By Hamza Idris
A recent visit by this reporter to some cities in Saudi Arabia uncovers moving stories about thousands of people from Nigeria, including agile men and women, the elderly and children, who are living in that part of the world.
While many of them live dignified lives after obtaining residential and or work permits from the relevant authorities, others live a pathetic life, full of worries and uncertainties , even as they maintain a strange 'cat and mouse' relationship with the Saudi Askars (police, customs and immigration officials).
These immigrants are known as 'Takari', and while in Saudi Arabia, they engage in all sorts of work to earn a living, some honourable, and others disgusting and totally unacceptable.
While many of them claimed they left the shores of Nigeria because of dwindling economic fortunes here, other, especially women, 'escaped' from this country for many other reasons, though most of them plausible.
Even the original Saudi people attest that Nigeria is a great country, and that if governed by honest people, it can compete with any country.
Findings also reveal that the Saudi people love associating themselves with the rare ingenuity of Nigerians, especially those that have genuine reason to live in Saudi Arabia.
They also hate with passion, those Nigerians that are living in Saudi Arabia without cogent reasons. The Saudis (indigenes of Saudi Arabia) see this category of people as parasites, and to a certain extent, a nuisance.
"Oh! Nigeria is a great country naturally endowed with much human and natural potential. It has fertile land for agriculture, it has oil, its people are exceptionally brilliant, and the country also has great footballers," Muhammad Sa'ad, an engineer and an indigene of Makkah, told this reporter.
"It will interest you to know that many Nigerians are teachers in our universities and they are authorities in their fields. Others are working in oil companies and diplomatic missions, and are contributing to the rapid development of this country," Sa'ad added.
The story of Ibrahim Baba from Kano State and Ahmed Abdullahi from Zaria, who are now teaching in one of the higher institutions in Dammam (a city 1000km away from Makkah) tells the story of how some Nigerians can be good ambassadors of their country.
This reporter met Ibrahim and Ahmed along with their wives in Mecca, shortly after they completed their farewell circuits in the Grand Mosque, after this year's hajj.
"I read Mass Communication at Bayero University Kano, and taught English Language as a temporary staff in a secondary school in Bauchi State, for about seven years.
"Along the line, I obtained a post graduate diploma in education (English) and that was the beginning of positive stories about my life," Ibrahim recalled.
He said shortly after he collected his results, experts from Saudi Arabia came to Bauchi in search of English teachers. "I went for the interview and passed... there was no stress at all, and before long they sent my appointment letter, a visa, air ticket and a package of entitlements, including a furnished two bedroom apartment. I am now in my third year in Dammam," Ibrahim said proudly.
Dr Amina Ibrahim is a medical doctor from Nigeria working in a public hospital in Jeddah. "I have been in Saudi Arabia for more than five years, and life is better and more rewarding here because there are equipment for excellent medical practice," she said.
Asked why she was not practicing in Nigeria, Dr Amina said: "There are no incentives for us to actualize our potentials in Nigerian hospitals."
While Amina's reasons may be justified, there are other Nigerians that are 'working' endlessly to drag the image of this country in the mud. They are the illegal immigrants who went to Saudi Arabia for the purpose of Hajj or Umra, but surreptitiously absconded as soon as they were through with spiritual activities.
This reporter saw many women 'faking disability' to beg for alms from pilgrims, even though they are hale and hearty. Some of them pretend that they are blind, while in actual sense, they can see.
Nana Isa (55) from Funtua is one of the fake blind beggars and was not remorseful when asked why she was lying in Mecca, the most sacred city for the Muslims.
"I want money to take care of my orphans in Nigeria, and begging is a good strategy here," she said.
Nana's case is better when compared with what Hadiza Usman (34) does. She is into 'trafficking' young boys and girls from Nigeria to the Holy Land, and deploys them on the streets to beg and remit the proceeds to her.
Her 'method' is that early in the morning, she will ask the boys and girls to fold their hands around their heads. She will use a rope to tie the hands and cover everywhere with cloth with the exception of the elbow which protrudes, thereby creating the impression that the hands were amputated, probably as a result of war or accident.
The scenario portrayed by the children who sit by roadsides, crying profusely without reason, always attracts the attention of passers- by to give them alms.
However, not all the pilgrims are being deceived by this act. A man from Pakistan who wanted to give alms to a young girl with 'chopped limbs' was discouraged by his wise friend. "Don't mind the Nigerian girl...her condition is intact," the friend said, and moved close to the girl and removed the concealed hands.
While it is a thing of joy to have children, Nigerian women in Saudi Arabia always abuse the privilege by giving birth to many children and using "God's gift" as an opportunity to beg.
It is very common to see a woman with five children, whose age's range between 2 month and six years, sitting by the road side, exposing the children to the sun and all sorts of dangers, for the purpose of begging.
Some women who do not want to be seen begging sit at home and send their children to the streets to hawk water, dates, sealed Zam-zam (sacred water) and other commodities.
"My question is how are they getting the children?" Habibu Haske, a pilgrim from Yobe State asked.
Investigations by this reporter show that most of the women arrange marriages with their immigrant male counterparts, on the condition that both parties would remain relatively independent when it comes to searching for money.
Other women cook and sell Nigerian foods for pilgrims. It is very common to see 'Tuwon Shinkafa or semovita'; 'Fura da Nono'; 'Danwanke'; 'Amala'; 'fried meat' (tsire) and many Nigeria dishes, being sold on the streets of Mecca, Jeddah and Madina, albeit in an unhygienic condition.
The older women on the other hand pick worn out cloth (Gumama) from the dust bins of the Saudis, wash and sell them to visiting pilgrims, or alternatively sell grains to the pilgrims , who in turn feed 'sacred pigeons with it.
Some streets in Mecca such as Kidiway, Shar Mansur and Shar Sittin are direct reflections of what obtains in Fagge area of Kano State,or Sabo area in Ibadan ,because you will hardly see any coloured skin or the Saudis.
The areas are basically inhabited by Nigerians, and their attitude is always a source of worry.
This year, Saudi authorities claimed that indiscriminate commercial cooking by Nigerian immigrants, was responsible for perennial fire outbreaks, and therefore directed that pilgrims' boards must make special arrangements for the feeding of their people in Mina and Arafat. That notwithstanding, the immigrants invaded the places and cooked.
The strange attitude by Nigerians is not restricted to the immigrants alone, even those that went strictly for the hajj or umra always give officials a tough time.
The issue of handling luggages of Nigerians by Saudi customs and airliners, including various state pilgrims boards has remained problematic.
Under the present arrangement, each pilgrim is entitled to a 40kg bag of luggage. Airline officials collect it in Mecca to ease problems of congestion at the airport.
Each pilgrim is also entitled to another 10kg hand bag to be carried along to Jeddah airport. Unfortunately however, most pilgrims abuse this gesture.
A woman was seen at the screening area with about five different bags. She tied one on her back as though it were a baby, put the actual 10kg bag on her head and a small one on top of it, tied another one on her tummy, used her right hand to drag a box on a trolley, and carried a four litre gallon containing Zam-zam in her left hand.
The '10kg' bag that one Alhaji from Zamfara state carried to the airport was also mind boggling. Several attempts by immigration officials to push the bag through the forensic machine were not successful.
At the end, they had to ask the Alhaji to remove the contents of the bag one after the other, a development which caused serious delays for other passengers waiting to be screened.
"The attitude of Nigerians on all fronts is a serious diplomatic challenge for the government and must be checked immediately," Mamman Mohammed of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who was also a pilgrim, observed.
He observed that people from around the world are found in Saudi Arabia, but that Nigerians are always different. "Nigerians that are doing the right thing are always the best in their endeavours, and the case is the same with those that are perpetrating illegalities," he added.
In a quoted interview, the former Nigerian ambassador to Saudi Arabia Alhaji Ibrahim Kazaure described as "worrisome", the attitude of some Nigerians, especially those that indulge in "dishonourable" activities, which prompts the Saudi Authorities to catch, remand them in prison custody , and later repatriate them back to Nigeria.
On the other hand, an official of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) says mobile courts will soon be introduced to try pilgrims who violate the policy on luggage.
NAHCON's North West Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Salisu Ado Shinkafi observed that most delays being experienced during the airlift of pilgrims back to Nigeria, was because the pilgrims arrive the airport with multiple hand luggages against the approved 10kg bag.
The life of Nigerians in Saudi Arabia is therefore an intriguing story, even as many people believe that not all the atrocities being committed there are by Nigerians.
"The truth is that whatever a black man or woman does here, he or she is seen as a Nigerian, but there are many blacks from Niger, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Sudan and many other African countries," Ahmed Tijjani, a Nigerian resident in Mecca observed.
Source: AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com.
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