Different strokes for African immigrants in Nigeria

Posted by admin Africa & World Politics, Headlines Saturday, October 3rd, 2015

fricans from other countries go through a mixed bag of experiences trying to survive in Nigeria, writes FOLASHADE ADEBAYO

At the Agidingbi Mechanic Village, Lagos, which is usually marked by the pulsating noise of metals, tyres and batteries, the man, ‘Yellow’, needs no introduction. For 15 years, the fair-complexioned Togolese, whose actual name is John Hololn, made a name for himself spraying coats of paints on vehicles in the bowels of the expansive village.

Like many artisans in the area, Hololn understands the rules of commerce, speaks impeccable Pidgin English, the unofficial national language in the country, and can even manage a smattering Yoruba (the language spoken by the people of South West Nigeria) to his clientele, some of whom are in the dark about his nationality.

But it has been 25 years he left his village, Alinka in Togo in search of a better life in Nigeria. From an unremarkable life as a youth back in his village, Hololn has flourished outside the box that life built for him. Upon arrival in the country, he quickly joined Nigeria’s pool of unskilled workers, returning to his country of birth to marry, and now lives with his wife and four children in a modest bungalow he built in the Sango area of Ogun State.

Striding briskly out of his garage in a soiled overall on Tuesday, his face a serious mask of expectation, Hololn was perhaps expecting another car-painting deal.

“People think say I be Igbo. If I no tell you sef, you no go know,’‘ he says with a smile directed at our correspondent.

Hololn was warming slowly to an interview, after an initial show of reluctance. It would later be discovered that this aversion for media spotlight is common among foreigners living in Nigeria, especially migrants from neighbouring West African countries.

“I don dey Nigeria for 25 years. I followed my ‘master’ come here come learn car-painting. Na the only thing wey I don dey do since I come and I don build house inside. My wife and four children dey with me here and my children dey go school for here, ” he discloses.

Hololn’s rose is in bloom, and he has tried to extend the quality to his countrymen. Most of the apprentices in his workshop are Togolese, youths brought into the country during many of his trips to see his parents in Alinka.

Life in Nigeria is competitive but offers better opportunities for these young men. But, the first steps, according to Hololn, goes far beyond tutelage in car spraying.

“Na your character go sustain you for any country. My customers even invite me to their house but I no dey go. Na because of my character and expertise. I no dey look for trouble, I get all my papers complete and I dey always tell my boys to focus on what dem come do here,” he says.

But Hololn is only one of thousands of immigrants living in Nigeria. For instance, the months and years have turned into lucrative seasons for Isaac Abaidoo, a Ghanaian living in the Kola area of Lagos. Prior to his relocation to Nigeria, Abaidoo says he was already an established footwear manufacturer in Abakrampa, his village in Ghana’s Central Region, travelling as far as Burkina Faso to market his leather slippers.

That, however, was as far as his business expansion went. For the father of two, the big break came when a Nigerian living in Ghana invited him to Nigeria in 2007. Abaidoo came to manage a shop with a handful of other Ghanaians, and like Hololn, he has not looked back since, establishing himself as a businessman with a customer base spread across the country.

While on a reporting project supported by the Institute for Media and Society, Lagos, PANOS West Africa and the European Union, our correspondent met Abaidoo in the workshop which also doubles as his home in Lagos. The Ghanaian, who was also reluctant to grant an interview, claims he has never got into trouble with his neighbours and law enforcement agents. Yet, Abaidoo lives as a recluse, with a predictable compass that never moves beyond his church, home and Ghana, where he often travels to buy materials.

An international trend and burden

According to the United Nations Population Division, an international immigrant is someone who has been living for one year or longer in a country other than the one in which he or she was born.

With the insurgency in Syria and conflict in some other countries, the UN says movement across international borders is at an all-time high. The international agency fingers famine, as well as the search for greener pastures as some of the propelling reasons why people leave their countries of birth behind, sometimes never to return.

In 2001, another international organisation, Population Action, estimated that about 200 million people (more than the population of Nigeria) lived in country different from their countries of birth.

Studies on migration by the agency have also showed its interesting shades and colours across countries: nearly 14million immigrants were said to enter the United States between 2000 and 2010, while the number of immigrants living in Spain jumped from less than a million to six million between 1990 and 2013.

More than 45million people living in the United States were born in other countries in 2013, while France is said to have the highest number of migrants living in other nations than any other country in the world. Unlike other African and Western countries with a meticulous record of migrants, it was discovered that such records which document names and businesses of migrants are non-existent in Nigeria.

For instance, in 2009 the United States Census Board reported that about 1.5million African migrants lived in the United States, a small but growing percentage of the country’s 38.5million immigrants. In a further analysis, the agency also noted that two-third of African migrants were from East and West Africa, with top originating countries being listed as Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Ghana and others.

However, the Pew Research Centre, in its 2013 Global Attitude and Trends Report, said there were 1,230,000 migrants living in Nigeria. The Centre listed four countries with the highest nationals in Nigeria at the time as Benin Republic, Ghana, Mali and Togo while the countries with the least number of migrants in Nigeria were listed as Gambia, Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt and Liberia.

Between a rock and a hard place

Abaidoo and Hololn are only a trickle of the success stories. From the Gambia, Cotonou, Republic of Benin, Liberia, Ghana and others, hundreds of thousands of these African nationals have forayed into the country to work mainly in the service and domestic sectors.

While a sprinkle claims to have attained some economic stability, even employing some of their own countrymen and women, a majority have fallen between the margins. Findings by our correspondent show that the bulk have yet to find their feet, juggling odd jobs in a country already burdened with a high unemployment rate and inadequate social and medical infrastructure.

Lucy, a Togolese, is one of them. When our correspondent met the 19 year-old in August, she had already lived and worked in Nigeria as a house help for five years. The first child in a family of seven children, Lucy claims to have worked for nine families in Lagos and Ogun states.

The teenager, who was barely 14 years when she left her country of birth in search of the Golden Fleece in Nigeria, has acclimatised to the country’s nuances. Lucy says her first challenge on arrival was how to speak Pidgin English and familiarise with the naira and kobo, Nigeria’s legal tender.

But the language and socio-cultural gap was not enough to stop the 19- year-old breadwinner. For Lucy, lies and impersonation are some of the handy tools of survival.

“Nigeria na big country and I like am. But problem dey too. The time wey I dey comot from my master place at Ifo ( in Ogun State) three years ago, my aunty wey bring me from Togo (middle woman) pack me with other girls dey go Ilasa ( in Lagos), was police stop us and my aunty say make I talk say my name be Chioma. They talk say my aunty be trafficker but she come give them money,” recalls Lucy.

A national of Cameroon, who simply identifies himself as Felix, is also in the same shoes. The 26-year old who works as a driver to a publisher in Lagos has to be on the road every day, and that for him, means having a valid drivers’ license.

“I don dey Nigeria since I reach 19 years old. I came with a friend who promise my parents say he go help me get work. But e no dey easy when I first come o. Na Idumota I first work dey do labourer at Idumota. Na another friend who come from home (Cameroon) to do private driver come give me sign say make I also do private driver,” he says.

Interestingly, our correspondent observed that Felix’s driver’s licence bears the name of a Nigerian from Cross River State. Asked if his employer knows about it, the foreigner replies in the affirmative.

Felix, who claims he is in the process of getting his resident permit, says the practice is common among migrants without a resident permit.

“The truth be say no be resident permit go dey your mind the time wey you first come. Na survival. Na him make me do the driver licence. But my Oga has told me to get a resident permit. She for don sack me if she no trust me,” he says.

But beyond the dirty game of survival, however, some of the African migrants who spoke with our correspondent seem to have adopted Nigeria as home, many of them also claim to have been the butt of cruel jokes and experienced bullying from Nigerians at some point.

Hololn says his children, who were born in Nigeria, are often derided in the private school they attend. He adds that their names give them out as foreigners even though they speak Yoruba.

“Wetin I go do about that? Even the teachers for my children school dey do am. My children sabi Yoruba but na their names be the problem. Even the teachers dey bully them. Dem don give them names like Kobokobo. I no mind so tey there is no trouble. Many Nigerians dey nice and dem dey ready to help you,” he says.

The grass may also not be greener on the other side for Nigerians living in other African countries. Our correspondent met Morenike Taiwo, a Nigerian who migrated to Ghana in 2014. Taiwo says socialising is a tricky business as many Ghanaians prefer to converse in Twi, their local language.

However, Taiwo, who is now a teacher with Our Lady’s School in the Ashanti region of Kumasi, says she had no major challenge securing a job.

“All you need is a Resident Permit which also doubles as a Work Permit especially for people from ECOWAS countries and it costs $500(about N100,000). The Student Permit also costs about 5,000 Ghanaian cedi. It is all about being a legal migrant. When my house was burgled in March, I had to present my documents when I lodged a complaint at the police station. But I also do not socialise too much. It is easy for you to be picked out as a foreigner if you do not speak Twi, their local language and your pronunciation is also different,” she says.

Similarly, Chimezie Okoli, a Nigerian who has been living in Uganda since 2012, says he has learnt to be careful when socialising in the East African country. According to him, a foreigner remains a foreigner no matter how long he has lived in a country.

“Living successfully in another country is a combination of many factors. Nigerians are generally loud and colourful people. But that puts the spotlight on you in a foreign country. I go out to parties when it is absolutely necessary because the Nigerian accent is unmistakable here in Uganda. Once you open your mouth to talk, Ugandans know you are either from Ghana or Nigeria because they watch Nollywood films a lot and they tend to believe what they see, ” he says.

Undocumented immigrants flood Nigeria

Although migration is recognised by experts as a tool for development, findings by our correspondent show that thousands of migrants from neighbouring West African countries without relevant travel documents slip into Nigeria on a daily basis.

A 1979 protocol on free movement and establishment by the Economic Community of West African States stipulated the free movement of persons, residence and establishment.

A Professor of History, Toyin Falola, says Nigeria has always received migrants, especially in the North, as people look for economic opportunities. According to him, the influx is not likely to stop anytime soon.

“We have many from Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Burkina Faso and other countries. Remember the large migrations of Ghanaians to Nigeria in the 1970s. Economic opportunities will always be an attraction as long as the prosperity imbalance exists in their own countries, ” he says.

In February, the Kwara State command of the Nigerian Immigration Service paraded 120 illegal migrants for not having valid documents to live in the country. While 97 were said to be from Niger Republic, the rest were nationals of the Republic of Benin. Early this month also, about 150 illegal migrants were arrested and deported by the Nigeria Immigration Service in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Last March, 201 illegal migrants from Niger were repatriated by the NIS. Also, some 500 irregular migrants were deported by the Seme command of the NIS in 2014, among other deportation exercises.

However, a lawyer, Fred Agbaje, says irregular migrants are protected by national and international conventions.

“Government can curtail freedom of movement but that does not mean that illegal migrants can be subjected to inhumane treatments. You are still duty-bound to protect illegal migrants under national and international law. Our so-called domestic-legislations are now subject to international humanitarian laws,” he says.

But just as Felix discloses that the country may be crawling with migrants who pose a Nigerians to get by, the Lagos Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Commission, Mr. Hyginus Umeje, says the cost and procedure of getting a valid driver’s licence for foreigners living legally in the country is neither tedious nor costlier than what obtains for Nigerians.

“We have been given licences to foreigners who meet our requirements. The exact number is in our national database and I may not be able to tell you now. They are given the licence once they meet our requirements and are familiar with Nigerian roads. It is still the same basic procedure that is also required for Nigerians, ” he says.

According to King, the gale of deportation of undocumented migrants in the country is standard practice. King says there are also migrants who come into the country with valid documents but overstayed their visas.

He adds that the regularisation of Resident Permits costs $1,000 (about N200,000).

“There are two types of migrants and we call them regular and irregular migrants. They are supposed to come in with correct travel documents which include international passports and visa as someone coming to stay within the period stated on the visa.

“If you have an extension as a worker, your employers will have to process your papers until you are issued a resident permit. But we all know that many economic migrants come in through illegal routes. You will always have the push and pull factors, ” he says.

-Punchwp_posts

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Posted by admin on Oct 3 2015. Filed under Africa & World Politics, Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry