NIGERIA-AMERICA VISA MALADY

(Continued from the last page)

Nigeria-America Visa Tussle.

If the fight is to be continued, Nigeria would have lost- as always- because our leaders are (with due respect) clueless when it comes to having upper hand in international conflict of interest. They will rather bow and grovel on the floor than stand up and fight for what they want. Nigerian leaders will rather swallow their pride, and sacrifice our sovereignty as a state in order to curry just a minute favour from the indomitable America. Perhaps, Nigeria has to learn from China how to stand up for herself when it comes to international politics and national interest. China is a good example of a country who refuses to compromise her national interest in order to please a foreign government that is imposing staggering duties on imported goods from China.

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 Of course, Nigeria has nothing to bargain with. We would have lost anyways. Probably this is why the new minister for foreign affairs, Mr. Aregbesola quickly gave a directive that the price of the Nigerian visa for US citizens should be returned to its normal price and to make sure that US visa is approved within two or three days. This is the major decision made by Mr. Aregbesola in his new office after serving as the governor of Osun state in Nigeria for eight good years. I love Mr. Aregbesola’s idea of governance (the people of Osun state will never forget) but his move on the Nigeria-America visa fee issue is not sound enough. Maybe I shouldn’t blame him; the order must have come directly from above. But whatever the case maybe, it was a bad move- just like the Seme border closure policy of the Federal government.

Mr. Aregbesola, Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The question is why did the Nigerian government or the Nigerian immigration services inflate the price in the first place? Was it done without consulting the appropriate quarters or authorities? If that is the case, the culprits, have they been caught and dealt with for making a fool of Nigeria in the comity of nations?  If this decision was made by the Nigerian government, why did they suddenly abrogate the policy, does it mean that our sovereignty (our right to make and enforce laws as a state without external control) is only a theory? All these questions must be answered and quickly. We need answers and not just a bunch of leaders who make irrational decisions on our behalf.

Nigerians are getting attacked and bullied all over the world like orphans. Even in Africa here, South Africans are killing Nigerians in xenophobic attacks yet our president does nothing about it than dining with the South African president and begging him to stop the killings. USA will never do that, kill a US citizen like that and you can start digging your own grave. Even China will never take that nonsense, yet Nigerian leaders are sitting comfortably in their various homes, being nonchalant about it. Even Ghana is volatile to Nigeria. Ordinary Ghana! Some things shouldn’t be condone at all and I strongly believe that Nigeria has taken enough embarrassment to last her for a lifetime. If Nigerians could be attacked in Ghana that is so close to us here without anyone doing anything about it then we truly have a problem.

 Recently, a Nigerian lecturer in Ghana was arrested because he was accused of inciting people against the Ghanaian government, I am pretty sure that our government is not disturbed about him. Why should they, when they have billions of dollars stashed away in foreign banks to fall back on when Nigeria finally falls?  Things like this keep happening even here in Africa yet our government does nothing than looking, so how will they put America in her place when she starts passing her boundaries.

You see, countries are not governed like this. You can just dream up a policy, implement it and scrap it suddenly; millions of lives are affected by your decisions- your actions and inactions. You are trusted with power because majority voted for you but the irony of democracy is that the best minds get sidelined while the greedy and the unfit ones gain political seats because of their money and influence.

God bless Nigeria!

We must as a nation, henceforth set our boundaries against external interference in our matters. America is just like any other country in the world. In this case, Nigeria shouldn’t have been the one to call off the fight. We should have doggedly pursued that policy to a conclusive end and let America increase their visa fees to millions if they wanted. After all, it is not every Nigerian that can afford the exorbitant visa fee that they are collecting before. If the worst come to the worst, Nigerians will stop going there. There are over one hundred and ninety more countries in the world and some of them are better than the US for immigration.

Finally, Nigerians should stop sleeping. Instead of fighting and cheating ourselves, we should rise up as a united people to fight bad leadership and redundant government policies. We should speak with one voice in choice of leaders irrespective of their tribal or religious affiliations. We should as matter of urgency express our displeasure against the ungodly salary that our political leaders are carting way weekly, monthly and annually. Enough is enough. We need a decisive and honest leader to put things right in this country. We cannot afford to watch them ruin this country into eternal debt. Thank you.

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Olayiwola Oromidayo.

The writer.