By Donu Kogbara

DURING this season of goodwill, let those of us who are luckier than most remember the millions in Nigeria and across the globe who will suffer or die during this festive season and won’t enjoy special meals or receive nice Christmas gifts.

A couple of examples: According to Madame Leila Zerrougui, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, many of the girls (some as young as 11 years old) whom Boko Haram terrorists send on suicide bombing missions in North-Eastern Nigeria, Northern Cameroon, Chad and Niger are probably not aware that their handlers will activate remote control devices and blow them up.

Meanwhile, there are 20 ongoing and protracted conflicts happening in today’s world; and thousands of children (some as young as 4 or 5) are being used as soldiers and human shields by groups like the Anti-Balaka Christian militias in the Central African Republic and the Islamic State thugs who are wrecking Iraq, etc.

Refugee crisis and tragedy

As Zerrougui so eloquently puts it: “Childrens’ bodies are being used as weapons.”

Many of these vulnerable kids are dying – or being forced to kill other people – while I am writing this column. And many innocents will not live to see 2016. So let us please pray for them, their victims, their families and their victims’ families.

We also need to remember those who are caught up in the enormous European migrant/refugee crisis and tragedy.

Over 1 million people have entered Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Spain, Malta and Cyprus illegally this year. This figure represents a fourfold rise on last year’s total.
Half were escaping from Syria. 20% were fleeing from Afghanistan and 7% from Iraq. The rest were from North Africa and other locations, including Nigeria.
34,000 made the arduous journey via Turkey into Bulgaria and Greece by land, often trekking hundreds of miles on foot with heavy luggage, frail elderly relatives and sick babies in tow.

But most (972,500) braved perilous Mediterranean and Aegean Sea crossings in unsafe boats and awful stormy weather. And 3695 have drowned so far.
Europeans are too civilised to allow those who survive these terrible ordeals to die of hunger or do without basic shelter in freezing cold climates; and philanthropically-inclined Europeans are very eager to help and have called on their governments and compatriots to do everything possible for the foreigners.
Kirsty McNeill, the British Campaigns Director of the Save The Children charity, for instance, has said that: “This is the test of our [compassionate] European ideal…we need to take bolder action. There can be no bigger priority.”

And let’s not forget Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, who has just been honoured by Time Magazine – she won the PERSON OF THE YEAR award “for throwing open Germany’s doors to a pressing throng of refugees and migrants; a total of 1 million…are expected [in Germany] by the end of December. It was an audacious act [and] the most generous, openhearted gesture of recent history.”

But I think it is fair to say that the majority of Europeans – especially those who live in host communities – feel swamped and bitterly resent these “visitors” because taking care of them is costing taxpayers a fortune, even when they are accommodated in dingy camps and only provided with minimal welfare benefits.

So, after undertaking the huge risk of perishing in treacherous waters and miraculously reaching their destinations in one piece, the migrants frequently encounter hostility and hardship on arrival. But it would appear that nothing can stem this impoverished, desperate, never-ending tide of human misery.

Economic migrants

When they get to Europe, they request asylum. And some are indeed real refugees who are entitled to asylum because their lives were in danger in their countries of origins. But a large chunk are economic migrants who just want better existences in affluent nations that can provide them and their offspring with job opportunities and perks such as free housing, free healthcare and free education.

One can only pray for a) migrants who are currently stuck in refugee camps, feeling homesick but unable to retrace their steps and go home for all sorts of reasons and b) migrants in transit who will spend Christmas trying to stay alive in painful conditions and yearning for simple pleasures like a decent meal and a hot bath.
On a happier note

LET me seize this opportunity to warmly congratulate my charming and super-smart friend and sister, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, who has just been appointed Acting Managing Director (MD) of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Her appointment is a very pleasant Christmas surprise.

Ibim is the daughter of Chief G.T.G Toby, a former Deputy-Governor of our state, Rivers, as well as the wife of Henry Semenitari, a former MD of Unity Bank and a devoted mother of 3; and she has impressive professional credentials.

Ibim Semenitari

She was a courageous and highly effective Commissioner for Information when Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi (now the Minister of Transport) was the Rivers State Governor and being relentlessly attacked by a gaggle of powerful political enemies, including former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan. And long before Ibim took up this post, she was a well-known journalist who owned a successful publication.

I’m 100% sure that she will do an excellent job for her Niger Deltan “constituents” and tidy up the NDDC, which has myriad problems that need to be solved asap.
Mr President has certainly chosen well on this occasion.