Today’s Black. Britain’s fluorescence [2] - Ayoola Adeyanju

However, while one school of thought believes the present British immigration policy has helped to alleviate problems of unemployment of skilled labour in developing countries and is good for cross pollination of culture, skills and ideas between developed and less developed countries, and quite agreeably so, other school thinks otherwise. In fact I believe the adverse side of the policy is that it has encouraged acute brain drain from less developed countries and what’s more, a huge number of immigrants in Britain are sadly illegal and more sadly still, these are brilliant, vibrant people in their respective areas of specialization. Even when most skilled workers migrate through the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP), there’s no guarantee of a good job. Therefore after languishing for a long time despite their professional and academic qualifications without a good job, since they must keep body and soul together as well as keep up with family expectations back home, these highly skilled workers resort to ‘odd jobs’ and though some may think they earn more in Britain than they ever could back home, the wages are still meager in the face of PAYE taxes and other utility bills. For the average black man in the United Kingdom knows the working class pays for everything. Including what he does not necessarily enjoy. The average tax band for workers with salaries between #5000 and #34,000pa which used to be 10% is now 20% while anyone who earns even 1p above #34,000pa and upwards is slammed in the 40% tax band. So, if you got work through job agency, they deduct 30% (agency commission) straight up, from which remainder another 20 or 40% tax is deducted depending on your earning. We therefore needn’t wonder what life is like with most Nigerians abroad. The answer stares us right in the face.

But in fairness and all honesty, while the position of white seniors is screaming tapering tolerance (or absolute lack of it) for immigrants, a critical look at Britain generally shows fatigue in every facet of its system. Even the faces of British airports show tiredness from thousands of people crawling in everyday in search of greener pastures. They are complaining bitterly. It’s almost a case of suffering and smiling. The more the authorities try, the more cumbersome the problem gets. Worse still, their political leaders fail to admit its diminishing economic power especially in the face of current global economic depression just because of territorial ego. Britain is boasting of its resilience and strong enough shock absorbers to hold forth despite its sharp depreciation in housing in what seems like inevitable ‘economic sympathy’ with its American counterpart even within wee hours of the first quarter in 2008.

While one may carry on without end analyzing the infestation of our people in United Kingdom and the ugly blotches characterizing the erstwhile beautiful British face, here comes the much needed clarion call to us all as a people for inward reflection, to reorder our collective priorities as a nation and find a lasting solution right from the roots to our common but apparently leachy problems starting off with insecurity, corruption, simple flagrant defiance of constituted order and calculated attempt to manipulate the law within its full ramifications to suit personal, self aggrandizement, at the very expense of the next person, a condition which have been the recipe for the impoverishment of the Nigerian people, culminating in miserable brain drain which has continued plaguing us since early eighties. The best of our hands have fled the country for the unknown whereas they would be better at home if only there was no fear of armed robbery attack while in unending traffic jam at Maryland, if only one could guarantee if they embarked on a journey from Lagos to Ibadan they would not dangerously end up somewhere in between the two ends where they can no longer go on until clear morning light, not because they had had two flat tyres all at once or that the car had broken down, but because they had merely unavoidably encountered a traffic jam minutes into the journey and had spent 12 hours and still counting… on a stretch of road that would normally require less than 2 hours to travel. (the fear of armed robbers being the beginning of wisdom).

There is no telling every nation has its own problems. These problems as we all know are peculiar to them based on several factors culminating in their respective culture such as demographic composition, religion, law, history and so on. Sadly enough, it is all too easy for us to heap the blame on our leaders. But a society deserves the kind of leaders it gets. So it will be unfair today, to adduce the Nigerian problem to just leadership from the government houses. Though yet again, it is leadership. Too loud to be ignored and amply playing its arrogant part in the conspiracy. But the challenge staring us in the face in Nigeria has gone far beyond the problem of good leadership in the government house alone. I call it ‘collective leadership’ A complex web of societal impropriety. It begins from our various private homes to the highest of places. There are loads of errors with fundamentals in our domestic lives. These errors impinge negatively on our national life.

For example, when a child errs in the home and commensurate punishment is meted out regardless of whether we normally would send them on an errand, not only would such a child be more cautious in the future, that punishment will also serve as a deterrent to others. On the other hand, a well behaved child must be encouraged so that others may emulate good examples. This same principle must be applied to our national life. Everyone must be accountable for their actions. We must set enduring legacies in terms of precedence. Business men, public office holders, heads of kingdoms, etc. (good and bad) must be accountable. So we all know who and who not to emulate. Those not worthy must face the music. This, I believe is one fundamental parameter needed in place to build a nation which will truly seek to effortlessly bring back our lost manpower from seeming economic banishment, a nation that truly will be the mother of all African nations and a pride of every Nigerian citizen around the world. The nation of our dream! We cannot achieve much by the subterfuge kind of punishments we have seen given out to erring public office holders in recent past. For if it is expressly clear that for every N12 bn naira misappropriated, one might only end up with a ‘slap on the wrist’ sentence of merely less than 24 months (most of which may have been spent in posh sitting room in the name of house arrest anyway) with the forfeiture of a few houses, then please give me access to the money first, we shall deal with the sentence later. With all pleasure!

Finally, to BBC, the authors of ‘Is Britain’s white working class becoming invisible?’ denigrating another country it colonised, I have this to say: Christ’s School Ado Ekiti was founded by an English man called Dallimore. It was regarded as his only child. Dallimore lived and died in Ado Ekiti. His remains were committed to mother earth in Ado Ekiti. The grave is still there for everyone to see. He did everyone who ever attended that school proud. I have met a lot of Brits who work for various organizations, consulting for various levels of the Nigerian government on classified matters, even co-running thriving businesses in banking, energy, oil & gas and other sectors of the Nigerian economy.

It is unfortunate therefore, that rather than seeing immigration policy in Britain today for the objectives it was set to achieve, it is now being used as a fulcrum for racial propaganda. But indeed, let me remind those who were around in Nigeria early 80s, when, after economic disintegration in their land, Ghanaian nationals (very brilliant people as well) came to seek refuge in Nigeria, at a point the Ghanaian nationals were soon considered an economic burden, and were asked to leave. Likewise, before a replica of what gave birth to ‘Ghana Must Go’ cliché becomes Nigerians' reality in the United Kingdom, there is need expedite action towards true political and socio-economic emancipation of the Nigerian people and make their home country once again attractive to our run-away professionals.

A whole collection of snakes never suffer. God bless Nigeria.