The Hazards of illegal immigration to the UK

Nigerians are everywhere in the world. Our proclivity to global itinerancy, I suspect, is born out of nature and economics. By nature, we love to scan our immediate and outer environments with the ultimate objective of improving ourselves. Even before our country becomes what it is now, our people had traversed the globe seeking the proverbial Golden Fleece in places far and wide. Thus it can safely be said that our forebears who travelled to Europe and America in the early to mid 20th century did so simply to attain quality Western education and having achieved this they promptly came back to Nigeria, where commensurate jobs were waiting for them.The second reason for playing ‘Andrew’ is economics. It is clear that despite {or perhaps because of } the country’s abundance of human and natural resources, our successive rulers have seemingly contrived to snatch defeat from the jaw of economic victory and the country has remained a perpetual work-in-progress. The Nigerian people, with no hope of a better tomorrow have thus been voting with their feet and migrating to all sorts of countries {as an aside a colleague of mine recently seconded to the Afghanistan Ministry of Justice relates of presence of a considerable community of Nigerians in Afghanistan!}.Nigerians have been migrating to the UK for decades. However lately, there have been changes in the legal and political climates in the UK that those seeking to migrate to England and work illegally need to think twice before they did so. In the late 1980s and throughout 1990s, as a result of liberalisation of the British economy by Lady Thatcher, {which was sustained by the New Labour government since 1997}, the British economy has been very buoyant and was out-performing the economies of the Euro-zone. This has generated job opportunities in all facets of the labour market, especially such jobs the natives were not particularly enamoured of. As a result of this, there was a laissez faire attitude towards migration {including illegal ones}. Nigerians who came to the UK during this period could thus easily obtained works using false/forged documentations and subsequently normalise and regularise their stays. This is no longer the case.The UK Identity Card Act 2006 was promulgated to check the incidents of identity thefts. However its ambit covers those who are in possession of false or fraudulent identification documents. The Act provides for two separate offences: possession of false identity document with the intention to deceive and simple possession of false identity document.Section 25{1&2} provides that:‘{1} It is an offence for a person with the requisite intention to have in his possession or under his control—(a) an identity document that is false and that he knows or believes to be false;(b) an identity document that was improperly obtained and that he knows or believes to have been improperly obtained; or(c) an identity document that relates to someone else.(2) The requisite intention for the purposes of subsection (1) is—(a) the intention of using the document for establishing registrable facts about himself; or(b) the intention of allowing or inducing another to use it for establishing, ascertaining or verifying registrable facts about himself or about any other person (with the exception, in the case of a document within paragraph (c) of that subsection, of the individual to whom it relates).’Section 25{5}{a-c}, provides that:‘It is an offence for a person to have in his possession or under his control, without reasonable excuse—(a) an identity document that is false;(b) an identity document that was improperly obtained;(c) an identity document that relates to someone else; or(d) any apparatus, article or material which, to his knowledge, is or has been specially designed or adapted for the making of false identity documents or to be used in the making of such documents.’It can be clearly seen that the sections have been widely drafted to encompass such practice as using someone else genuine identity documents as well as using plainly forged documents. The offence under section 25{1} is committed if the suspect presents such documents to anyone with the intention of inducing that person to avail them of a service. Thus Mr A presents a genuine international passport {or any other form of identification documents} belonging to Mr B {probably because they look alike} to a bank with the intention of inducing the bank into opening an account for himself {Mr A}, the offence has been committed. Such practice was/is not unusual amongst illegal immigrants in the UK. The maximum punishment for a conviction under section 25[1} of the Act is 10 years custodial sentence. The offence under section 25{5} {the simple possession} is committed if the suspect is found to be in possession of such document. Thus, if using our scenario above, Mr A was in possession of any of the above documents and was subject to a routine stop and search by the police and the document{s} was found on him, he is guilty of the offence and could be sent to two years imprisonment.Prior to the promulgation of the Identity Card Act, people found to be in possession of such identification documents were simply repatriated to their countries without having to face criminal trials. This of course is no longer the case as such people now face criminal prosecution and almost inevitable imprisonment. To make matter worse such convicted people are subsequently deported to their countries after they have served their terms of imprisonment since the sentencing courts almost always recommend those people for deportation. Under the UK law, foreign nationals convicted of imprisonable offence are liable to be removed from the UK after conclusion of their custodial sentence. Talk of double jeopardy!This writer knows as a matter of fact that hundreds {perhaps thousands} of Nigerians have been affected by this new law. The fact that most of the key cases that have gone to Criminal appellate Courts in the UK in this area of law relate to Nigerian names are indicative of how the net of this Act has caught many Nigerians. In the case of R-v-Kolawole {2006}2 Cr.App.R{S} 14, the defendant, who was initially arrested for a traffic offence, was found to be in possession of forged passport. Even though he was previously of good character, he was nevertheless sentenced to 18 months custody. Similarly, in the case of R-v-Adebayo {2007} EWCA Crim 878, the defendant went to an employment agency and produced two documents, a national insurance card and a Nigerian passport which were fakes. Mr Adebayo claimed that he had entered the United Kingdom about 10 years earlier and had lost his Nigerian passport. He had paid £2,500 for the two false documents which he had produced. He was sentenced to Sentenced 2 -year custody, although this was reduced to reduce to 15 months on appeal. It is needless to say that both defendants were recommended for deportation.Those two cases have become the guidance cases in UK courts for sentencing people accused of breaching the provisions of the Act. Hundreds of Nigerians are languishing in various UK jails awaiting deportation after serving their criminal sentence. What started out as journey to economic liberation and good life have suddenly become painful existence of nightmarish proportion for these unfortunate people. Ordinarily decent and hardworking people have now acquired criminal convictions for, at worst their desperation to escape from the inequities and insecurities at home. The convenient thing is to blame the UK for the harshness of its law, but that will miss the point. The real culprits are the successive leaders of Nigeria who have made staying at home so hostile, so hopeless that Nigerians are ready to migrate to such bastion of prosperity and tranquillity as Afghanistan! Whilst the country remain cocooned in the quagmire of high unemployment, entrenched poverty and decaying infrastructures, it is difficult to advise people not to seek better life elsewhere. My advice to Nigerians seeking to come to the UK is to ensure that they seek impassioned and objective advice before spending their hard earned money on a trip into the unknown.

Have u ever wondered why young children from the western part of Nigeria can't speak the yoruba dialect very efficiently? I will tell you why; It is because their parents didn't take their time to teach such children how tospeak the native language or what is is basically the mother tongue. Childern born between the 70s and early 80s are deeficient as far as speaking their mother tongue and you may want to ask this is so?Anyway, some of these children attribute this deficiencyto negligience on the part their parents, in failing to teach them how to communicate in their mother tongue.This is very prone in the eastern part of Nigeria, basically the igbos in particular and this affecting the children and youths from this region in communicating effectively among their peers and adults alike.

The term native language is used to indicate a language that a person is as proficient in as a native inhabitant of that language's base country or as proficient as the average person who speaks no other language but that language.. Sometimes the term mother tongue or language is used for the language a person learn at home,usually from one's parents. The usage of these terms is far standardized; however, the term first language is used for the language the speaker speaks best.
Sometimes, the term first language, second, and third langauge are used to indicate levels of language skills, so that it can be said that such a person knows more than one language asfirst or second language level. Mother tongue or native can also be misleading ,regardless of their definitions.It is quite possible that the mother tongue learned is no longer a speaker's dominant language, as in the case of of most Igbo indigenes, whose families have moved to a new linguistic environment, may lose, in part or in totality, the language they first acquired.

Mother tongue should not be interpreted to mean that it is the language of one's mother.In some paternal societies, the wife moves in with the husband and thus,may have a different first language or dialect, than the local language of the husband.Yet their children usually speak their language.Only a few will learn to speak their mother's language like native dialect.

Nevertheless, in the contemporary Nigeria, many youths have replaced their mother tongue with the English language,which is a borrowed language from our colonial masters, while others have become so conversant with the ever popular English lingo,otherwise known as pidgin English.I think the misconception of teaching our children English language as the first language should be corrected, so that our children would learn to appreciate their mother tongue.

If urgent measures are not taken perhaps in the nearest future, English language will take the place of our mother tongue.It is amazing how fast many Nigerians want to do away with their mother tongue.
Hopefully, it won't get to that extend whereby English will replace our mother tongue.
However, this ought not to be so because the mother tongue is our heritage and we should therefore guide it.There is need for a conscientious efforts by all stakeholders in preserving our mother tongue.Better orientation needs to be given to our youths on the benefits of preserving our mother tongue and passing it to generations yet unborn.

The home is the first point of call for a national effort in preserving our heritage.So the parents owe it as a point of duty to keep their children abreast with their mother tongue .Migration should not be an excuse to bastardize our native dialect rather it should be an avenue for propagating our mother tongue and possibly turning it into one of the international languages being spoken around the world.

President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has reacted to the judgement of the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal, saying he welcomed with humility and gratitude to God Almighty from whom all power and authority come, the affirmation by the tribunal that he was duly elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria by the majority of votes lawfully cast in the presidential election of April 21, 2007.The President is gratified that the Tribunal unanimously confirmed his avowed belief that the acknowledged imperfections notwithstanding, he was the winner of the presidential poll, which was conducted in substantial compliance with all relevant laws. He thanked Nigerians who have remained steadfast in their support for his administration as it strives to fulfill its mandate for positive and significant changes in the living conditions of all citizens. The President urged his two valiant opponents in the election who petitioned against its outcome to accept the verdict in goodfaith. His invitation for them to cooperate with him in moving Nigeria forward remains and he calls on them to accept it now in the greater interest of the country. He reaffirms his total commitment to serving Nigeria to the best of his abilities and running a purposeful and result-oriented administration that will yield tangible and visible benefits for Nigerians. The President also reaffirms his commitment to working with all stakeholders to fully address the problems associated with past elections in the country and achieve a positive reformation of Nigeria's electoral system that will ensure that the problems do not re-occur in future. Meanwhile reactions have begun to trail the ruling from all over the country and beyond.

The fact that the Niger Delta region that produces this revenue is one of the poorest regions in the world may be news especially to Nigerians, majority of whom, outside the Niger Delta do not know the situation on the ground. The Niger Deltans out of frustration have resolved to control their own resources (and rightly so) and they are called militants. If demanding what is rightly yours makes you a militant, then should it not be so? Imagine if this crude oil was in Northern Nigeria, will ‘Derivation’ (Resource Control) not be a major factor in revenue sharing in Nigeria.I have decided, wherever possible, to pictorially present my opinions on the Nigerian situation, for a picture represents a thousand words, it graphically brings home to readers the real situation, as it is, on the ground. The real deal.Dear readers below are pictorial representation of the situation in Niger Delta today (Courtesy of BBC Online and www.unitedijawstates.com), the goose that lay the Nigerian golden eggs that are squandered hundreds of miles away from where the goose lays. This is what the Niger Deltans are fighting against and in demanding’ rightly’ for what is rightly theirs, they are called ‘militants’.