American immigration and customs officials are on unbridled ego trip. President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration has handed them a blank cheque to intimidate and humiliate foreign visitors.
Two weeks ago Henry Rousso, a French professor of history was detained at Houston International Airport, Texas for 10 hours over visa misunderstanding.
Rousso was about to be deported when his hosts in Texas A&M University intervened. Rousso was invited to a conference in the university. Immigration and customs officials have powers to bar anyone from entering the US. Russell Brooks, the spokesman of the US embassy in Nigeria admitted that much when he argued that Nigerians were not being targeted, but that individuals could be barred from entering the US for personal reasons.
Geoffrey Onyeama, Nigeria’s foreign minister is perhaps the only man denying that fact.
Onyeama was in deep slumber. Mrs. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, the special adviser to the president on Foreign Affairs and the Diaspora woke him with an irrelevant travel advisory. The minister called a press conference and embarrassed Nigeria more than Dabiri-Erewa’s advisory.
Onyeama is vintage Nigerian foreign minister. He sees himself as the defender of ‘friendly’ countries intimidating Nigerians.
Following America’s detention and deportation of some Nigerians with valid visas, Dabiri-Erewa issued a travel advisory warning Nigerians against avoidable trips to the US until the thick cloud surrounding Trump’s immigration policy clears.
Onyeama responded with glowing accolades to Trump and gleefully stated that no Nigerian was barred from entering the US. Onyeama was speaking against the backdrop of Brook’s admission that there could be isolated cases of a few Nigerians being barred from entering the US for personal reasons.
Onyeama was probably not informed. Nigerians loathe their foreign ministry and missions abroad. When they run into trouble abroad, they hardly call their embassies.
That probably explains why Dabiri-Erewa’s office got more up-date on the over-zealousness of US immigration and customs officials than the foreign ministry.
Dabiri-Erewa as chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on the Diaspora was more pragmatic than the foreign ministry on the plight of Nigerians abroad. As the president’s adviser on foreign affairs, people probably feel her office would be more compassionate than the foreign ministry.
In December 2016 when a Nigerian businessman was suffocated to death by South Africa’s cruel, xenophobic police officers, Dabiri-Erewa was the only voice from officialdom protesting the murder. As usual, the foreign ministry had implicitly condemned the Nigerian trader without trial.
Dabiri-Erewa took the undiplomatic step of visiting South Africa’s high commissioner to Nigeria to plead for the safety of Nigerians in the former apartheid enclave. Onyeama could not summon the ambassador to his office for a stern warning and demand for compensation for the murder. His deafening silence goaded Dabiri-Erewa into a rather compromising posture in a highly provocative situation.
Nigeria’s foreign ministry has a penchant for defending foreign aggressors and castigating Nigerians. Some years ago when Spain’s over-zealous officials choked a Nigerian to death in the process of deportation, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called a press conference and announced that the murdered Nigerian had been deported twice. What could be deciphered from the message is that the Nigerian deserved to die. It was human rights activists who pressured the government of Spain to consider compensation for the murder.
Ironically, developed countries defend even their criminals abroad. During the trial of Russian sailors for illegal bunkering, the Russian embassy in Nigeria monitored the trial closely. When the case appeared to be dragging for too long, the foreign ministry in Moscow ordered Nigeria to accelerate the trial. No one does that for Nigerians.
Nigeria has never been the friend of South Africa.
During the white minority rule, Nigeria was hated more than the front line states. Now that Nigeria’s campaign against white minority rule has handed power to blacks, Nigerians are hated passionately by black rulers and the lazy, jobless miscreants in the streets of South Africa.
The Nigerian government is ignorant of the brazen hatred. It treats its archenemy, South Africa as a friend. MTN, the South African telecoms company dominating GSM business in Nigeria defiantly kept five million unregistered lines for criminals to use in swindling Nigerians.
A fine of $3 billion was grudgingly imposed on MTN for the criminal act. South African government easily pressured Nigeria into slashing the penalty by 66 per cent.
Volkswagen of Germany lied on the pollution level of its diesel engine cars in the US. When the lie was detected, the US government imposed a fine of $4.2 billion on VW. Some of the directors of VW are standing trial for the crime. They risk long jail terms in addition to the huge fine paid by VW. That is how to handle criminals from ‘friendly’ countries.
Dabiri-Erewa’s travel advisory is a sad reminder of what happens when there is power vacuum. She usurped Onyeama’s responsibility.
Besides, the warning was unnecessary because Nigerians are not being targeted by the US government. What is happening is a general trend. Her office is a wasteful duplication of functions emanating from Onyeama’s ineptitude. The situation on the ground suggests that Nigerians trust her more than Onyeama. The president might well replace Geoffrey Onyeama with Abike Dabiri-Erewa.
Nigeria has never been the friend of South Africa. During the white minority rule, Nigeria was hated more than the front line states
