WHY THE UNITED STATES SHOULD RESTRICT ITS TRAVEL BAN ON NIGERIA TO THE POLITICIANS ONLY
Recently, the United States placed Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, in the list of countries with travel restrictions to the United States. In the case of Nigeria, the travel ban would most significantly affect ‘immigrant visa’ applications. With this development, the ability of individuals to file applications for members of their families in Nigeria, to move and live permanently in the United States has become severely threatened.
Although this restriction is expected to affect all categories of Nigerian citizens who are eligible to migrate to the United States, it is noteworthy that the ordinary citizens will be most affected.
Like every other policy change involving the country Nigeria, the ordinary citizens have always been at the receiving end of it, and suffering most of the negative consequences. The rich political class are seemingly powerful, and would always have a way to wriggle themselves out of the situation, and leaving the helpless 'common man' to continue to suffer the hardship often created by the political class.
There is enormous and huge inequality in Nigeria at present with near absence of a middle economic class. It is either you are too rich or you are too poor. All efforts to bring supposed leaders to realization of the dangers of this situation has fallen on deaf ears.
The rising insecurity situation in Nigeria for instance is a result of the lack of capacity of the political class to nip issues in the bud when it is still within manageable scale because their penchant for corruption and corrupt tendencies would rarely allow them the space to think reasonably and proactively too.
From the inception of Nigeria's independence till date, the political class have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that they are unable to turn things around in Africa's mega rich but poor country. It is difficult to exempt any of the politicians from this ugly narrative. What is most disheartening is that they have continued to transfer this burden of 'visionless leadership' from one generation to another.
As at today, nearly half of Nigeria's fortune is resting in foreign countries where the politicians have starched the ill-acquired resources that should have been used to create equitable and affordable healthcare, provide quality education, build infrastructure, support technology and so on. From sending their children to ivory league schools, to buying houses and other properties abroad, these politicians are constantly attempting to actualize their ideas to resettle their families in the developed countries of America, England, Canada etc. while allowing the ordinary and poor citizens to suffer impact of the rot that they have created within the country.
The travel ban on Nigeria would likely affect more of the common citizens, and minimally affect the political class. The ban excludes visas to students, most of which are children of the rich politicians. Meanwhile basic education is still luxury to majority of Nigerian citizens much less studying abroad.
It is evident that the politicians in Nigeria would unlikely be affected by the recent travel ban by the United States, and would likely do nothing to change the situation. It is imperative to crave the cooperation of the United States to restrict the recent travel ban to Nigerian politicians because it is their ineptitude to solve the problems that has brought the country to the present situation. More so, it is socially unjust to watch helpless citizens suffer the impact of callousness, willful neglect and visionless leadership of the rich and powerful few.
It is possible that with such revision by the United States, we would witness some of the politicians either activate their problem solving skills or relinquish power to others that have capacity to do the job of transforming the country.
Dr. Iwuagwu writes from the Secretariat of the 'Office of Common Man' in Abuja.
Although this restriction is expected to affect all categories of Nigerian citizens who are eligible to migrate to the United States, it is noteworthy that the ordinary citizens will be most affected.
Like every other policy change involving the country Nigeria, the ordinary citizens have always been at the receiving end of it, and suffering most of the negative consequences. The rich political class are seemingly powerful, and would always have a way to wriggle themselves out of the situation, and leaving the helpless 'common man' to continue to suffer the hardship often created by the political class.
There is enormous and huge inequality in Nigeria at present with near absence of a middle economic class. It is either you are too rich or you are too poor. All efforts to bring supposed leaders to realization of the dangers of this situation has fallen on deaf ears.
The rising insecurity situation in Nigeria for instance is a result of the lack of capacity of the political class to nip issues in the bud when it is still within manageable scale because their penchant for corruption and corrupt tendencies would rarely allow them the space to think reasonably and proactively too.
From the inception of Nigeria's independence till date, the political class have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that they are unable to turn things around in Africa's mega rich but poor country. It is difficult to exempt any of the politicians from this ugly narrative. What is most disheartening is that they have continued to transfer this burden of 'visionless leadership' from one generation to another.
As at today, nearly half of Nigeria's fortune is resting in foreign countries where the politicians have starched the ill-acquired resources that should have been used to create equitable and affordable healthcare, provide quality education, build infrastructure, support technology and so on. From sending their children to ivory league schools, to buying houses and other properties abroad, these politicians are constantly attempting to actualize their ideas to resettle their families in the developed countries of America, England, Canada etc. while allowing the ordinary and poor citizens to suffer impact of the rot that they have created within the country.
The travel ban on Nigeria would likely affect more of the common citizens, and minimally affect the political class. The ban excludes visas to students, most of which are children of the rich politicians. Meanwhile basic education is still luxury to majority of Nigerian citizens much less studying abroad.
It is evident that the politicians in Nigeria would unlikely be affected by the recent travel ban by the United States, and would likely do nothing to change the situation. It is imperative to crave the cooperation of the United States to restrict the recent travel ban to Nigerian politicians because it is their ineptitude to solve the problems that has brought the country to the present situation. More so, it is socially unjust to watch helpless citizens suffer the impact of callousness, willful neglect and visionless leadership of the rich and powerful few.
It is possible that with such revision by the United States, we would witness some of the politicians either activate their problem solving skills or relinquish power to others that have capacity to do the job of transforming the country.
Dr. Iwuagwu writes from the Secretariat of the 'Office of Common Man' in Abuja.
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