THE HOO-HAH ABOUT £3000 QUID

As we speak, there are more than 16, 400 Nigerians in prison in the United Kingdom. It costs the British taxpayers a whopping £1.6 million pounds (four billion naira) to feed them daily. In 2011, Britain directly responded to this by lobbying our National Assembly to amend the Enactment and Enforcement Act, which would enable transfer of convicted offenders from Nigeria and other Commonwealth nations to their various countries from the United Kingdom to complete their sentences.

In June, the UK Home Office rolled out another specific policy to deter visitors to the country from overstaying. From November, visitors on tourist visas from Commonwealth countries such as Nigeria, India Pakistan, Kenya and Sri Lanka would be required to pay a £3,000 cash bond to allow them to visit the UK for up to six months.    

The UK government knows that implementing such a scheme will deal a collateral blow to its own tourism-driven economy. Nigerians, believe it or not, are the sixth largest spenders in the UK. Amazing for a country that still gets aid from them! Airlines will record lower patronage because many ordinary Nigerian travellers will be forced to shelve their plans for lack of the huge cash bond. Or have they done a quick calculation and worked out that they will lose nothing? The rich, who are our politicians and civil servants, will have no problem coming up with this cash bond and once the first and club class cabins which they patronise are full, anything else is just a bonus. They only want these customers, the rest of us are just a nuisance and they have worked out that between the illegal immigration and the chancers who use their free services, hospitals, education and housing, we are costing them too much.

The fact that the Nigeria-Britain route is arguably the most expensive in the world is not enough to balance their books.  The cost of the freeloaders is more than the gain accrued through legitimate visitors from so-called third world countries. They are burdened by illegal immigration and the result, often, is crime, social insecurity and a drain on their taxpayers’ resources.          

Whether it is our skilled economic migrants who are legitimately migrating in droves to ‘greener pastures’ and help contribute to the further development of those countries, or illegal immigrants who nevertheless fulfil a role in performing menial tasks or constituting a nuisance to their unwelcoming host societies, it is imperative for us to admit that we are at the receiving end.

They only need rich African and Asian tourists with money to spend. With the expansion of the EU to absorb their kith and kin, which are poorer than they are in the West, they no longer need the services of Asians and Africans to perform such menial tasks. The Eastern Europeans are better trained and educated in any case.

The Irony is that we do not even have a slice of the aviation sector earnings; we instead boost foreign airlines’ earnings because our aviation sector is in disarray. From the heavy budgetary provisions for foreign trips to those fleeing the country tired of ‘e go better’, we patronize and create wealth for foreign airlines. We have no replacement for the defunct national carrier and government policies suppress the few private endeavours such as Arik who still ply the international route. Any responsible government should promote local industry and insist that international travel tickets by government functionaries on official business should be on locally-owned airlines. Please give us something back!

Have we not realised that we are a diplomatic outcast? There is only interest here because we have oil, which foreigners need. We cannot retaliate because we depend on them. We are a trading nation and produce nothing! We must travel. Countries like Qatar, Malaysia and the UAE, where we were free to move as we pleased, are now shutting their doors. The same for fellow African countries like South Africa, which has a non-refundable visa bond policy too.  Responsible governments are responding to their economic challenges by protecting their job markets. The available and best jobs are reserved for their kith and kin.

We have accepted £300million from Britain in aid this year alone. Another £1.14billion in foreign aid is expected from the UK over the next five years to finance Nigeria’s space programme. The UK’s Department for International Development stated that the country is trying to cut crime and illegal immigration. “Our investment goes into specific health, education and poverty reduction programmes. Nigeria is home to a quarter of the poorest people in Africa, and supporting their development will benefit our own trade and security.” 

We should read between the lines and put our house in order.