My mind reeled with disgust and my face portrayed it, as I read the report
of the Charge d’affaires of Nigeria in Libya, Illiya Fachano who said they
have identified about 5000 Nigerians in Libyan detention camps after about
3,250 have being repatriated in recent times.
This is a fraction of Nigerians; young men and women between the ages of 15
and 40 who risk their life on the ill-famed journey from their rejected
land, Nigeria to their promised land-Italy through the desert land of
Libya. To get to Italy from Nigeria, they have to pass from Sokoto to Niger
Republic from where they make a 1,000km journey through the southern Libyan
Desert to its capital near the Mediterranean coast, enduring the gruelling
sahel weather. The lucky ones finally get to Tripoli, where they board an
overloaded speedboat headed for Italy coming into danger on Mediterranean
Sea. The unlucky ones get caught in Libya to be treated and sold as slaves
but Libya is not the destination, Italy is.
In Aristotle’s words, “It is not always the same thing to be a good man and
a good citizen”. How madams with the demands from Italy convinced our
ladies in Benin that prostitution in Italy is a worthy alternative remains
puzzling.
How do our young men equate drug trafficking there and hustling with peace
of mind on the streets of Asaba.
It is our own Kunle Koyenikan who said, “Your pride for your country
should not come after your country becomes great; your country becomes
great because of your pride in it”
A man first becomes a mental slave before being placed in a metal cage.
Of such man, his confidence like the foundation of a house is built of
inferior cement. If his self-esteem is a pillar, it lacks necessary steel.
Worse still, his self-respect, like a roof of soft wood, together make up a
house that struggles to hold its own.
No good citizen with self respect will embark on this illegal voyage. How
then did we get here?
We got here because as blacks, we lack total knowledge of our roots. The
great pyramid of Giza in Egypt which stands till today was constructed by
black minds. But that was before he was conditioned to believe he is second
best to Italy in Engineering.
The African traditional medicine which our grandparents boast of can cure
any ailment. And this was true until we were forced to believe that the
only medicine that works are produced off-shores. These sectors would have
occupied young Nigerians but due to the failings of our government and the
lack of faith in ourselves and anything that relates to us, we remain lost.
Malcom X explained in his autobiography, “If you started with a black man,
a white man can be produced. But starting with a white man, you never could
produce a black man-because the white gene is recessive.” Today, the first
is now the last but the new first can only be scared of its position if the
new last knew it was first. With our government’s failings and the black
man’s loss of faith in himself, am afraid we have not seen the last of
massive influx of Nigerian illegal migrants into European countries.


Femi Jeremiah, Uniabuja.