COMMENTARY

Resolve accusation against Nigeria embassy in Germany for collecting €500 on each deported Nigerian 
  By Uzoma Ahamefule

NFAM, Olugbenga Ashiru

This news from Germany is really disturbing. Why is it that our leaders make us laughing objects before the international community and they will turn around to accuse us the poor and voiceless masses? 

This accusation from “The Voice Baden Württemberg” in Germany that most Nigerian refugees are deported without proper identification or procedure is a severe one especially the indictment that the Nigerian Embassy officials have been taking €500 to facilitate the deportation of a Nigerian refugee. 

According to “The Voice Baden Württemberg” for the lucrative deportation business to flourish the Nigerian officials can identify their victims in their wisdom with special reference to their facial marks or looks that could be attributed to Nigerians.

Furthermore, the embassy’s machine making money (the refugees) could as well be identified based on their languages or accents according to this known source. When did language speaking or facial marks etc. become a standard yardstick of knowing where one comes from? If the same Nigerians go to the embassy for help as Nigerians without proper identity like passport, driver’s license or birth certificate etc. will the embassy recognize them as Nigerians?

If the answer is no, why then issue documents to deport people to Nigeria even when the host authorities have not been able to prove beyond reasonable doubt that they are Nigerians? Who told you that those people that may have claimed to be Nigerians or the almighty embassy officers have identified as Nigerians may not come from other African countries? 

Even when somebody identifies him- or herself under this circumstance as a Nigerian or speaks any of the Nigerian languages it still does not make that person a Nigerian without any document to back it up. Can the Nigerian government take anybody from Western Europe with white skin to the German Embassy in Nigeria without proper identification and they entertain that person as a German and give the Nigerian authority the needed signatory to deport the person to Germany? 

No European country will accept such uncivilized way of doing things. But why is my country doing it? And painfully it is not that they do not know that it is wrong. Please tell me why? Why do Nigerian officials in Germany or Austria go to interview asylum seekers outside the official buildings of the embassies? According to a fellow comrade Mr Rex Osa who is a coordinator of “The Voice Baden Württemberg” (Germany) 

“For each candidate interviewed the Nigerian embassy gets €250 and another €250 for issued travelling certificate.” So, it means that the deportation of Nigerians now has become another money making business? Could this be one of the reasons Nigerian refugees are molested, abused and most times killed in foreign lands without the federal government of Nigeria through their ambassadors wanting a redress as they ought to.

I hope that the monies already collected through this process were properly documented particularly the monies of those that the embassy did not issue their travelling documents. Because the identification of a problem is the first step towards solving it, therefore, as a matter of urgency, I appeal to the Nigerian government to look into this neo colonialism of €500 as mentioned above and abolish it if it is official because it has induced many abracadabra interviews and deportations. Nigeria is supposed to be too big and greatly sophisticated for this kind of stories, as a matter of fact our dignity and value should be considered before any action is taken.

The new honorable Foreign Affairs Minister Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru spoke well about how he will handle the welfare of Nigerians in foreign countries last week, consequently honorable Minister Sir, your attention has been drawn to this uncivilized behavior of the Nigerian embassy in Germany according to “The Voice Baden Württemberg”. Please investigate the allegation and also save the people from the calamity that is about to happen to them now. According to the source from Germany the Nigerian Embassy will be doing another round of identification of Nigerians from 15-19 August 2011 in Karlsruhe with the aim of issuing their deportation papers and I am scared that the same thing will be extended to Austria sooner than later as usual.

Nigeria is the only government that collects this kind of money to facilitate the pains of her citizens amongst the whole countries of the world. What a shame! And African ambassadors are the only ambassadors that authorize or that go secretly outside the official buildings of their embassies with the primary aim to conduct how their citizens should be humiliated back to their respective countries. No American or European country would do that. Do you blame Nigerian ambassadors or their African counterparts? Nigerian or African people are poor people that must obey their neocolonial masters and must follow them without questioning or else what is happening to Mugabe in Zimbabwe will happen to them, or else what happened to Ambassador Jerry Ugokwe will happen to them.

Jerry Ugokwe was the Ambassador to Austria who stood firmly on the side of the people, but the power that may be from Abuja had to recall him for this patriotic attitude of standing for the masses and on the truth. He was the Ambassador that never signed deportation papers without knowing why because each file that was brought to him he had examined thoroughly and had asked many questions that had to be answered before he could sign, and of course the authorities involved were never ready for such change. Under the then Foreign Affair Minister Ojo Maduekwe three wise men were sent from Nigeria to Austria to sign the deportation of about two thousand Nigerians which Jerry Ugokwe never signed because there was no justification for him to do that. This can only happen in a country like Nigeria. Ugokwe, wherever you are God will continue to bless you. You shall never lack!

I hope that this era of putting Nigerian masses in sorrow and agony by our ambassadors in foreign countries just to satisfy Aso Rock is over because President Goodluck Jonathan is not a desperate president. Therefore, I pray that our honorable Foreign Affairs Minister Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru will have mercy on us the poor and heed the cry of these Nigerians or some people from other African countries that may be identified as Nigerians in Germany and intervene urgently before this charade in the name of the so-called interview takes place in Karlsruhe between August 15^th and 19^th 2011. Furthermore, the idea of collecting €500 or €250 as the case may be and conducting any official work outside the building of Nigerian embassies under any guise should stop with immediate effect.

Please for details on this topic contact:  The Voice Baden Württemberg: http://www.thevoiceforum.org/node/2207