Bad Government Causes Africans to Migrate to Europe
One of my favorite questions is asking Americans if they would still be as patriotic if life wasn’t so comfortable here. Maybe it’s because I have traveled around the globe and had to reinvent myself thrice, but I have a very jaded view of patriotism. I tend to think that people are loyal to their needs and will stay in a country as long as life they have a comfortable standard of living. The sci-fi show “Sliders” raised an interesting scenario when the heroes visit an alternate reality where the United States is a poor country and Americans jump the fence to get into Mexico.
Humans have always moved in search of better climates, better hunting grounds or better land. As the world has become industrialized human workers have moved in search of better working opportunities. America is a country built on voluntary and involuntary manpower brought to this country. In the 21st century, where high-speed Internet connections have blurred concepts of space and time, jobs come to the workers such as American high-tech jobs being outsourced to India.
Many African countries have recently seen a large-scale exodus of both brainpower and manpower. Failing economies and civil instability have unfortunately created a huge group of migrant workers or “economic refugees,” as some European countries like to describe them. While the United States is wrestling with illegal immigration on its southern border, European countries , such as Italy and Spain, are facing a similar flood of illegal immigrants from Africa. Some parts of Spain and Italy are just a boat ride away from Africa. The plight of these migrant workers is heart wrenching. Many of them make harrowing journeys across the Sahara and then risk their lives trying to cross the Straight of Gibraltar. And when they get to Europe they have to life in the shadows and risk being exploited by employers who underpay them.
This is a sensitive subject as many Africans see this migration as a second form of slavery. They consider African �©migr�©s to be disloyal and unpatriotic. But in Nigeria the country expects young people to be loyal and patriotic to a country that thas done nothing for them. Patriotism is a two-way street. Countries that demand patriotism must in turn take care of their citizens and provide them with the ability to at least clothe, feed and educate themselves.
After being awash in petro dollars in the 1970s, corruption and mismanagement caused Nigeria’s economy to go into a freefall in the 1980s. The thriving Nigerian middle class disintegrated and eventually telephones, cars and milk became luxury items only affordable by Nigeria’s political elite. The country’s highly-educated workforce became nomads spreading out to the four corners of the globe. Nigerians moved to Britain, the U.S., Canada, South Africa and Saudi Arabia – anywhere they could get a decent paycheck. Sometimes Nigerians pop up in the most unimaginable places, places where they don’t even speak English. My sister had a friend who moved to Spain, learned the language and settled there. Now his Spanish is better than his English! I know some former schoolmates who ended up in places as diverse as Australia, Venezuela and Botswana.
In the 1990s employment Nigerian college graduates became increasingly dire. The country’s numerous colleges kept churning out graduates for non-existent jobs Essentially schools were training graduates to work for other countries since there were no jobs for them at home. My brother said during his last visit to London he noticed that many of the workers on the London Underground were Nigerians college graduates. Because of Nigeria’s economic problems, Britain now has some of the world’s best-educated transportation workers.
However it’s not just college graduates who are emigrating, now there is a lucrative trade in African soccer talent heading to Europe. One of the reasons why African countries have been able to compete with the traditional soccer powers is because many Africans play in the top European leagues. Still this is not without controversy, writing in The Swazi Observer (of Swaziland), Phinda Zwane accuses African players plying their trade in Europe of being modern day slaves. He writes, “He (Gaddaffi) was right. There are black players who are offered citizenships by richer countries so that they can play for their national teams and in the process, Africa is robbed of the cream of players that should be playing for their countries. The slave trade, round three!!”
The exodus of African football players is symptomatic of other problems on the continent. Most African players have huge extended families to support, since most governments don’t provide basic social services such as welfare and pensions. Plus Africans playing in Europe can command million-dollar salaries. And in Nigeria, where $1 is worth 150 naira, that money goes a long way. Also, African football associations do very little to nurture or support their foreign legions. Many players have to foot the bill when they fly home, plus give up win bonuses when they are away from their club teams. And if these players receive career-ending injuries they can’t expect compensation from their associations.
The situation for other Nigerian migrants is pretty much the same. Nigerian leaders chastise young people for leaving their homeland and sometimes even taking citizenship in other countries, but they offer nothing in return. Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria’s travel-happy president, often calls on Nigerians to return home, even though he spent more time outside country than in it during his first year in office. During the 1980s I was impressed when an American ambassador went and negotiated the release of an American permanent resident held hostage in the Middle East. You can be a full-fledged Nigerian citizen and the government won’t lift a finger to help you if you get into a jam.
Nigeria is like a deadbeat dad who shows up years later asking for a handout. Like the old Janet Jackson song many Nigerians are now asking, “What have you done for me lately?”
Very few Nigerian students are sponsored by the government these days. Government scholarships disappeared when the economy tanked in the 1980s. The majority of Nigerian immigrants have made it own their own, relying on friends, families and private loans to help them secure an education.
Most Americans strive to make sure their children have a higher standard of living than they did. This has not happened in Nigeria. My dad had a much better lifestyle in 1960s Nigeria than I had in the 1980s. After graduation he was able to get a job and a new car. Nigerian college graduates in the 1990s faced long-term unemployment and if they could afford a car, they were grateful to get a 10-year-old jalopy imported from Europe.
Nigerian youths learned a long time ago they couldn’t count on anyone but themselves. And if some other country is going offer them citizenship and a chance to make a decent life they are going to jump on it. If the Nigerian elders feel their children have abandoned them, I say it was they who abandoned us first.
