Why Nigerians in Germany may not travel home for Christmas

Why Nigerians in Germany may not travel home for Christmas
By Indi Igbo Alago
Thursday, December 17, 2009

It is only when a mad man dies, that his relatives will be known. (Igbo Proverb). What do we live for, if, not to make life less difficult for each other? (George Eliot) There is an extent to which a dumb will be mal-treated; then he or she will talk by force. (Igbo Proverb) No one can be caught in places he does not visit. (Danish Proverb) The chewing sound of the bitter kolanut is not how it tastes. (Igbo Proverb) An open enemy is better than a false friend. (Greek Proverb) Having breast yet sucking pus is bad. (Igbo Proverb) If you do not strike back at him who hits you, there is no way for him to find out whether you also have hands. (Russian Proverb)



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When one finger touches oil, it spreads to the other four fingers. (Igbo Proverb). As I was about posting this article for publication, words came to me that many Nigerians having German Passports who had planned to travel home to their loved ones this Yuletide will not be able to do that after all. Due to the new visa rules which was not made known to Nigerians early enough, the Nigerians have insufficient time frame to apply for their visas, because, the new process takes three to five weeks before a visa is issued.

The new policy caught many Nigerians unawares as there was not enough publicity given to it before its implementation. Those who want to travel within three weeks time from now stand no chance to get visas and, as such, will not travel again. That means that they will lose their air fares; their loved ones in Nigeria will be devastated and they themselves are already demoralised and angry advertisement.

The new visa rules are as follows:

On-line application which must then be approved by Nigeria Immigration service (NIS) Abuja!

On-line payment of visa fee with only Masters or Visa cards!

On approval of the visa application by Abuja, Nigerians will then send their passport and letter of invitation to the relevant Nigeria Embassy for the visa.

This new process takes a long time as against the old process that lasts first few days.

The old process was easy and uncomplicated that all it required was a proof of payment of visa fee through any bank, letter of invitation and that’s all.

Why the change?

I don’t understand why the government always makes life difficult for her citizens. Why is this government changing the old rule of the “game” so late and in this festive period? Why didn’t the government maintain the old process till after the rush of the Christmas and New Year period?

Nigerians in Germany are the worst hit, because, Germany is one of the few countries where Nigerians are not allowed to keep their Nigerian passport on taking up German citizenship (no dual citizenship). All Nigerians with German citizenship have only the German passport. If Nigerians in Germany were allowed dual citizenships like their compatriots in other European and North American countries, nobody would have been short-changed by this new visa procedure as Nigerians with dual citizenships would have reverted to their Nigerian passport at times like this.

I am calling on the President, the Foreign and the Internal Affairs Ministers respectively, to temporarily revoke or halt the new visa procedures for Nigerians with German Passport till after the Christmas and New Year celebrations to allow those that have already planned to travel to see their loved ones in Nigeria do so without hassles.

Then, after this season, the new policy can take effect. By then, all Nigerians must have heard about it and if this prepared for the requirements. There is no way a wise government can start a policy just with immediate effect without allowing people the time to get prepared for what it requires.

Nigerians in Germany want a waiver for now; they want to use the old process of applying for visa that was easy till after the yuletide and the New Year celebrations. That is not asking for too much, Mr. President.

Now to my core topic: Nigerians are not born crooks, only a few of them are giving the whole citizens bad names. Criminals are not peculiar only to Nigeria as every other country has good and bad citizens like Nigeria. There is no country on the face of this earth that has only “all saints” as its citizens. I don’t know why Nigerian case is being blown out of proportion. I know that many countries love to hate Nigerians of envy. Why?

On personal levels, Nigerians are great people, on individual levels, Nigerians are achievers. Nigerians are always conspicuous. You can always identify a Nigerian from a crowd made up of Africans. Nigerians carry themselves with dignity and grace, are flamboyant and ostentatious. Nigerians have taste and on the other side of the divide, are noisy people.

The fact that Nigerians exhume or radiate confidence and can tread where no one else can and can survive the worst conditions ever and still excel out of that, makes other countries to loathe them. Nigerians are hardworking people and those in Diaspora are contributing immensely to the economic growth of their host countries. Nigerians have a style no other people on earth have. All these are on the personal levels. The world should not out of envy, classify all Nigerians as born criminals. Some of the wealth displayed by Nigerians abroad were made through hardwork, although, a lot not so. There is nothing unique about the criminal activities of some greedy Nigerians as they are also obtainable in every other country also.

Having said that, I call on Nigerians to refrain from committing crimes! The wealth that we are all after was there before we came into this world and will be there when we will move on to the great beyond. If your stock in trade is criminal activities, please for goodness sake, change your heinous ways. Those committing those crimes should know that they are thus puting their innocent compatriots in precarious situations. Please change now so that your fellow compatriots will “drink water and hang the cup”.

Final words for the president, the foreign minister, the Nigeria ambassador to Thailand and the national assembly members: I don’t want a situation where “a powerless father always accepts that his child is guilty” even when the rights of the child are being trampled upon by others. The Nigerian officials should not, due to their inability to exert themselves on countries maltreating Nigerians, blame Nigerians for not conforming to the laws, norms, rules and regulations of their host countries. Nigerians are not all criminals. Sometimes, Nigerians are being victimised for just no reason other than that they are Nigerians. Infact the ruling elite should take all the blames for the plight of Nigerians abroad. Had they made Nigeria better for all, no Nigerian would have left our shores in search of the elusive “golden fleece”.

What I want is a situation, where “all will join hands to pursue away the hawk that wants to pick the chicken, then at home, the chicken will be blamed for wandering off too far” They can give our foreign policy any name they like, what we want is an idea and actions aimed at protecting and restoring Nigeria’s dignity and that of its citizens anywhere in the world. No more, no less.

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