Sunday Oyeleke has been out of
job for months and he blames the
Chinese. During a protest rally by
artisans in Nigeria against the
frequent employment of foreign
workers, mostly Chinese and
Indians, Mr. Oyeleke, a bricklayer,
said they are losing their jobs to the
foreigners and life is becoming
more difficult for them.
“The reason why we learn this
work is for us to make money and
take care of our family but now
they are now employing all these
Chinese people and we are not
getting jobs. That is why we are
protesting. Some of us cannot feed
our family again,” he said.
Mr. Oyeleke was among hundreds
of artisans who marched in protest
on Thursday, September 16, to the
Union Marble House, Ikoyi, the
office of Dangote Group, to drop
their protest letter to Aliko
Dangote, whose companies
allegedly have over 3000 Chinese
artisans on its payroll.
The artisans from Oyo, Ogun, and
Lagos states were demanding the
repatriation of foreign workers who
are doing jobs that ordinarily can
be done by Nigerians. That was the
second rally they held over the
issue. The first one held at Ilaro,
Ogun State, in August.
According to Segun Olutade,
Executive Director of Shelter Watch
Initiative, a non-governmental
organisation that has been leading
the protest, there are up to 3,000
Chinese artisans working at the
construction site of Dangote
Cement, Ibese, Ogun State; about
2500 engaged by Lafarge WAPCO
Cement at Ewekoro; and over 5000
Chinese artisans at the on-going
electrification project at Papalanto.
“They should go; they should leave
our country for us. How can they
be oppressing us in our own
country? How can they get jobs
before us in our own country? We
will not stop. Government must do
something about this,” said Bayo
Akerele, a plumber.
According to a Nigerian artisan who
is currently working alongside the
Chinese artisans at the construction
site of Dangote Cement, Ibese, the
Chinese artisans were originally
brought to understudy them (the
Nigerian workers) but they are
soon after placed above them.
“To think that some of these
Chinese people are prisoners is
very annoying,” he said.
Prisoners as workers
While the Nigerian artisans are said
to recieve N1500 per day as
payment for their labour, the
Chinese are paid N8000. But Mr
Olutade said his recent findings
showed that it is not exactly so.
“It is true they pay the Nigerians
N1500 per day, but for the Chinese,
they don’t pay the N8000 to them
directly; they pay to the Chinese
government. We are now
discovering that they don’t pay
them up to that N8000. This is just a
means for them to take money out
of the country. One of these
companies actually told me that
they use the Chinese because they
are cheaper,” he said.
“There are some articles on the
Internet that show that this is a
scheme by the Chinese
government to decongest their
prisons which had over 1.57 million
inmates. They push them to
developing countries like ours to
come and work. Their strategy is
that they will rubbish the artisans in
the country that they are not good
and introduce their people. They
even give money to the
government of these countries.”
Mr. Olutade was referring to
“China’s use of prison labour in
developing countries” by Brahma
Chellaney, a professor of strategic
studies at the Centre for Policy
Research in New Delhi and the
author of Asian Juggernaut: The
Rise of China, India and Japan,
published in August on
www.thedominican.net; and “How
China’s taking over Africa, and why
the West should be VERY worried”
published on www.dailymail.co.uk.
The articles, contain details about
how these “convict labourers” are
housed and fed at the project site
so that any one that escapes can
be easily traced in the alien
community, and allegations of
bribery, in which governments of
some African countries collected
money from the Chinese to receive
these workers. Nigeria is mentioned
as one of the countries in which the
practice takes place.
However, when NEXT visited the
Chinese Embassy in Lagos, it was
said that they were on a national
holiday, therefore no one could
comment on the allegation.
No monitoring by officials
For the artisans, and Mr. Olutade, a
statement credited to Umar Bindir,
the Director-General of the Office
for Technology Acquisition and
Promotion came as a sign of
victory.
Mr. Bindir reportedly said that
companies operating in Nigeria
would only be allowed to employ
expatriates as a last resort. He said
any attempt to employ foreigners
in positions that could be occupied
by competent Nigerians would be
viewed as a deliberate action to
promote capital flight by
undermining Nigeria’s national
innovation system. But in spite of
this, the preference for foreign
workers in some of the companies
has continued unchecked by
relevant government authorities.
Meanwhile, Shelter Watch Initiative
has written the presidency on the
“urgent need for Chinese/Indian
artisans to leave our country,”
raising issues of unemployment
and how the repatriation of the
foreign artisans could lead to more
jobs for Nigerian youth.
However, some have questioned
the ability of Nigerian artisans to
deliver high quality jobs, referring
to many of them as incompetent
compared to their Chinese
counterparts.
But Mr. Oyeleke, disagreed. “It is
true that some of us are not very
good. They did not train very well
before starting the job. And some
are not honest, but many of us are
good. It is just that Nigerians also
think foreigners are better. But it is
not true. Let them leave. We will do
the job well, ” he said.
A major factor responsible for this
situation is the absence of
adequate enforcement of laws
regulating the admittance of
foreign workers into the country. As
a matter of procedure, according to
the Immigration Act Cap 171, Laws
of the Federation of Nigeria,
companies are required to seek for
expatriate quota permit from the
Ministry of Internal Affairs, which
gives approval and through the
Immigration Service, monitors
compliance to the laws regulating
who is employed and in what
position. But how much monitoring
of the foreign companies is taking
place today, leaves much to be
desired, given the situation Nigerian
artisans are up against.
Efforts to reach the Nigeria
Immigration Service to clarify the
profile of the Chinese immigrants in
Nigeria did not yield result. When
NEXT visited the Immigration Office
in Lagos, the relevant officials could
not be reached for comment and
calls made to the Public Relations
Officer’s phone were not answered.

The figures here are false, 3000 Chinese ke? Or even 5000 in just a construction company. . .geeze. . This is pure journalistic embelishment. . . But the issues raised are very serious and deserve to be tackled.