Dubai note by John Egbokhan
A good country is known by the value it attaches to its citizens. In Nigeria, citizens are treated shabbily by bad leaders. Ours is a country where locals are regarded lowly. We are commoners in our

country. No wonder, foreigners, even Indians and Chinese, have now taken over in our dear Lagos. I pity us.

Our attitude towards ourselves has made foreigners in our country to feel as if they own the land. They thrive while we rile in poverty. I know what I am saying because I live in Lagos. In fact, I was born in Yaba and have stayed in the city all my life. And having come to the United Arab Emirates, venue of the ongoing FIFA U-17 World Cup, I have come to realize the more that our leaders don’t value the citizens.

I stayed for two days in Al Ain City, where Nigeria played their first two matches. Everywhere I went with my colleagues, the people we saw working were foreigners from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, Oman, Kenya, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Philippines and even Nigeria.

From taxi drivers to mall workers and to hotel attendants, supervisors and name any menial work here, you will see that they are driven by foreigners, who are happy with their pay packets. But they are made to work hard for their pay. They work six days of the week, earning about 3000AED to 6000AED a month.

The locals here, referred to as Emiritians, clad in their white kandora attire live like princes and princesses. They are a pampered bunch. But you cannot blame them for feeling this way given that their economy is thriving and they have good leaders. I was reliably informed by many workers

here that the locals, who work in government offices, earn from 20, 000 AED to as much as 200, 000. A diran is N45. And the catch is that they work for about three to four days and still make so much. No

wonder they stay in their country, while others throng here to work for them. This is the Emiritian life. A princely life, with no hassles but so much money.

Dancing water, tallest building and 419 in Dubai

Saturday was our day to see Dubai, the city with so many wonders. In company of Anietie Iyoho, Harry Awoso, Tunde and our tour guide, we went round the city to see tourist  attractions of this great place.

Awoso, specifically told our Nigerian guide that he wanted to see the dancing water, tallest building, and seven star hotel in Bojarab.

Our guide, a warm and affable person, took us round these great places and we were left speechless. As we made our way to the Dubai Mall to see the tallest building and dancing water, we were accosted by some natives who promised us free gifts if we would just spare them two minutes.

Our guide said we should rebuff them but as true Nigerians, we were lured with the free gifts gist. As they chatted us up, our guide called me aside,  warning me that those guys were not good.

He said that we would miss the dancing water show and I duly informed my people but they would not bulge. When he was through with us, he did not give us any free gifts but collected our details and told us that he would give us our gifts when we meet at a pre-arranged place.

As we made our way to see what we came here for, we were shocked to see that the dancing water show was over, leaving all of us angry and furious that the natives had wasted our time for nothing. Seeing our situation, our guide inquired on when next the dancing water show would come up and was told in the next 30 minutes. We were happy again and when the show started, we were mesmerized, wondering how  water can be dancing for close to 10 minutes.

We returned to our hotel on top of the tallest building in the world and woke up in the morning and went for our breakfast only to hear from some Nigerian business women, how a fellow Nigerian was defrauded by these same natives we saw at the mall. She said we should be wary of persons inviting us for tour and free gifts offer, stating that once they get your card details, they will empty your account.

She added that they were going to call us and truly they bombarded our phones with call s that they were ready to come and pick us and at a point, I had to take the phone from Anietie and told the woman that we were getting ready to return to Lagos but she retorted that we were not serious  people, stating that they wanted to give us free gifts but I told her that there was no free gift in this Dubai, that I have been staying for some days now.