…5,000 evacuated in six months – Dabiri-Erewa
By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA – PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Federal Government was hoping to evacuate identified stranded Nigerians in Libya and other countries them back to Nigeria and rehabilitate them.

This came on the heels of the report that hundreds of African refugees and migrants passing through Libya were being bought and sold in modern-day slave markets.

Speaking while interacting with the Nigerian community in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on Tuesday night, Buhari who is in Abidjan, for the 5th European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit, said that those that were still there would be evacuated.

He assured Nigerians living in the country that his administration would do everything humanly possible to make the country conducive to discourage youths from embarking on the journey and risking their lives.

To make the country conducive, President Buhari promised that fixing security as well as providing other critical infrastructure in Nigeria would also reduce the chances of people taking the risk and ending up in the Mediterranean Sea, adding that efforts had been made in that direction which had started yielding positive results in agriculture.

He said, ““Whenever Nigerians are identified especially in Libya and so on, we hope to evacuate them back home and then rehabilitate them because the indoctrination is what is happening with the Boko Haram where girls will strap themselves mostly from the ages of 15 downwards and go to the market blow themselves up and anybody around in motor parks, mosques, churches and so on.”

“I am telling you all these because I know that those of you who are making it here I’m sure send contributions home for feeding and for school fees and for healthcare.

“These are the basic things that the government should do and we are to make sure that the people who are challenging the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean they will be less of Nigerians going that way and getting perished.

“When it was announced that 26 Nigerians died but before they could proved that they were all Nigerians, they were buried. But the evidence I got from the Senior Special Assistant on Diaspora Affairs now is that only three were identified as Nigerians.

“But I won’t be surprised if the majority of them were really Nigerians. And for people to cross the Sahara desert to go into shanty boats across the Mediterranean Sea, I think we will try and keep them at home.

“But for anyone who dared the desert and the Mediterranean without document to prove that he/she is a Nigerian, there is nothing we can do, absolutely nothing.

“In the interview some of you saw, some of the Nigerians said they were being sold like goats for few dollars for years in Libya. Now after 43 years of Gaddafi where he recruited so many people from the Sahel including Nigeria and so on, all they learnt was how to shoot and kill.

“They didn’t learn to become electricians, plumbers or any other trade. So, when the Libyans stood against their leader those who are not their people, they chased them out. A lot of them came back home with their workers, some of them participated in Boko Haram and become part of Boko Haram.

“So, I’m telling you that our major problem as we have identified is still the security of the country. We have done much better everybody is saying it. And then we are talking very regularly with the Niger Delta and the leadership because they know they are holding the throat of the country economically.”

Buhari who stressed on the need for Nigerians in Côte d’Ivoire to be good ambassadors by obeying the law of their host country, urged them to also report those portraying the image of the country in bad light to the embassy so that the bad eggs will be flushed out.

He said, “For you to be good ambassadors of our dear country it is to live by the law of the country and as much as possible, the bad eggs here among you, you should report quietly to the embassy so that we can get them and repatriate them home as the ambassador has said.

“We being the biggest country in Africa at least 180 million people, the requirement for infrastructure is especially education because if you educate people they can look after themselves and then of course healthcare.

“But I’m telling you they are a lot of work to be done back at home. We are doing our best and the leadership at all levels are doing their best and the problem we are having with those who are being indoctrinated and are hurting our people, blowing up people in mosques, churches, marketplaces, motor parks, this is absolute madness.

“No religion advocates violence, all religion advocate justice from your home, town, household to whatever you become, Justice is the basic thing all religion demand it as you can’t go wrong if you do it.”

Also speaking, the Nigerian Ambassador to Côte d’Ivoire, Ibrahim Isah, noted that the largest number of Nigerians in sub Saharan, second only to Sudan are in Côte d’Ivoire.

Ambassador Isah put the number at about 1.5 million.

The Ambassador who was just about three months old in his post, said the greatest challenge facing the embassy was the issue of child trafficking and prostitution, disclosing that 50 persons have been repatriated since he resumed.

Isah said, “We are facing the challenge of child trafficking and prostitution. Over 50 persons have been repatriated since I came three months ago. We put them across to Lagos through the Young Shall Grow Motors and give them stipends.

“We have succeeded in getting three traffickers jailed here in Côte d’Ivoire but we need National Agency for the Prohibition Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to continue doing what they are doing until we stop this illicit trade.”

On her part, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Diaspora and Foreign Affairs, Hon.. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said a total of 5000 Nigerians stranded in Libya have been brought back to the country under the Buhari Administration.

She regretted however that some of them have sadly found their way back despite warnings.

She, however, expressed hope that with President Buhari’s directive on massive evacuation, all of them will be back to Nigeria.

A Nigerian police officer, ACP Sunny Okeobor, with Interpol in his remarks painted a bleak picture of many Nigerians being trafficked, including three employees of NNPC who were deceived into slavery after promising them a job with an oil company for $250 per day but were lucky to have been rescued after one of them escaped.

He urged the ambassador not to relent but keep the fire burning.

Other Nigerians who spoke urged President Buhari to ensure stable power supply in the country which will in turn boost the economy as more companies will be able to remain in business and engage the unemployed youths, thereby discouraging them from risking their lives and end up being trafficked or forced into prostitution.