FEATURE ARTICLE

Omoh Tsatsaku Ojior, Ph.D.Friday, September 15, 2006
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Forwarded by: FEMI AJAYI


HAVE NIGERIANS IN THE DIASPORA SEIZED TO BE NIGERIANS?
A REJOINDER TO SENATOR AMINU JIBRIL'S LATEST TV INTERVIEW


ur question which other Nigerians may want to ask is: have Nigerians in the Diaspora forfeited their being Nigerian citizens because they live in America? One is asking this question as a result of the interview given by the former Nigerian Ambassador to the US, now Senator Jibril Aminu. The interview was relayed in a broadcast by one of the two Nigerian television stations now being received in the United States. Senator Aminu was reliving his experience in Washington D.C. during the 911 attack on US. The interview was September 11, 2006 marking the fifth year remembrance of the sad event.


While explaining the event as it happened, the then Ambassador took the whole episode as a non-serious matter for Nigerians. The Senator's countenance or body language spoke volume unprintable, of such a serious tragedy. Nigerians will never know how many of their citizens perished in that historical occurrence. It is really sad that some of those with whom we trust our lives in their hand in service as citizens of the same nation continue to fail in their duty.

What is prompting our question, was that the then Ambassador was unable to tell Nigerians and the world who were watching the television interview the number of Nigerians who died at the World Trade Center Building on that fateful sad day, September 11, 2001. When he was asked as to how many Nigerians died, he re-asked the Journalist with an in-describable gesture: were they Nigerians? They were Nigerian naturalized Americans, the Senator answered himself; many of them worked there, he exclaimed. It was sad that a Nigerian ambassador in Washington, D.C. on that shocking day did not care enough for the lives of Nigerians who died in such a tragic incident, and he as the then Nigerian ambassador could not find out how many Nigerians lost their lives at the World Trade Center; just because they were naturalized Nigerian Americans.

Senator Aminu is a highly studied personality considering his background before he was appointed as Nigeria's Ambassador to the United States. Although, Confucius, the Chinese Philosopher had said that "the highest study of all is that which teaches us to develop those principles of purity and perfect virtue which Heaven bestowed upon us at birth, in order that we may acquire the power of influencing for good those amongst whom we are placed, by our precepts and example." Has the former Ambassador actually demonstrated his knowledge and ability, at both the time those Nigerians died at that World Trade Center attack, and during his explanation to the Nigerian people, five years after, in this last interview he gave on the attack?

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The inability to tell Nigeria how many Nigerians died in that attack is an indication that the then Ambassador could not find out if there were other Nigerians who were not naturalized Nigerian Americans in that building. What is the implication of this callousness? Was it callousness or dereliction of one's duty or was it ignorance of one's responsibility as an ambassador? At least, for the strategic and magnanimous position of Nigeria on the Africa continent, it wouldn't have been out of place for a Nigerian ambassador in the US during that attack on the US to find out not only how many Nigerians whether naturalized or not, who died in that tragedy, but also find out, how many other citizens of African states died in that World Trade Center Building. One may be incorrect in his assessment of the sad situation of that 911 event and of the interview given by our honourable Senator.

On that day in question and the one following, some of us in the US who were not paid Nigerian government employees in the US, out of human concern, were searching through the news media and listening out to hear that Nigerians were not among the dead, but behold to our ears, the American news media and the US authority announced in passing that Nigerians were among the dead at the World Trade Center. They did not give the figure, but they gave the figures of the other nationals who died at the trade Center Building. So what is the fate of the Nigerians in the Diaspora? Was it because the Americans knew that Nigerian authority does not seems to care about what happens to its citizens anywhere? Poor fellow Nigerians; their host country will not morn them and their land of birth would not either? Yet the Nigerians in the Diaspora are working themselves to death and hard just to see how they can help their country of birth, Nigeria and its image.

Is Senator Aminu aware that the US Dollars these Nigerian Americans are remitting monthly to their families and relations based in Nigeria, has been recognized as giving a lift to the Nigerian economy? These Nigerians have not given up their Fatherland because they have joined the international political, economic and industrial game of dual citizenship. Nigerians are not the first and will not be last to take on dual citizenship. Was Aminu's position on this matter an official one or a personal position based on the ignorance of the politics of dual citizenship the world over today, of which he may not be aware? Can the Senator tell Nigerians that many of the Indians, Lebanese, and Arabs (many who are in the north) who have taken on the Nigerian citizenship have abandoned their home countries because they love Nigeria so much? These foreign Nigerians are usurping the employment opportunities many Nigerians cannot even find in their home land. Is Senator Aminu not aware that some of these foreign Nigerians are leeching Nigeria dry? This is a matter that NIDO should request Senator Aminu to tell Nigerians in the Diaspora what they need to do to regain their Nigerian citizenship IF they have lost it.

Also, Mr. Joe Keshi should be requested to clarify government position on this matter. Mr. Keshi has being the Coordinator of Nigerians Abroad ( a job he has done so well) until recently when information has it that he, Mr. Keshi has now been assigned a Cabinet Portfolio. It is our belief that Honourable Keshi is in a position to throw some light on the subject, whether Nigerians in the Diaspora are Nigerian citizens. It is important to know if naturalized Nigerian Americans are not still Nigerians.