allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Anglo-Nigerian Relations

President Umaru Musa Yar'adua's first official visit to the United Kingdom came without aplomb. It was as though the Nigerian

President was secretly welcomed by his hosts into their dark back garden rather than the lighted living room. The British press was as silent about this visit as a broken trumpet. Perhaps, this suits Yar'adua's self-effacing nature. Yet, the uncomfortable truth is that despite almost five decades after the lowering of the Union Jack, the colony-metropole relationship is still at work.

The joint statement issued after a brief meeting confirms that nothing earthshaking was discussed, except the undue and foreboding emphasis on Niger Delta oil and the promise of British military support against the insurgency. Nigerians in the United Kingdom were not afforded the opportunity to discuss with the President issues that mean more to them as citizens in the Diaspora, especially in the light of the fact that the government's most touted foreign policy objective is the idea of Citizens Diplomacy.

Indeed, Yar'adua had an opportunity to showcase this idea when he discussed immigration with his hosts. Medical Justice, the British organisation that provides medical advice to deportees, has just released a report detailing abuses to deportees and asylum-seekers in the UK in the last four years. The abuses include racial abuse and infliction of injuries "ranging from handcuffs-bruised wrists to swollen faces, and fractured wrists and ankles" (The UK Guardian, Monday 14th July, 2008). The report says 75 percent of the assaults occurred at the airports or in the planes supposedly taking these people back to their countries, pointing out further that Nigerians comprise the second largest group of Africans who suffer these horrific and illegal assaults that even the Nigeria-bashing British Labour MP, Diane Abbott described as "frightening state-sponsored violence".

It is in the above context that we must also view the case of Mr Ayodeji Omotade who, though isn't a deportee, was beaten, dehumanised, arrested, had his money confiscated, his luggage damaged and was banned by British Airways from travelling for his brother's wedding in Nigeria, all because he dared to plead with barbarous British immigration and security officials torturing a Nigerian in the plane in the name of deportation.

Indeed, the President is very much aware of this case, because he has put his personal and presidential weight behind the call for British Airways to treat Nigerians with respect following the incident and the subsequent offloading of 136 Nigerians from the plane in question. Yet, British Airways has reacted with contempt to the attempts by the President, his ministers and Nigerians to make it see the virtues of being a good corporate citizen despite the fact that it has a long history of doing business in Nigeria. In fact, the Nigerian routes are amongst its most lucrative.

In spite of the pretensions of the British High Commissioner, Mr Robert Dewar in the form of a pretend apology to the Federal Government over the incident (after the Foreign Minister, Chief Ojo Maduekwe expressed our national outrage) and his indication that the whole issue will be settled at bilateral level, the Crown Prosecution Service still went ahead to arraign Ayodeji Omotade in court on a trumped-up charge, just so they can collar him with a criminal record and protect a corporate flag-bearer notorious for poor customer service and bad attitude, at a time the President was paying his first state visit to the United Kingdom. Frankly, the President should have told his hosts that they are prosecuting a Nigerian citizen in bad faith. Citizens Diplomacy means nothing if it cannot protect an innocent citizen abroad.

The least Nigerians expect from Yar'adua is to suspend BA in the meantime until the outcome of Ayodeji Omotade's trial is finally determined. That way, they would know we mean business.

Now, it is one thing that the President did not raise the above-mentioned issues in his discussion with his hosts over immigration, but it's quite another to be asked to agree to a policy of Prisoners Transfer that possibly would not take into cognisance foreign prisoners' rights under the laws of United Kingdom, including the fact that due to the nature of the issue, it could most likely be open to abuse.

He's being asked to agree to a proposal from Britain that could possibly see Nigerian prisoners, who ordinarily would have a right to remain in the United Kingdom, shipped down to Nigerian prisons. The President should know that Nigerian citizens have the right to live and work anywhere they choose in the world as far as they have valid immigration statuses in those places, just like Britons have the right to live and work in Nigeria if they have same.

If Nigerians commit crimes that warrant custodial sentences (and no legal basis or judicial recommendation for deportation), let them remain and serve their time in those places and exercise their right to live there thereafter (if they so choose), rather than being bundled back to Nigeria on conviction (or while serving their sentences) with the attendant losses in family life and investments in a society they've made their homes just to satisfy the inordinate need for British politicians to score cheap points in the politically-driven asylum debate by presenting figures to their publics that indicate they're "tough" on immigration.

The President must not agree to a Prison Transfer programme that is effectively a cost-cutting measure for Britain, but which will turn out a huge economic and social burden for us. If he must sign this, both countries must first get a neutral body like the United Nations to ascertain that the standard of prisons in Nigeria meets the minimum international standards in international law.

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