Reflections on our response to Nigerians caught up in crisis-prone areas
Fighting recently broke out in Sudan, which has been plagued with war for a long time. There have been explosions, airstrikes, and gunfire in the capital, Khartoum and other major cities leaving citizens to flee to the hinterland and foreigners almost stranded. The fight is between two key personalities who are hellbent on taking over control of the country.
Amid this fighting are different nationals from across the world including many Nigerians, mainly students. When the news of the fighting broke out, it didn’t immediately occur to me that there would be a significant number of Nigerians in Sudan: “Who goes to Sudan for anything?” was my first thought. Imagine my surprise when I read a news article about Nigerian students in Sudan seeking evacuation. It was at that point that it occurred to me that we had been down this road before, one too many times.
In 2019, there was a wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa and Nigerians were a major target. Many resident Nigerians called out to the government to be evacuated before official action was taken to repatriate interested citizens. A few years later, in 2021, some Nigerians living in Afghanistan had to call for evacuation after the Taliban took over the country as they were unsure of their safety. The Nigerian government eventually evacuated citizens from Afghanistan. I also remember there were some desperate calls by Nigerians residing in China during the early days of the covid-19 pandemic. If you think these have happened only in recent times, then you need to also know that similar things have happened at other times and as far back as the Liberian and Sierra Leonian civil wars in the 90s.
Thinking about how Nigeria has responded to citizen evacuation from crisis-prone areas made me remember the movie Argo (released in 2012). Argo was based on real-life events documenting how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States conceptualised a fake science-fiction movie project to rescue American diplomats who were caught up in riots in Tehran, Iran in 1979.
The CIA set up a fake production company, got a Hollywood make-up artist and a movie producer, and embarked on a visible publicity drive to publicise their forthcoming sci-fi movie named “Argo”. The CIA operative in charge created fake identities (together with new facial features) for the American diplomats they were planning to rescue and flew into Tehran ostensibly to perform a recce ahead of the proposed film shoot.
The American diplomats had been camped at the Canadian Ambassador’s house after escaping from their embassy. They were quite wary of the plan but had no choice but to go along. Posing as Canadian filmmakers, they left the residence for the first time since their hiding and went with the CIA operative to “scout locations” as part of activities to build their cover before escaping. They were eventually able to escape from Tehran, by a whisker, flying on a commercial flight from the Tehran airport.
What stood out the most for me was the response of the American government. They spared no plan or expense in ensuring their people were rescued from a foreign land where they had no direct control. Granted they did cross some diplomatic lines, however, it could be seen that this was done to ensure the safety of their citizens. No two guesses as to why they are renowned for protecting their citizens in foreign lands.
One of the reasons many people aspire to live the American dream is because they know that irrespective of whatever happens, the United States of America will never leave a citizen behind. They will go to as many lengths as required to ensure that they rescue their people from whatever situation they need to be saved from.
In October 2020, US special forces conducted a rescue operation for an American citizen who had been abducted from Niger Republic where he had a farm and taken to northern Nigeria. Several of his abductors were killed in the process with no loss of life to the American rescuers. In addressing that issue, the then US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said: “The United States is committed to the safe return of all US citizens taken captive. We delivered on that commitment late last night in Nigeria … We will never abandon any American taken hostage.” They launched a rescue mission to save one person? I don’t know if there was more to the man who was rescued, irrespective, he got saved. Why wouldn’t Americans be a proud bunch?
The Federal Government has finally made arrangements to evacuate the Nigerians in Sudan by bus to Egypt, a journey of over 50 hours, from where they would be airlifted to Nigeria. This could only happen now as a 72-hour ceasefire was declared by the warring parties. Why did the Nigerian students have to cry out to be rescued before any action had been taken? I stand to be corrected but before that cry for help, there had been no indication that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was planning to conduct an evacuation considering the number of Nigerians in that country. Why does it appear that Nigerians always have to lead the call to be removed from crisis-prone areas when the government should be on top of things? While pointing out that evacuation missions appear to very often be reactive, it would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that the Nigerian government has also been proactive in a few instances. And the government has shown up in every situation where Nigerians needed rescuing from conflict areas, albeit delayed in some instances.
By now, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nigerians in the Diaspora Commission (since it appears they are a bit more responsive than the ministry) should have a protocol in place for situations like this. Waiting for the Federal Government to constitute a committee to manage evacuations is simply just a waste of time. We should treat such events as national emergencies and have a ready-to-activate plan. Which government agencies are involved or should be involved? What resources are needed and what expenses are required? Is help needed from non-government players and if so, how can that help be requisitioned? Granted these events don’t happen often but if the life of every Nigerian citizen is important, this type of response will go a long way to proving to Nigerians that they are citizens of a nation that respects and values them.
I am hoping that we can learn from this instance and put appropriate measures in place so we aren’t caught napping when our people need to be brought home. We can do it if we set our minds to it, this is the way I see things today.