So, you have obtained your visa and you’ll be leaving the sh*t hole-Donald Trump’s adjective for Nigeria and Africa as a whole six years ago-in three weeks. Congratulatory messages have flooded your phone and your house is now a hangout for friends and family who have come to wish you the best ahead of your journey to the ‘promised land’. Perhaps you’re the type who would drop his resignation by mail while relaxing in the departure lounge at MMIA while waiting to fly out to Ontario via Doha or another who would have a beer with the boys this evening and sneak out by 6 am the following day.
Any group you belong to, remember that leaving your country, though sweet, also comes with some pressure. While I agree that family members and friends who expect you to start sending them cool foreign currency especially as the Naira is struggling in the foreign exchange market is some pressure on its own, of more gravity is the pressure of being a worthy ambassador of your country.
You’re wondering how this is difficult. Maybe you have read blogs, including Japajantis, where you’ve been told the 10 things to avoid doing when you arrive abroad and you feel you’re raring to go; but let me burst your bubble, it is not that easy! Imagine driving out of your palatial mansion in the highbrow Ikoyi in your 2023 Mercedes Benz G-Wagon. White agbada with dazzling designer mules, your Samsung Fold and iPhone 15 Pro Max lying comfortably in your centre console as you glide to Ikeja GRA for a meeting with business partners. On your way home, unfortunately, there’s a detour and you have to use the dreaded Eko Bridge route. It’s not likely going to be a happy ride home, with the ‘boys of the dark’ staring with knowing eyes that there is treasure aplenty in your German box. You’re not the man in the Benz, you’re the crow interested in shiny things, and such is how Nigerians are seen in the West.
Would you blame them? No! Nigerian ‘princes’, ‘princesses’, and other persons of ‘noble birth’ who had their inheritances seized and needed thousands of dollars, or even as little as hundreds, to pay some legal fees to get it out have shredded whatever is left of the goodwill Africans enjoyed abroad. Another group has preyed on vulnerable men and women looking for love for money, while a separate group hunts innocent shoppers down on foreign e-commerce platforms and defraud them of their hard-earned money. It’s almost impossible, unless you’re an APC supporter, to want to be friends with people from whom you’ve been defrauded into depression or in more serious cases, suicide.
About a week ago, a 57-year-old Nigerian man, Oluseun Omole, admitted to a court that he participated in a widespread scheme to defraud thousands of victims in the United States and elsewhere of thousands of consumer electronics and other goods totalling more than $12 million. He faces a 20-year jail term. In the United Kingdom, three Nigerian men, Taofeeq Balogun, Taiwo Agusto and Oluwadamilola Bolaji, have been jailed for their part in a £429,304 fraud. They were found to be members of a syndicate that defrauded Vodafone, EE, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse. They were jailed for a combined total of 11 years at Portsmouth Crown Court.
In India, one Solomon Onyeka was sentenced to seven years in jail and a fine of 10 lakhs (N15.6 million) for duping a woman. The victim said Onyeka had posed as a customs officer on a phone call to tell her a parcel she ordered from outside the country had arrived. She claimed he forced her to pay Rs. 3.84 lakh after he said actions would be taken against her if she did not send money for duty. Last Wednesday, police in Germany said in a statement that a Nigerian gang, Black Axe, was involved in “multiple areas of criminal activity”, with a focus on dating scams and money laundering. The police said the dating trick was a modern form of marriage fraud.
A Nigerian pastor in the United Kingdom, Philip Oyewale, was also exposed via an investigative report in March demanding N17.4 million (£9,000) to find an undercover reporter a job in three days with ‘100 per cent’ success guaranteed.
Not only are Nigerians believed to be fraudulent, we are also believed to spell trouble anywhere we go. Videos of Nigerian cultists in bloody clashes on the streets of Dubai, Turkey, and Italy have, at different times, surfaced on social media, making such countries tighten restrictions on Nigerians. Another three were arrested for drug trafficking as part of India’s crackdown on an international drug syndicate. The Chandigarh Police Crime Branch said it seized 204.8 grams of crystal methamphetamine from them. In South Africa, eight Nigerians were arrested in the Northern Cape Province for attacking policemen during a drug raid. The police said the suspects damaged properties and vehicles in the attack.
While the crimes committed by Nigerians have always been the bane of those ready to live peacefully and earn an honest living in their new home countries, it is soothing to know that some others are setting records, achieving laudable feats, and excelling in fields thought impossible for an African.
For instance, Tunde Onakoya, founder of Chess in Slums Africa, has set the record for the highest chess marathon, with 60 hours. He achieved the feat about a week ago to worldwide applause. Not only has he set a record that looks likely to last a long time, but he has transformed the lives of many destitute children, saving them from a life of ruins in the most dangerous of slums in Nigeria and elevating them to fine chess players.
Another Nigerian, Dr Philip Ozuah, Chief Executive Officer of Montefiore Medicine, the umbrella organisation for the Montefiore Health System and Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, United States, orchestrated a $1 billion donation to make the college tuition free. Ozuah had donated $1 million to the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, where he graduated from, for the Student Hostel Building Project in 2022.
The New South Wales Government in Australia appointed Nigerian-born Bola Oyetunji as its Auditor-General in April. His appointment was announced by Premier Chris Minns in March.
Many other Nigerians have risen above the stereotype and achieved greatness in the diaspora. Such should be your motivation. Strive to be another Nigerian to bring pride to the ‘midget of Africa’ and if every Nigerian who plans to and gets to japa makes this their watchword, we can make Nigeria great again.
And no, it was not deliberate to close this piece as we started it – with Donald Trump!
