Chief Michael Emeka Onwuchelu is the current president of the Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire. He is the Chief Executive Officer of Mike Anthonio Pieces Auto. He is into the spare parts business. He spoke with some journalists from Nigeria and yours sincerely represented NewsHunters. Excerpts:
What was the reason for leaving Nigeria for Cote d’ivoire?
My reason for leaving Nigeria in 1992 is looking for greener pastures. I was doing my business in Nigeria, to be precise, Nnewi, Anambra State. I learnt a trade in Nnewi town, shortly after that time, things started becoming difficult. We couldn’t compete with those that are financially buoyant.
I had a contact that I used very well, that made me want to come to this place. I actually have a friend that is also my mentor, Mr. Tony Okeke, who loves me so much and would want to see me succeed. He was the one that connected me with his Ivorian customers, so that is the way I left Nigeria to Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Has it been better, since leaving Nigeria for this place?
Well, from the side of the business, I am ok. Since I set my feet here, apart from business, life has been so easy. You will enjoy the little money that you have and you will enjoy peace of mind and security is two-four-seven (24hours), guaranteed. Where I was living then, you will get into your house without locking your doors and everybody sleeps comfortably, nothing like gates there but as time goes on, things start changing but changing is not like not that it changes from good to worst but as time goes on, people start knowing what they don’t know before. Cote d’ivoire has been a country that anyone that comes wants to stay and I am sure some of you would like to stay back if not for your jobs.
When was the last time you experienced power failure?
We don’t experience power failure here. When we had the issue of power failure, was when the Ivorian government or electricity company was trying to upgrade from where they are to another level. And later they built a new power plant, since then we have not had a power outage, that is about three years ago.
And it happened like two months, since then we don’t know what is called power failure. But there are some areas where there may be issues of electricity maybe they want to do repairs but before then, they will send a message to your phone and they may also send a message across the radio stations, that, this section they are going to carry out repairs and they will like to do it when everyone must have gone to their places of work, like 9.00am and before 4.00pm, they are through. This also applies to water repairs, before they cut water, they will send information across. This is done concurrently, sending text messages to your phone, so that no one says he is not aware.
Our fellow brothers here don’t seem to recognise you as the president of Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire?
No, I am the president of Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire, officially the only elected president of the Nigerian community here in Cote d’Ivoire.
Can you tell us how that came about?
The Nigerian community started in 1974, and the people that started it, did it with good intentions but along the line, those that took over had a different agenda. They started seeing the Nigerian community in a way of exploiting Nigerians. Some of them were bringing Nigerians here for prostitution and this time around, it has gone wild. There came a day in 2017, the then Ambassador Isa (may his soul rest in peace), said No! And that the intention of the Nigerian community is not for human trafficking and luring our children into prostitution.
He then dissolved the Central Working Executive in 2017. He said the population of Nigerians in Cote d’ivoire is up to a certain country, that we needed a credible person, and we needed to do election, we needed to conduct election, so that a president will be elected democratically with its executives. Then it didn’t take long, the man passed on, so he couldn’t achieve his aim.
Then later, his successor started making frantic move but the pressure from some individuals was too much hence she couldn’t conduct the election. And we stayed for many years without an ambassador, but then, we had a wonderful Consul by name, Damilola Olufemi Adegoye. He took over from the then Consul in 2020. He now said we need to organize elections, the reason is that the job to render assistance to Nigerians and also heading the diplomatic staff in succeeding in their job, might be too much, because we may have problems in Abuazo, the border between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, and we may have problems in Abidjan, on the northern side, eastern or western side.
The staff of the embassy might not be able to handle that, that was the reason why they came together to create the Nigerian community, which always helps them to intervene in any Nigerian who is passing through any problem. Then later on, the problems of Nigerians became too much. Abikoye said then that we need to do what is right not minding what it will cost us. He helped to conduct the election, in collaboration with the Nigerian community, which I happened to emerge the president. I was elected on the 29th of May, 2021. Meanwhile, there are problems that are facing Nigerians, and the one that is pertinent is the issue of human trafficking.
In a day, you would see about 10 to 15 persons running out of the ghetto where they hold them hostage. There are other problems that we have in the Nigerian community amongst Nigerians here in Cote d’Ivoire. We found out that one is another way of serving God and serving humanity. Firstly, we need to save the lives of these innocent Nigerians but you know it is a business that they have been into for so many years and to break it is not an easy thing. Some of these girls were promised lucrative jobs. They promised them jobs in boutiques, where they will be paid a huge sum of money like N50,000, a girl that has not been getting N10,000, you promise her such an amount, she will definitely grab such an offer. So these are the ways they leave Nigeria, come here and find themselves inside the forest where they are doing mining. So it becomes a serious case that needs urgent intervention.
Most Nigerian government officials do come here, liaison with the Ivorian government and return. They would not go deep down to know what happened and what the real problems of Nigerians are. They will come and will not come and meet the Nigerian community on what problems they are facing. Honestly speaking, it is not that the problems are coming from a particular state, the Deltans are there, the Edos are there, Benue people, the whole Ibos are involved. This time around, the Calabars, Kogis, Akwa-Iboms, you will see them in batches, up till this moment from 2021 May. Nigerian community under my care has succeeded in repatriating 730,000 Nigerian girls back to Nigeria.
The Nigerian embassy usually issues Messe Passe to those residing in the country and we have some of their documents in our care. All these things started during the time of COVID and you know there were a lot of restrictions during that period. A lot of them, their transportation was like 250,000 to 300,000. For me, those are our major problems that are very difficult to solve but without the intervention of the federal government of Nigeria, it will be difficult. The embassy and all the ambassadors that have been here have tried their best but their best weren’t enough to solve the problems completely and the way they are operating this time around is that some of the people are not coming on their own.
What they do is that they have agents that recruit some of the girls from Nigeria, then, they do trans-loading. They would board a vehicle to Lagos, another one takes them to Cotonou, then Togo to Ghana and then to Abidjan. The government of this country has tried so much because when they come through the border, they intersect them. Most of them usually use the forest to get into the country.
To be continued…
