In Kuwait, Nigerians ‘are prized immigrants’

With Nigerians facing the challenges of accessing quality health care services from their own indigenous doctors, back home here, Kuwaitis are benefitting immensely from Nigerian doctors resident in the Gulf country.  The authorities in Kuwait once confirmed this. Former Kuwaiti Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Saad Abdalla Al-Asousi, told Weekly Trust in July this year said […]

With Nigerians facing the challenges of accessing quality health care services from their own indigenous doctors, back home here, Kuwaitis are benefitting immensely from Nigerian doctors resident in the Gulf country.  The authorities in Kuwait once confirmed this. Former Kuwaiti Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Saad Abdalla Al-Asousi, told Weekly Trust in July this year said that there are more than 350 Nigerians living in Kuwait and they work as Doctors in their hospitals, Professors in their Universities, together with students offered scholarship by the Kuwaiti government.
It is equally ironical that these Nigerian doctors are priceless jewels against the notion back home here that Nigerians abroad are majorly into one crime or the other. But hear what Al-Asousi said on the Nigerians living in Kuwait: “They are well cultured and mannered; they play a big role in our society”, but he said the reason they are doing fine is because “they found Kuwait to be a suitable place and a home away from home.”
 Of course, there have been reported cases of Nigerians in different parts of the world especially Europe and United States engaging in prostitution, drug peddling, cyber and other forms of stealing, the activities of the Nigerian community in Kuwait are a sharp contrast to all these. Probabay, this could be how Kuwait laws are.
According to one of the leaders of the Nigerian community in the state of Kuwait, Engr. Joe Eneh, working with the US Army Core of Engineers, Camp Arifjan Kuwait, said that there are about five hundred Nigerians living in Kuwait and all are highly respected because of their contribution to the country, carriage and comportment.
 “We are sure, Your Excellency” referring to Vice President Namadi Sambo who led a delegation to the 3rd Afro-Arab Summit in Kuwait recently, “would like to know what the Nigerian community is also doing in Kuwait in improving the image of Nigeria. As the saying goes, we should not only ask what our country can do for us, but that we can also do for our country.  In this respect, we are glad to inform you that Nigerians in Kuwait who number about 500 are mostly fully-employed highly-qualified professionals who enjoy a high reputation.
Many Kuwaitis prefer to queue up to be operated upon by Nigerian doctors than receive express service from doctors from other nationalities. We are also glad to inform you that there is no single Nigerian in detention in Kuwait except with one person whose plight has to do more with vengeance by his employer rather than committing a real crime associated with most Nigerians in other parts of the world and the Nigerian Embassy is already working on securing his immediate release,” Eneh said during a meeting of the Nigerian community in Kuwait with the Vice President.
Mr. Chidi Emmanuel, is the Editor of Kuwait Times, the first daily in the Arabian Gulf. “Majority of Nigerian professionals came in from the USA. Though it is difficult to secure the resident permit of Kuwait, but we are highly respected here,” Emmnuel said, adding that Nigerians are highly prized both professionals and domestic workers. “Kuwaitis will rather go for citizens of other countries as their domestic workers than hire a Nigerian because when nationals of countries are paid between 40 and 60 Kuwait Dinar (equivalent of N23,880 to N35,820) Nigerians will be paid between 100 and 120 Kuwait Dinar (N59, 700 to N71,640) he explained.
The respect and trust for Nigerians in Kuwait continues in spite of the challenges many of them faced after the assassination of Gen. Murtala in 1976.
Nigeria Supervising Minister of Foreign Affairs, Prof. Viola Onwuliri, told Weekly Trust in Kuwait that “Murtala’s assassination affected most Nigerians in most part of the world especially in Kuwait where some Nigerians who were working with some international organizations were laid off as security personnel. Before now, Nigerians and Ghanaians were the most trusted to be in the security outfit in Kuwait, but immediately the Murtala issue happened they reportedly laid them off and these people are still not being employed up till now and one of them was the driver attached to me. 
Kuwaitis are more friendly and feel at home with Nigerians wherever they meet them either as a permanent resident in their country or as a visitor. Nigerian students in Kuwait universities are on scholarships.
The community assured Nigeria that they will continue to keep their flag flying high with reputation and dignity. In this respect, they urged the Embassy to encourage the Nigerian community to inform it of any Nigerian indulging in 419, human trafficking and similar offences that will dent their collective image.
They then called on the Nigerian government to empower the Embassy to deal with these crimes.   
This group also draws Nigeria government attention to some fundamental concerns that affect their well being, dignity and reputation in Kuwait.
Among these concerns are need for e-passport machine to be installed in the embassy, as new born babies and those in need of re-issue have to travel back to Nigeria, negotiation with the Kuwait government to lift the compulsory medical test being imposed on Nigerians every time they want to renew their residency, periodic consular assistance of fund as well as re-branding of Nigeria’s image in Kuwait by deploying information attaché to counter the negative image of Nigeria in the media.
They also called on the government not to forget them in its Nigerians in Diaspora programme including allocation of land in Abuja and offering other similar incentives, in appointments like those in western countries.
Nigerians in Kuwait would like to be included in Nigeria Pilgrims Commissions and want salaries of political office holders cut down among other things.
In spite of their efforts to project Nigeria in good ways, they believed that the Nigerian government is lagging behind in having multifaceted bilateral relations with Kuwait despite the long presence of its embassy in Kuwait dating back to 1980. They asked for many more functional bilateral agreements that could bring benefit to Nigeria.
The questions on the lips of these exciting Nigerians are, are all negative reports about Nigerians and the country true, and who says Nigerians are not good people?