Expatriates take even menial jobs from Nigeria
The unchecked influx of foreigners into the country under the guise of expatriate with skills lacking in Nigeria, has degenerated to the level of abuse, to the extent of aggravating unemployment with its attendant social crisis.
In the midst of staggering statistics from Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which puts unemployment rate at 23.9 per cent, foreign nationals, especially from Asia have continued to invade the country under the guise of being expatriates.
Today, you find clocking clerks, sales executives, site supervisors, foremen, fitters, tillers, welders, cooks, in businesses parading themselves as expatriates.
Indeed, to show that the issue of expatriate quota abuse is of great concern, Labour and Productivity Minister, Chief Emeka Wogu, last year, said that part of the condition for the award of contracts should be the employment of local human resources.
The minister had said: "The era when contractors got their labour force outside of the country is over as government will now ensure that Nigerians are employed in strategic places in companies that are executing contracts worth billions of naira in the country."
Unknown to the minister then, his pronouncement came at an appropriate time to stave off an impending protest by a non-governmental organisation - Shelter Watch Initiative, against some multinational firms known to be violating the expatriate quota law.
But this did not stop the organisation from petitioning President Goodluck Jonathan, urging him to halt the unrestricted influx of foreigners under the guise of being expatriates with its concomitant security implication.
For the avoidance of doubts, the country is not bereft of laws to regulate the activities of these foreigners and ensure that only qualified foreigners are allowed into the country, but like all the other existing laws, implementation has remained the sore point.
The Immigration Act clearly states that expatriate quota can only be granted to a firm for the recruitment of foreigners if the skill required is not available in the country.
It further states that where such approval is granted, subject to the above stated condition, among others, a Nigerian is expected to under-study the expatriate for a specified period, for eventual take over of the expatriate¢s position.
In the guideline posted on Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) website, it is stated that ²the citizenship and business department of the Nigerian Immigration Service has responsibility for administering and enforcing the provisions of the Immigration Act, 1963 as it relates to the establishment of business in Nigeria and the employment of expatriates." In other words, the department is entrusted principally with the following responsibilities:
"Issuance of business permit and expatriate quota position; and (2) monitoring the execution of quota positions granted in order to ensure effective transfer of technology to Nigerians and eventual indigenization of the positions occupied by the expatriates."
It further stated that, "every enterprise desirous of obtaining business permit and expatriates' quota, is to submit an application to that effect to the Federal Ministry of Internal Affair (now Ministry of the Interior) on form T/I designed for that purpose. Companies are however, to note that emphasis would be placed on employment of Nigerians to understudy the foreign experts for the purpose of training them, to enable Nigeria acquire relevant skills for the eventual take-over of the expatriates' quota granted. Renewal of quota granted will not be automatic but considered on merit based on submission of the required documents."
If the tenets of this Act were fully implemented by the NIS, 80 per cent of Asians, who either come in as stow away or through illegal routes, would probably be checked.
In the Nigerian Maritime sector, there are about 100,000 jobs for Nigerians if they are trained to take over from the foreigners who are currently serving on board coastal vessels in various capacities ranging from cooks to captains.
The dominance of the labour market in the sector was as a result of the training requirement, which is international because shipping business is international.
The international training requirement for anyone willing to work on board any vessel, any where in the world, is contained in the international convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers of 1978 as amended in 1995.
The convention, a product of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) stipulates the minimum requirements for the certification of Masters, Chief Mates and officers in charge of navigational watches on ships of 200grt or more.
But only few Nigerians have been able to satisfy this requirement hence the tendency to recruit foreigners on board Nigerian coastal vessels and those servicing oil companies offshore.
Today, there are the Philippinos, Indians and a host of other nationals having gainful employment on Nigerian vessels because of lack of training for Nigerians to take up the available job vacancies on board the vessels.
In 2003, Nigerian tried to correct the trend when it enacted a law that made it mandatory for these vessels to recruit only Nigerians as Seafarers, Ratings up to Captains.
But the country soon found out that it had no enough qualified citizens to take up the jobs in the sector.
Those Nigerians that are gainfully employed in the capacity of Captain, Chief Engineer among others are near retirement age and there has been no training for Nigerians until recently when the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) came up with the National Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) to develop indigenous seamen that could take over the ship manning from the foreigners. But the programme did not succeed.
In the manufacturing and allied business, the story is the same as illegal aliens parade themselves as expatriates. For instance, The Guardian discovered that foreigners from Asian countries are sales attendants in all the outlets of electronic shops around Lagos.
In a company's showroom at Allen Avenue, there are Lebanese attending to customers and as receipt officer. The Nigerians were only to bring the goods out of the store and carry same to the truck.
Indeed, the Asians and Indians are more into this unholy act of bringing in less qualified nationals to do the job which Nigerians are more qualified to do against the law.
Allegations are rife that these foreigners circumvent the law with the support of Immigration officials, who grant them work permits as highly skilled expatriates.
The Guardian learnt there is a traveling bags and shoes manufacturing company in Nigeria which smuggles many Chinese into the country to work. According to a source, some of the "expatriates" have been working for more than 10 years in the firm.
In his reaction, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) expressed concern over the influx of expatriates, especially Asians. The Director-General of LCCI, Mr. Muda Yusuf, said in Lagos that expatriates had taken over jobs where Nigerians had competencies, urging a check of the trend.
He accused some unscrupulous officials of the NIS of violating the expatriate quota policy. The LCCI chief alleged that there was high-level corruption in the immigration service.
He said that government's efforts to create jobs would be in vain if expatriates were taking over jobs meant for Nigerians, adding that "if we are really serious about tackling unemployment, we should put a stop to influx of expatriates," Yusuf said. According to him, the chamber had on many occasions, raised the alarm and urged the regulatory agencies to be up to their duties in the interest of the economy and the nation.
Indeed, while the more visible shortcomings in the aviation industry like dilapidated facilities and the serious challenge of high operational costs tend to get more mention among its bundle of problems, however, the industry is fast waking up to the realisation that dwindling human capital is no longer a latent threat to safety but a clear and present danger.
Expatriate quota system law in the aviation industry, is also being violated.
This development has elicited outcry, complaints. Aviation is a highly globalised industry that requires skilled manpower for certain kinds of jobs that are non-existent in the country.
In truth, the country lacks all the requirements to run a sector like the aviation, but where the skills are available, it becomes extremely inappropriate to employ foreigners for the job.
Until now, the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria could not train enough pilots, cabin crew, engineers and other critical aspects of civil aviation. The long period of inactivity of the apex aviation training institution left a generational gap; a situation that has put the sector in serious dire straits.
To train technical personnel like pilots and aeronautic engineers for about 10 years, the indifference of government at various levels, the demise of the defunct national carrier, Nigeria Airways, and the apathy shown on training of personnel by indigenous airlines contributed hugely to the dearth of capable technical personnel in the industry.
In the last Accident Investigation Bureau's workshop on Human Capital Development and Succession Plan in Aviation, Sam Oduselu, former bureau's Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer painted an appalling picture of the state of human capital in the aviation industry, "a serious threat to safety is here with us," he warned.
Worse, the industry is contending with the brain drain depleting the available pool of qualified professionals.
Speaking on the issue, the Assistant Secretary General of National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE), Abdul Kareem Motajo said, "the point we are making is that the expatriate quota law is adequate to address the issue of foreign workers. They (foreigners) get the permit to make sure that the required skill does not exist.
"When you come, you have the indigenous people who understudy the expatriates; it is part of the condition for renewal of expatriates applications," he added.
According to Motajo, in the case of foreign airlines, they have populated their accounts departments with foreigners, jobs many Nigerians could do.
He was equally irked by airlines bringing in expatriates as cabin crew, asking: "Will these crew serve better than Nigerians?"
The industry's watchdog, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) seems helpless to address the situation in spite of assurances from it, but the Director General of NCAA at a forum recently vowed to sanction any airline that fails to meet the mandatory training of local professionals in its programmes.
An aviation stakeholder in the industry, Sheri Kyari said that it would be practically impossible for most of the airlines to comply with the rules on expatriate quota because of various reasons.
He said: "With a deeper research, by design of their profession, aeronautic personnel are supposed to be in the factory where aircraft are manufactured. Aeronautical engineers are destroying the future of the licensed aircraft maintenance engineers in the country."
The current, very lucrative and juicy expatriate management workers' remuneration package as against their very poor Nigerian senior management counterparts at the airlines is an indictment on the various aviation unions because the intent and purpose of the Immigration Act of 1963 concerning the issuance of business permit and expatriate quota as spelt out in the revised guidelines on business permit/expatriate quota administration 2004 is to provide among other things for the training of Nigerian understudies to eventually take-over expatriate quota positions.
The Director General of the NCAA, Dr. Harold Demuren said the Federal Government was likely to wield the big stick on operating airlines in Nigeria that fail to meet the mandatory training of local professionals. It is believed to have received the directive to forward the list of erring airlines to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for appropriate sanction.
He insists: "We need to build our own capacity, we need to train Nigerians, we need to move this forward that is the only future for our country."
Also, since 2001, the Nigerian IT and telecoms sector was notoriously identified with increasing proliferations of expatriates, which according to industry watchers, was based on the newness of the industry.
Then, the industry was largely dominated by expatriates. Nearly every telecoms firm advertises itself as a truly indigenous, Nigerian company, with a special interest in the promotion of local people, areas and talent. The firms that are owned by Nigerians, or which have Nigerians as chairmen, are usually more forthcoming with this hype about being Nigerian. In reality however, the people who call the shots, the heart, tone, and tenor of the operation, are the expatriates.
According to insiders, the domination then, of this industry by expatriates was easily explained away on three grounds. Besides the relative newness, there was also the absence of quality local manpower.
The explanation here was that many of the firms operate on the basis of partnerships between Nigerian interests and foreign investors as part of the fulfillment of the Nigerian government's privatisation and enterprise promotion agenda.
The third excuse was that the telecom industry is a cost-intensive and volatile business requiring careful nurturing and management, that, then Nigerians did not have a dependable track record as managers, or as loyal guardians of resources.
But presently, the sector has witnessed great reduction in the number of expatriates, except for some pockets of companies, whose top four are foerigners.
The Guardian investigations revealed that Internet Service Providers (ISP), whose ownership and control are majorly from countries including Indians, Lebanon are still dominated by expatriates.
In spite of the apparently "good" picture of the big telecommunications service providers such as Airtel, Globacom, Etisalat, Starcomms, Multilinks and Visafone, all still have their top shots dominated by foreigners.
The Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, had at the weekend, promised that a new labour law is coming, which will see to proper functioning of the sector in the years to come.
For the automotive sector, the story is similar to other sectors of the economy.
The sector, which is practically comatose due to inconsistency in government policies, has been taken over by businessmen who are out to make profit and not invest in the sector through profiteering.
The sector, which before the mid '80s was noted for its contribution to the growth of the nations economy through the manufacturing or assemblage of vehicles, has been turned into ordinary import-driven sector through the sales of imported vehicles.
Many of their sales outlets are largely controlled by foreigners, especially Indians and Lenanese. Some of the positions occupied by the foreigners can be effectively manned by Nigerians.
Speaking on the issue, a stakeholder in the sector, Mr. Etubo Amali alleged that the situation is getting rather worrisome as less qualified foreigners are brought into the country as expatriates to boss better qualified Nigerians.
However, the Public Relations Officer of NIS, Mr. Joachim Olumba, while defending his agency said: "We have a stake in this entity called Nigeria. The problem of unemployment is such that it gives concern to every well meaning Nigerian. No patriotic Nigerian will accede to the coming in of foreigners to take over the job of Nigerians.
"We are talking of attracting Foreign Direct Investments into the country and no investor that comes will not see to it that his investment is in reliable hands. A Nigerian who owns a firm will not want to be dictated to on how to run his business. In a bid to protect their investments, foreign-owned companies bring in expatriate(s) that will deliver on the job they are doing in the country. Sometimes, we claim we have professionals but some are not as good as to those being brought in especially in the construction areas.
"We have such clear difference with our road construction, it does not mean we don't have Nigerians who are good as well but greater proportion do not measure up to the foreign standard. Julius Berger Plc, for instance, and indigenous firms given the same construction jobs show a great disparity. There could be some determining factor responsible but another practice with Nigerian firms is that they employ expatriates for certain positions for the quality of what they can handle. If we consider welding, there are aspect of the welding like submarine that is underground sea welding which, we do not see the technical training or responsibility in Nigeria, yet we have welders."
Olumba added: "The employment of expatriates by Nigerian firm was because they believe in the quality of service and its output rather than our local or indigenous contractors claim to know in so many instances. Some firms in the oil service sector engage under water welders, which is not common in our society here. There are many things that are highly technical about the job. Also, we cannot dictate to someone who is bringing his funds because he needs his investment to be protected. People perceive wrongly that we have expatriate all over the place even in common fields without knowing some aspects of welding that require high level of skilled, which we don't have in Nigeria. They are not only welders but also divers. The total figure of expatriates in Nigeria is not up to 400,000."
On the issue of technology transfer and training of Nigerians to take over from expatriates, he said: "The case of understudy, we should realize that technology is never transferred because someone who is investing $100 million will not just give away the technicality aspect of the job he has brought into the country though we expect such person to transfer technology within three years. They will not because technology is either stolen or created. They developed their own technology. We also have to develop our own technology. For instance during the civil war, the Biafrans were able to refine crude oil without any external input and developed their own weapons. If we wait for someone to come and develop our technology, it will not work because you don't expose the secret behind your success.
"We cannot say that the laws are ineffective. The spirit of those laws are right but when we go beyond the surface it is difficult to enforce them, we can't praticalise them. What should be done is for us to develop our technology or steal as done by other countries.
"We have wealthy Nigerians who invest their money abroad which, if they invest right here and bring expatriates, that will be easier for us to dictate to on technology knowledge transfer to. It is difficult or almost impossible to enforce the understudy aspect of the regulations."
By David Ogah, Dele Fanimo, Wole Shadare, Yetunde Ebosele, Roseline Okere, Adeyemi Adepetun (Lagos) and Florence Lawarence (Abuja)
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