PERCEPTION

“Men judge generally more by the eye than the hand, for everyone can see and few can feel. Everyone sees what you appear to be, few really know what you are.” Niccolo Machiavelli

Our world has become a global village where nothing is hidden anymore, whether in communist North Korea or the espionage-loving ‘free world’ of the United States.  So when we do our shameful socio-political dance thinking that it is our internal headache, we are blissfully unaware, like a Big Brother episode, that we show ourselves in a bad light in the full glare of the entire world.

The worst thing that we can do is to think that the rest of the village do not matter or are stuck with us and cannot do anything about our internal situation.  We talk everyday about attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). By 2020, we dream of attracting $600 billion worth of FDI. How can this be realised when the minute any new business is set up, all the government agencies descend on it to extort illegal taxes and levies one after the other, oftentimes duplicated? They come along to our premises to enforce their illegality with armed policemen and are ready to seal off legitimate premises at a whim because they can! How can any developed country want to invest in our country when they see how we do things?

It is becoming increasingly difficult for Nigerian businessmen to do business abroad. We suffer to secure visas to industrial countries, even though we are going to spend our hard-earned money. The fact is that foreigners do not believe that there are Nigerians who earn legitimate money. They say to our faces that we have underdeveloped and mismanaged our resources. We are not trustworthy and have no decorum.

Nigerians are being enslaved and colonised afresh, this time with our full consent. We are illegal immigrants doing menial jobs or perpetrating criminal acts around the world. A tour guide recently humiliated a friend on vacation in Dubai when he asked whom amongst the tourists in his bus came from the “rich-poor” Nigeria. Nigerians are destroying their country and sought to pollute them.  We had a hand in 80% of the crimes committed in Dubai, including theft and prostitution tourism. Yet the Nigerian government had just ordered 53 gold plated iPads to celebrate their independence at a cost of $4,000,000. What a sad state of affairs, especially when we know that the allegations are true! The smear taints all of us.  

The world is aware of our insincerity and corruption. All are aware of the outrageous contract scams and waste in government. It is normal to compromise in Nigeria, so why not pay us in our own coin, the Nigerian standard? When we arrive anywhere, they immediately want to sell us rubbish or cheat us because, in fact, we are treated worse in broad daylight in Nigeria!     

The latest fashion, the latest catchphrase is biometrics. Everywhere else in the world, your biometrics are captured for your security and the security of the nation. The difference is that abroad once one agency like the immigration service has it, they share it with all other relevant agencies. Here in Nigeria the whole process has been commercialised to extort money again from unsuspecting Nigerians. We have done census, national identity card, passport, driver’s licence, number plates and vehicle registration. Every time we are inconvenienced and have “paid” extortionate amounts. Why do we have to do it yet again (worse still within a short deadline) as if we have committed some crime? Indeed, these things are necessary, but it is a worrisome situation when it becomes just a money-making venture for individual government agencies.

All over the country, there are now fake licences and number plates and we are being fleeced. These fakes are being sold at VIO and FRSC premises and we have no way of knowing that we are being cheated. They also force us to pay for third party insurance when we have insurance already. How can this be? I should be sure of the requirements and it should be convenient for me to get this service. I AM PAYING FOR IT!

I urge the authorities to dig deep, to think about the perception and the realities that exist on ground. The judiciary should take up our cause and rule against government agencies when they are performing illegalities. We need to say NO, as the stigma attaches to all of us and we are met with suspicion and discrimination wherever we go.