Travel Ban and a sad day

[Toyin Falola]

Today, President Trump is most likely to announce a travel ban on Nigeria.

It shows the extent to which “tribalism” has gone global; how mega-nationalisms have declined and nearing collapse; and also the extent to which Nigeria has lost respect.

I know for a fact that some universities are saying they should not admit Nigerians for PhDs as they may be denied visa. For the first time, Nigerians who finished their PhDs even in top programs are getting it difficult to get jobs—at least I know eleven who have no jobs.

To those in the Diaspora, it shows their powerlessness, how the exaggeration of what they do comes into clear focus. All the boastings do not equal the finger of Oprah Winfrey. All the numbers in the big cities cannot influence policy, how no one is afraid of the PhDs that they parade and the long CVs they build.

We cannot even complain! We cannot even mobilize protests.

Most human beings do not care about what we say or write—they care about what we do and how we transform their lives.

It is a sad day.

 

Toyin Falola

Department of History

The University of Texas at Austin

104 Inner Campus Drive

Austin, TX 78712-0220, USA

http://toyinfalolanetwork.org/

 

 

[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

Prof:

I never thought I would live to witness this happening to Nigerians.

First it was the Muslim nations, then it was the Mexicans and now it is the Nigerians.  Two sets of actions are now due:

1. Mass protests at the US embassy in Nigeria.

2. Protests to the Capitol and the White House in the US decrying the unjustified victimisation of Nigerians in America.

OAA

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Okechukwu Ukaga]

TF & OAA,

This is predictable. And indeed represents the extent to which Nigeria has lost respect due mainly to bad leadership that seems to get worse with both time successive change in political leadership. We need to reverse the trend. Charity begins at home! We cannot expect foreign leaders to treat Nigerians better than Nigerian leaders. So rather that protest at US Embassy, folks should protest at the offices of their federal and state governments ( executive & legislative) to force those in power to do the needful and make Nigeria work again for Nigerians so folks will not seem desperate to travel out or overstay. Notably, one who is safe and comfortable in his or her own home, could care less if you don't want him or her in your home - as the alternative is to stay happily at home.

Regards,

OU

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[segun ogungbemi]

TF,

It is a sad day for all of us who are concerned about the implications of the ban on Nigeria. 

We cannot blame those of us who are here because we are not policy makers. Our governments at home have not lived up to the expectations of Nigerians both at home and in diaspora. 

We hope Buhari administration will rise up to the challenge. It is not good for the image of Nigeria. Something will be done, I am sure. 

Segun Ogungbemi

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[Biko Agozino]

No be Naija close him border with Benin Republic? Karma.

Biko

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[Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju]

Nigerians have achieved so much in the US.

It should be possible for them to protest this as a collective and keep protesting until it is changed.

On a more positive note-the UK is now allowing students who graduate from their unis to have two years for a job search.

That means if they get the jobs they can stay in the UK.

This might be a response to the Brexit implications.

Generally, though, with particular reference to the character in the White House,  I wonder if these Western countries don't at times exaggerate their own significance.

thanks

toyin

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[OLAYINKA AGBETUYI]

OU.

You are indeed very right.  I actually immediately after sending the first post thought about sending another indicating that Nigeria should see this as an opportunity to rebuild its institutions so people are not in a clamour to go to America so  the US does not react like a besieged country.

Second.  Is there a connection between anticipating Trumps decision and Nigerian lawmakers overdue attention to Nigeria' security issues in the past week?

Is it not now clear to the lawmakers that in spite of their hoarded wealth, their wards would not be granted visa to study in the US?

So in a way perhaps Trump should be thanked rather than castigated.

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[Cornelius Hamelberg]

Lord Olayinka Agbetuyi,

The UK has left the EU: Hallelujah, and Congratulations to the UK.

Which African country wants to leave the Africa Union?

OK. It’s not the same thing. We are all Africans and that includes the Arabs and Berbers up North and the Boers, down South.

The image of Nigeria aboard is predicated on the image of Nigeria in Nigeria, among Nigerians. If in doubt, Trump and the USA’s immigration authorities could take a good look at the image of Nigeria projected through the social media by veteran Nigerian reporters such as Farooq Kperogi based over there in Georgia, USA from where he has “so much things to say” in his  “Notes from Atlanta”. So, we may form our impressions and make our conclusions based on his “Notes”. Perhaps, because he reports about all the bad things that add up to making Nigeria an intolerably difficult place for a poor man or woman  to live a happy life, it’s people like him that should be at the forefront leading the counter-revolution or the protests and demonstrations against the immigration restrictions on those who want to leave Nigeria  - and like him, take up permanent residence in Savannah, Georgia.

For many people, it’s so easy to see racism and the race factor everywhere, to see local tribalism and international tribalism too (The Germans!) everywhere, just as some of the anti-Fulani islamophobes from the South, the East, the West and the Middle belt of Nigeria, when not hallucinating say that they don’t see the cows, all they see is armed & dangerous Fulani men everywhere. The wayward wench in the East cannot boast of an immaculate conception, so what does she say? She says that she was “raped” – sexually violated by a Fulani herdsman that was passing by. In the old Roman days when they occupied their colony Palestine, she could have well said that she had been “raped”  - sexually violated by a Roman centurion, hence the pregnancy, just as in Robert Graves fictional narrative entitled King Jesus . If there had been Fulani Herdsmen around, then instead of a Roman centurion it would have been a colonial “Fulani herdsman “ that did it …

With regard to the new US travel restrictions affecting some Nigerians, it’s a matter of the relatively high immigration volume, that and some other factors such as the crime rate the  419, etc. adding to the unemployment figures, poisoning the prejudices and resentments that already exist. The high incidence of those who overstay when their visas have expired must also account for some of the other African countries on the travel ban.

As you know, Nigerians are special, are distinctive and easily distinguishable, since Nigerians, maybe a big brother complex, the oil giant of Africa, the most populous nation of the human race on The Black Continent, etc. tend to have a loud presence wherever they are, on the whole, wherever they go, tend to be a lot more boisterous than Ghanaians for example. But when it comes to crime, or anything negative that’s done by a Nigerian, that Nigerian may be said to represent all Africans in the eyes of the prejudiced beholder.

It’s reported that the Nigerian Mafia known as Black Axe has now moved into Sweden . It’s also reported that 80 % of the Nigerian prostitutes in Sweden come from Edo State.

 So , I’m inclined to support these two points that you make, and this applies to a whole lot of other smaller African countries as well, because this is always the main cause for the  exodus from the sunshine Africa, to the point of so many Africans on the way to fulfilling their imagined dreams on the greener pastures  of the promised lands ultimately wind up in watery graves in the Mediterranean sea  :

“Nigeria should see this as an opportunity to rebuild its institutions so people are not in a clamour to go to America so the US does not react like a besieged country.”

Absolutely true, Sir. That and Boko Haram and all the bad news that is the perpetual domain of the motherland. You must admit that in some areas  “things” have got a lot more  progressively worse since Keith Richburg’s Out of America: A Black Man Confronts Africa for which he took some flak for thanking God for slavery  without which he says his ancestors would not have arrived at the promised land and he would have still been back there suffering  in the miserable condition that is Africa…

Understandably, you are perturbed about the ten thousand PhDs and a few thousand professors of everything who don’t want to return voluntarily, to help develop their beloved Nigeria. They also say that unlike Richburg’s ancestors they did not arrive in the States on some slave ship such as the Jesus of Lübeck

The relations between Africans and African-Americans could be a lot better. True, today, Afrobeat is second to Hip Hop and rap. The  other good news is that Ghana is now attracting quite a few African Americans to return home

Concerning your second point about “Nigeria' security issues”, really, what are all these protestations about?  This much ought to be clear - as reported by Elombah News:

“Which the Trump administration said was designed to tighten security for countries that don’t comply with the U.S. minimum security standards or cooperate to prevent illegal immigration.”

 If the Nigerian authorities believe that it’s too difficult to comply with the US demands then why cry about the consequences of their non-compliance?

Ghana deported Nigerians en masse from Ghana in 1969-1970 and Nigeria did the same to so-called “aliens” mostly Ghanaians, in the early months of 1983 - when I returned to Nigeria, some of my Ghanaian friends were “gone”

 

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