substances into Mr. Osamuyia Aikpitanhi. This young man's offence was that he did not possess a resident permit, authorizing him to live and work in Spain. We know that such infraction does not carry the death penalty. We also know enforcement agents of Spain, who brutalized, the Nigerian are barbaric. It is a horrible treatment of the inquisition type and they did not have the right to take the Nigerian’s life. The Spaniards meted out such horrible and extremely inhuman treatment to Mr. Osamuyia Aikpitanhi, by unreasonably using deadly force.

Another Nigerian killed abroad: A Nigerian by the name Okey Festus was shot in cold blood in the capital city of Turkey, Istanbul. Okey went to renew his documents leaving a friend in the house another Nigerian when some police men came searching for drugs. They now saw the pictures of Okey in the room and asked who he was. The boy said "he is the owner of the room" and they immediately took him to the station where he was shot. The police men later claimed that he was trying to take their guns from them. I'll like Nigerians to see to this for how long will our people be suffering in foreign land and the foreigners here are being given special treatment. (In nairaland.com by a Nigerian contributor: January 16, 2009).

Again, Nigerian Killed In Ukraine

On Nairaland.com, January 22, 2009.

“A Nigerian was stabbed to death in Ukraine a few days ago, I am very angry at what is happening to Nigerians in Diaspora and the Nigerian government is doing nothing to help”.
(Anguish of a Nigerian contributor resident in Ukraine).

2011: INEC rules out Diaspora voting
Daily Trust, Wednesday, 04 August, 2010.

Nigerians living outside the shores of the country will not vote in the 2011 general elections, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Prof Attahiru Jega said yesterday (3 August, 2010).

Speaking when he received a delegation of Nigerians in Diaspora, Jega said the commission has not made arrangements for voting outside the country in the forthcoming elections.

While promising to conduct credible elections in 2011, Jega told the delegation “I cannot guarantee outright that in January that you can vote.”

He said the task before the commission is to capture every eligible voter in the country in the scheduled voters registration exercise that will form the basis for free and credible elections in January.

The delegation of Nigerians in Diaspora led by Allista Soyode told Jega that over 20 million Nigerians living outside the country are eligible to vote adding that “these Nigerians love to participate in the electoral process and many of them are ready to seek elective offices and to also vote in elections”.

Soyode called on INEC to consider making arrangements that would see to the actualisation of the desires of Nigerians in Diaspora to participate fully in the nation’s electoral process.

There have been agitations by various stakeholders for Diaspora voting but the move was dumped by the National Assembly during the amendment of the 1999 constitution.

Attahiru Jega again reaffirmed in September 21, 2010 when explaining the need for postponement of General elections that Nigerians abroad will not vote (even with the postponement); because according to him, the country’s extant laws prevent them from exercising that very important civic responsibility.

There is no Nigerian abroad who reads above reports without feeling a tinge of sorrow, anguish, anger and abandonment. Let it be known that Nigerians abroad do not expect the Goodluck Jonathan government to provide them with water, electricity, good road and other basic infrastructure because their host governments have done an excellent job of that. Neither do they expect the government to provide jobs as they can hustle that out anyhow. They are not expecting anything that those in Nigeria can benefit from their government except just two that any responsible government does provide to the citizens abroad, which are assisting to provide safety of life and property and guaranteeing their participation in elections.

On these two counts, even the Nigerian government has failed to deliver. The way and manner Nigerians are treated with disdain is sad but it is criminal for a state to abandon her citizens abroad as Nigerians are brazenly slaughtered by agents of their host countries as it happens in different countries of the world. In Guinea, Nigerians were at a time targeted and eliminated by agents of state. There was even a case of where three Nigerians were attacked and nine inches nails were driven into the heads of two of them. Only one managed to escape unhurt. The late Yar’Adua government was informed at the time but there was no response even to the memorandum,

In China too, Nigerians at a time were rats that needed to be exterminated. In Libya, there was literally genocide against Nigerians. The list of countries where Nigerians have been brutally hacked down for the flimsiest reason is a long one yet this continues unchecked. The deaths are of the same pattern, the Nigerian government remains unresponsive and the agents of foreign states continue their wanton destruction of young Nigerian lives.

The question should be asked as to why Nigerians are always the target when it comes to this kind of state crime against the nationals of other countries. There are three different reasons for this. The first is that other countries have come to realize that over time, the lives of Nigerians have become very cheap (compare this to the life of an American) mainly because successive Nigerian governments have failed to react to the slaughtering of Nigerians abroad while maiming and killing its own citizens. Tell your neighbour that your son stole a piece of meat from the soup pot and he will call him an armed robber when there is a quarrel between the two of you one day. Nigeria kills her citizens and other nations think they are helping out when they also kill Nigerians.

The second reason, which can be adduced, is that many Nigerians living abroad have engaged in different nefarious crimes none of which deserves this sort of treatment. Even in cases involving the capital punishment like drug pushing in some countries, there must be some sort of trial, eventual conviction and death penalty if found guilty. But again, did those Nigerians become criminals just like that? Certainly not. For many years, their own country failed to provide opportunities for them, some did not acquire higher education but those who did could not be gainfully employed. Yet, they have demanding families to fend for. While some prefer to eke out a living honourably by doing menial jobs others decided to go abroad in search of the proverbial greener pasture. When push came to shove, they realized that it is not El Dorado they have found themselves in. They then begin to devise means of ‘surviving’. Condemnable as their actions deserve, we must recognize the root causes of their plights.

Third reason has to do with the societal ill of ‘worshipping the rich’ regardless of their sources of wealth. The elites who rule but never lead are in a mad rush for whatever resources of the country they can grab. The poor folks in their communities witness first hand how they spend dollars and Euro currencies, flaunting their ill gotten wealth and oppressing them in the process. They see their elders and traditional rulers, coronate unscrupulous but wealthy people with one chieftaincy title or the other. The military and politicians alike instituted corruption, which has become firmly entrenched. They also see their compatriots return from abroad with so much money thus commanding immediate respect and influence. They therefore decide to join the bandwagon of “get rich or die trying philosophy”.

There is no justification for the lukewarm attitude of successive Nigerian governments to the killings of her citizens abroad just as it beats my imagination why the National assembly has adamantly refused to enact the laws that will allow Nigerians abroad to cast their votes during elections.

It is very likely that general elections will now hold either in March or April, 2011 and when it turns out that way, the legislators have the ample opportunity to do the right thing by allowing all qualified Nigerians to fulfil their civic duty of voting or being voted for, regardless of where they live.

Anything short of this is very myopic, unjust and condemnable. To start with, Nigerians abroad constitute a large percentage of educated and enlightened citizens whose votes are very qualitative. They are so enlightened not to be swayed by parochial and short-sighted interests when casting their votes for candidates.
A friend chipped in the other day that candidates as Goodluck Jonathan and Nuhu Ribadu will gain many more votes if Nigerians in the Diaspora are allowed by the extant laws of the land to vote. His argument is that the much talked about zoning is meaningless to Nigerians residing abroad who are enjoying a kind of fresh air from happenings in their fatherland.

My point however, is that regardless of who might gain more should abroad based Nigerians cast their votes in 2011, the right thing must be done especially when many countries have successfully done it. Americans living abroad cast their votes during elections and even Guineans living abroad also voted in the first round of the Presidential elections and are preparing to vote again during the scheduled October 10 Presidential elections.

It is regrettable and unfortunate that while many Nigerians residing abroad strive very hard to survive against all odds and on top of that send billions of dollars and euro home annually, their government not only abandons them to their fate but even deny them their fundamental right to vote. Those resources hard earned, which they send home in form of investments and hand outs to family members are gains in the GDP. Those funds do not come from within but outside of Nigeria. It is ironic that those who stash away our money and wealth in foreign banks are heroes while the real heroes who bring in wealth are relegated and denied.

President Jonathan promised that Nigerians abroad can vote in the year 2015 but our question is why not in the 2011 elections especially with the likelihood of a postponement? Why pass the buck to a pre-emptive and speculative legislative body, whose actions and characteristics are undetermined? If a fantastic pair of a Doctoral President and a Professorial INEC Chairman cannot guarantee that Nigerians abroad can cast their votes during elections, when is the best time to achieve this? Now is the time.

All right thinking Nigerians including groups as NBA, SNG, NLC and NANS must begin to lobby and pressure the National Assembly to do what is just and conscientious by amending the electoral act to accommodate Nigerians in Diaspora. We are aware that another round of amendment is imminent. It is a noble job that must be done and the earlier the better. INEC has the capacity to organize elections, which accommodate Nigerians in the Diaspora.

The day of fulfilment for all my compatriots abroad will be the one, when they wake up to realize that they can participate actively in the electoral processes leading up to the election of their President while also enjoying the solid backing and active assistance of their embassies or missions in ensuring the safety of their lives and property. Let the Ministers in charge of Foreign affairs and all Ambassadors make it a point of duty to engage their foreign counterparts and governments actively in order for the sanctity of Nigerian lives to be respected at all times.

 

 

Unique visitors: 599