An extremely vicious and voracious venue of vultures is determined to feed on the dreams of many of those who want to leave the country or the carcasses of their dreams and aspirations, whatever is left.
That the wheels of migration, for whatever reason, are spinning furiously in Nigeria is testament to the fact that all is not well at home. Every morning in Nigeria, many young, able-bodied Nigerians slip out of dreams where they were grazing on the green grass of foreign lands, and renew their resolutions to leave Nigeria.
They do not give a fig that they are considered cowards for fleeing the country and not staying to ride the storm out.
To feed on these dreams which are very fickle, or their carcass when their short life spans expire, is a vicious gang of travel agents, visa agents and fake representatives of schools and institutions abroad. Their common insignia is the snake oil they sell which consists of fake visas, bogus job placements or school admissions.
Many of those who fall into their hands has their dreams raped, their finances ripped apart, and their hearts broken.
People have been known to fantasize about living in foreign countries where the streets are swept clean; where there is constant power supply, a semblance of social security, and functioning transport services among others; essentially, countries where citizens are not randomly snatched while they are travelling or from their homes. These people then fetishize living abroad to the extent that they sell everything they own and invest the funds into leaving the country until they are pulled into a living hell.
For many of them, after pulling out all the irons they have in the fire here, and packing their bags for the journey west, any disappointment hits like a sledgehammer hammer. The more resilient of them can pick up the pieces and go again. But many of them never recover what is lost in time, resources and mental health.
Nigerians are usually rapid to sense opportunities. There are also innumerable Nigerians for whom every smoke is a signal, just like vultures. Many of them have formed themselves into visa syndicates who team up to defraud desperate prospective Nigerian migrants, pushing many of them to the brink of suicide.
It also appears that there is some sort of subtle unwillingness on the part of security agencies to go after those who defraud Nigerians in the name of obtaining visas for them. In many instances, just as with rape, victims are blamed for their ordeal in the hands of these mindless cheat.
As economic hardship bites harder in Africa’s most populous country, many people are turning to crime in desperate attempts to make ends meet. But no country can survive on crime. No country can feed off the scraps of crime.
Whether it is visa fraud, oil theft, illegal mining, insecurity or whatever illicit activity, no society has ever found fatness and abundance in crime.
The authorities must do more to dismantle those who prey on Nigerians in this manner while taking concrete steps to ensure that rather than looking to flee, many young Nigerians are content to remain home and contribute to the development of the country.
Rather than looking longingly and desperately to western capitals, Nigeria will be better for it if its best hands find the conditions at home satisfactory enough to stay and develop their country further.
Source: Opinion Nigeria
