The year 2010, with all my explicable anxiety and frenzied anticipation, has successfully crept in and taken residence in the annals of a new decade. I have got a number of reasons to be happy for being part of humanity to witness a brand new year.
My reasons are not really far-fetched; I can boast of a good health, sound mind, comfortable shelter, young but potentially successful business of my own and residency in a relatively secure planet space outside my country of birth. Before this time of my life, I have always been treated to a mountain of unsavoury accounts of how uncomfortable, hostile and condescending life outside my home country could be, especially life in the Western states of Europe and North America. Amazingly, such tales of horror are yet to be abated. In the time past and till date, several audacious attempts made by many curious cats like me to test the waters of any of these Western countries have inspired a plethora of unprintable names by a host of my, I suppose, ostensibly caring compatriots.
The list of the names painstakingly crafted by many of my concerned compatriots to dissuade me (and other explorers) from having international experience, for whatever reason and without provision of any valuable informational resource, are quite ample and these include 2nd Class Citizen, Andrew (of Nigeria’s government TV campaign in the 80s) and more recently Diaspora Internet Warriors (inspired by our one and only Prof Pat Utomi). Out of all, the 2nd Class Citizen tag seems to catch my fancy and this will be a subject of this discourse in the later part of this piece.
So, in total defiance and demonstration of the never-say-die spirit of every Nigerian (excluding a few irrational dissidents like Farouk Abdulmutallab amongst us), I did make that dreadful journey some years ago and I found myself in Britain. Ever since I touched my foot on the soil of this Queen’s land, I have witnessed the good, the bad and the ugly of the Great Britain, as it is fondly called by all and sundry, which has further accentuated the general thought of imperfections in every society. However, Britain has continued to strive to live above its foibles, many of which are norms in some parts of the world, through ceaseless provision and development of social amenities and infrastructures and strengthening of its judicial system and sustenance of the right of every citizen, including that of its “2nd Class Citizen”, as demonstrated in the court victory of a Nigerian resident in London, Ayo Omotade.
For a while, I have considered action to explore the true meaning of a 2nd Class Citizen as defined by my compatriots vis-a-vis the experiences of majority of Nigerians living in the UK, as the focus of my experiment. As a result, I have again been exposed to the incurable insensitivity, selfishness and deceit of Nigeria’s political leaders and socio-economic actors who are behind the popularization of the moniker, 2nd Class Citizen, to deride illustrious Nigerians that are doing great exploits outside of the country and dissuade many Nigerians that have potential for greatness but with limited opportunity to explore needed experience across the pond for the betterment of Nigeria.
It is equally of note to say that the 2nd Class Citizen alias is placed in different sub-classes by its originators, in their malevolent wisdom. But, for now, I can only explain the irony of the gains of “2nd Class Citizens” and the dilemma of the hapless “stateless” inhabitants of geographical location called, Nigeria. From the Senate President of Nigeria to the Director-General of Nigerian Stock Exchange, all have been reported to have in their possession other citizenship that clearly qualifies them as “2nd Class Citizens”. Examples also abound in the top circle of Nigerian entertainment; not to mention Nigeria’s supposed President that has been taking treatment or missing in a country outside of his control, which automatically defines him as a “2nd Class Citizen” and a lower class president. While hapless Nigerians fold arms and watch the affairs of their lives being decided upon by a Diaspora President, without no Acting President or Head of State. During my Masters in Diplomatic Studies at the University of Westminster, London, one of the most crucial subjects taught was on Statehood. I was expressly taught that before a political entity can lay claim to statehood, it must have met four fundamental requirements, which are defined territory, permanent population, capacity to enter relations with other states (international recognition) and have a government (with a head). Therefore it may sound right to say, in the absence of a Head of state or publicly pronounced acting president, Nigeria is just a State de jure but totally far from a State de facto. So I wonder that it is wise, at least for a short moment, to continue to strive hard for greatness and combine efforts for a change in Nigeria from my present place of abode. Where I can strut into my bank and discuss a loan facility for my business with an Asian Business Manager in my bank, who could be well placed in the class category defined by my insane compatriots, without asking me to bring the head of my mother as a collateral or simply being told that the facility is only reserved for nannies in the royal household, as the case always is in Nigeria.
This is not a tacit advocacy for purposeless migration of Nigerians to the Western world, but an explicit call on the socio-political leadership of our nation to embrace constitutionality and efficiency in building a nation state where institutional deceit and corruption are annihilated for systemic excellence. Personally, I have chosen to be consistent on keeping tab on how corruption is being fought and exposed to foster good governance through Sarahareporters.com, which happens to be a creative output of a Nigerian outside home; a platform that recently became one of the very few authentic news sources for many global media. If some of the experiences cited are contained in the definition of a '2nd Class Citizen' by Nigeria’s unscrupulous leaders, then it is better to stay unwavering in the dissipation of experiences that can be used to improve the lot of many Nigerians at home, who have been made to permanently stay uninformed and carelessly being driven to a state of anarchy because of their agonizing inhabitation in a state without a definitive head.
Lekan Fatodu, London.
www.checkoutmagazine.com
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content1'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('comments'); });
googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('content2'); });