The headline ‘Why Nigerian Passport Is Nearly Not Worth The Paper It Was Printed’ is a polite way of saying ‘Why Nigerian Passport is almost useless in the eyes of the majority of the countries in the world’, The doubting Tomases should watch a previous programme of Mrs Halima Umar of TRT Africa Hausa, where the ‘experts’ explain the why.

Mrs. Halima Umar disclosed that a report by Henly and partners, who conducted a global survey on national passports, ranked the Nigerian passport as the number 12th weakest, above only 11 passports in the world, and the sixth least powerful in Africa. The Nigerian passport would enable the holder to travel to ONLY 45 countries in the world without a visa.

But for the non expert like me, the simple answer may be the alleged corruption that is said to be pervasive. The experts are united in the belief that almost every Nigerian is unfortunately part of that  unedifying journey. I am talking about the journey to the present position of infamy, brought by the mentality of ‘get rich quick’ which has become entrenched among us. That mentality appears to be responsible for the craze to accumulate money anyhow, in our country. The ‘anyhow’ includes human sacrifice and other evil things for the acquisition of great riches.

This mentality  did not start today, it developed and grew up over the years, because I happened to be a victim of cheating by a fellow Nigerian in a far away London, England, in the early eighties.

One morning I went to the bank where I maintained an account with the intention to collect my scholarship grant. The deposit was made a day earlier. To my shock and somewhat surprise, the bank told me that not only did I not have any money in my account, but that I had overdrawn with some thousands of pounds.

When I told the manager and remained adamant that I never came to the bank when I was sure my account held no money, which then as now, was often, they threatened ‘to invite’ the police to investigate the matter. With much anger, I replied that I myself would go to the police if the bank failed to report the matter to the police.

When I returned the following day with the leaflet of my cheque, which I produced the previous day, I told the manager that since no police officers came to me yesterday the bank should give me the money or I would report to the police myself. The manager politely told me to go and present the cheque to any of the Tellers in the bank, and I went to the one who was familiar with my case.

The lady Teller requested for my cheque, and when I presented it to her, she said it belonged to my old check book. I replied that I had long made an application for a new one, since it was then the rule that one must apply for a new cheque book when the current one had only five leaflets left.

She then told me that the withdrawal, which was more than what was in the account, was made with the ‘new cheque book’ the bank had mailed to me three weeks earlier. That was another shock to yours sincerely for learning that the bank had sent me the cheque book three weeks ago. She held the cheque leaflet and requested me to come back (again) the following day.

When I returned the following day, the Teller simply gave me the amount that was written on the leaflet that I gave her yesterday, but which remained with her. I asked if the case was unraveled and the ‘thief’ caught’ she smiled and answered in the negative. Then why are you giving me the money?, I asked her. She replied that the bank was sure I was innocent of the offence because my name suggested that I was a northerner in Nigeria. She added that the manager of the bank had worked in Nigeria and knew the people who were capable of such dishonesty.

Some months later, the teller told me that the bank had apprehended the ‘criminal’ as he went to do another withdrawal with a stolen leaflet. Although she refused to disclose the name of the culprit, she only told me that “our suspicion of the area where the offender might have come from was proven right”.

Some Nigerians living abroad involve themselves in all manner of criminal activities where, in some instances, innocent compatriots who were involved in the very serious crimes or intended criminal acts, get arrested in foreign lands. Unknown to them, they are callously used as carriers of banned items into the foreign countries.

Such crimes include, but not limited to, illicit drug trafficking, human trafficking, offences that are punishable with either a death penalty or death sentence in most foreign countries.

The callous deliberate involvement of innocent travelers usually takes all the persuasion of the foreign missions to secure the release of the criminal’ or the transfer of the cases to Nigeria. In cases where the Nigerian foreign mission fails, the unlucky innocent victim will get the maximum prison sentence for such crimes, or even the hangman’s noose in places such as Saudi Arabia, China, USA, UK, Mexico, Malaysia, to name just a few.

The so called advisory regularly issued by some western countries to their people living abroad is often a diversionary gesture to deliberately hide their active instigation of violence in places they want to prop up their stooges as leaders. The supposed current ‘nationwide strike’ was exactly sponsored by some foreign foes to bring Nigeria completely on its knees. We will never forget the ‘fallen’ countries or what remains of them when the sponsored anarchy is over. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, etc.

At times, the advisories appear to succeed because of the greed for power and money of unpatriotic citizens, many of whom live outside the land and foment trouble from the confines of their foreign bases.

It may appear superfluous to ask those living abroad and conniving with the foreigners to bring down the government in their own country of birth, to leave Nigeria alone, and test their ‘popularity’ by contesting elections in the land of their adoption as other responsible Nigerians living in foreign lands do. They contest and win elections there, but do not encourage or even call for the violent change of government in other countries.

Some people fear that the nationwide strike could be high jacked by Nigeria’s enemies. To them I say it was not started by the friends of Nigeria, but its enemies, who sponsored unpatriotic Nigerians, who came in the garb of campaigners of ‘reforms’.

No serious government would allow a rented crowd, made up of disgruntled elements as well as groups of criminals, run the country down for the sponsors of the infamy to pick up the spoils.

And the Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu led government is definitely not an unserious one, given all it has done and is doing to address many of the issues raised by the protesters.

As the ‘TableShaker’ once said in his X page, that the western countries and organisations who sponsor those who want the total destruction of Nigeria would not want Nigeria and organisations within the country to sponsor for their destruction. Nigeria will therefore, never allow them or any country to burn it down.

I respect Reno Omokri for his courage to stand up and speak the truth even in the face of insults, which are often his reward. It is indeed very unfortunate for any compatriot, wherever they may live, to wish for the burning of their country of origin, least of all those who want to rule it. That desire should not be at all cost.

And they will not succeed in destroying Nigeria by the grace of Allah, no matter who tries it and how many times they may try.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Abuja.