TIMES are hard. But even as the socio-economic and political situation
in the country seems to be driving many insane, many are doing more crazy and
desperate things to get out of the mire.
As the quest for greener pastures abroad burns, almost irresistibly, in many youths' minds, many young, unemployed Nigerian graduates are ready to part with even an arm and limb to secure residence abroad. Where, in their expectation, they can live meaningful life.
However, investigation by the Nigerian Compass on Sunday has revealed that the road to the Eldorado is, put mildly, laced with more thorns than roses.
Recently, a young, adventurous and ambitous Nigerian, Nmezi Obinna Stanley, returned from his second journey to Israel en-route Egypt through the desert with sordid tales.
He had gone in quest of the proverbial Golden Fleece. But his experience reminds one of the bravery and heroic characters in the fictional world of the late D.O. Fagunwa’s 'Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Eledumare.' From his tales, it is obvious that anyone who wants to seek economic survival abroad must look before he leaps.
He recalled his experience more like in the manner of advising those who crave to venture to think twice.
His words: “It is good to be adventurous. It is also wise to aspire for a soft- landing in one's life. It is an experience that mars or makes one's destiny. One has to combine carefulness with resort to divine intervention before venturing into such a deal. If these things are not in place, it may be a journey of no return.
“I travelled to Israel through the desert of Sinai. It was not the plan here in Nigeria before I left. I never knew that the journey was to be made through the back door. My fantasies were beclouded, and realities of life became evident in me when I saw myself in this place of torment, the desert of Sinai.
“The plane landed in Cairo, Egypt, which was assumed to be my transit point before continuing on my journey to the Holy Land. In my passport, they stamped a two-week stay in Egypt. After scaling the airport protocols, we were received and driven in a car by two Egyptians and one Nigerian to a three-bedroom apartment within Cairo metropolis. We stayed comfortably for seven days in Cairo. We were taken for shopping, a trip to Shameslick and other tourist areas.
“The promise to make it to Israel the next two days after arrival at the airport was placed with all these excitements.
“After six days of fruitless wait, our dream seemed to come true on the seventh day. It was around 9.00pm that we got a phone call to come at a mentioned point in Cairo to be taken to Israel. Fully excited, our hopelessness renewed, we went to the said point at the exact time. After an hour wait, we saw, to our chagrin, a pick-up van belonging to an advertising and marketing company; the type of vans used for goods delivery with two Egyptians in front of it.
They stopped beside us, asked certain questions to confirm that we are the passengers before they took us. Other passengers from Ghana, Guinea, Mali and so on joined this golden trip to Israel. It dawned on us that it was the only available means of going to the Promised Land. We had no other alternative than to yield to this generous offer.
“All the passengers were stuffed and packed like iced fish in the delivery van from Cairo enroute Desert of Sinai. It was an eight-hour drive from Cairo to the desert of Sinai. The journey was painstaking, sweaty and humiliating. Thank God, we got to the desert narrowly without any arrest or being cornered by any security operative.
“We were let in, in a shaft built with rafters by the traffickers. Nothing in the shaft attracted our attention apart from six-spring foams decorated with old, dirty winter blankets. Also, in this shaft, we saw some other passengers from Russia, Turkey, Romania, Sudan and Eritea that had stayed for a very long time. You can tell that from their looks.
“The desert is an open, barren and isolated area. It is blank, lifeless but filled with sand dunes. Abyss has eaten a lot of souls, tormented many and made some hopeless. Some passengers were either shot dead or buried to die in the sand dunes by eagle-eyed military officers of Egypt. Others were either tormented by the influx of parading demons or went abnormal as a result of the intake of their urine as a substitute for water. It was a very pathetic, if not disheartening, scenario.
“The people in Israel spent 430 days in the desert of Sinai before the passage to the Promised Land. I spent 100 days in this horrible and hopeless world before I entered Israel. Within the period, my food had been rice once or twice everyday. I couldn’t have my bath and there was nowhere to pass faeces for fear of being seen or spotted by anyone. We made six attempts to the border area to see if we could make it, but we failed.
“Our visas had already expired in the desert, so we were faced with no retreat, no surrender. The chances of going back to Cairo were quite remote, as this would take us to an Egyptian underground prison. So, it was either we stay or die in the desert or wait patiently for the day fate would take us through.
“Many of us took to holiness. We read the Bible, Good Book, from Genesis through Revelation; prayed and fasted; preached to ourselves and sang songs of praise. Our hopelessness, dehumanization and emptiness became vain fantasies on the day we made the seventh attempt to the border area. It was a miracle; no soldier, no Police, no security agent.
It was only the cutting of security barbwire by our Egyptian aids; and the crossing of the road that demarcated the two strained friends. God took us to the Promised Land on Eagle's wings. Just like that.
That night, I slept very soundly, forgetting the hypnotism and attacks that characterised the day before the night. It was the fresh morning breeze and the Eastern sun that woke me up in the morning. I suddenly saw the ants around me which seemed to tell me: You ain't seen anything yet.”
As the quest for greener pastures abroad burns, almost irresistibly, in many youths' minds, many young, unemployed Nigerian graduates are ready to part with even an arm and limb to secure residence abroad. Where, in their expectation, they can live meaningful life.
However, investigation by the Nigerian Compass on Sunday has revealed that the road to the Eldorado is, put mildly, laced with more thorns than roses.
Recently, a young, adventurous and ambitous Nigerian, Nmezi Obinna Stanley, returned from his second journey to Israel en-route Egypt through the desert with sordid tales.
He had gone in quest of the proverbial Golden Fleece. But his experience reminds one of the bravery and heroic characters in the fictional world of the late D.O. Fagunwa’s 'Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Eledumare.' From his tales, it is obvious that anyone who wants to seek economic survival abroad must look before he leaps.
He recalled his experience more like in the manner of advising those who crave to venture to think twice.
His words: “It is good to be adventurous. It is also wise to aspire for a soft- landing in one's life. It is an experience that mars or makes one's destiny. One has to combine carefulness with resort to divine intervention before venturing into such a deal. If these things are not in place, it may be a journey of no return.
“I travelled to Israel through the desert of Sinai. It was not the plan here in Nigeria before I left. I never knew that the journey was to be made through the back door. My fantasies were beclouded, and realities of life became evident in me when I saw myself in this place of torment, the desert of Sinai.
“The plane landed in Cairo, Egypt, which was assumed to be my transit point before continuing on my journey to the Holy Land. In my passport, they stamped a two-week stay in Egypt. After scaling the airport protocols, we were received and driven in a car by two Egyptians and one Nigerian to a three-bedroom apartment within Cairo metropolis. We stayed comfortably for seven days in Cairo. We were taken for shopping, a trip to Shameslick and other tourist areas.
“The promise to make it to Israel the next two days after arrival at the airport was placed with all these excitements.
“After six days of fruitless wait, our dream seemed to come true on the seventh day. It was around 9.00pm that we got a phone call to come at a mentioned point in Cairo to be taken to Israel. Fully excited, our hopelessness renewed, we went to the said point at the exact time. After an hour wait, we saw, to our chagrin, a pick-up van belonging to an advertising and marketing company; the type of vans used for goods delivery with two Egyptians in front of it.
They stopped beside us, asked certain questions to confirm that we are the passengers before they took us. Other passengers from Ghana, Guinea, Mali and so on joined this golden trip to Israel. It dawned on us that it was the only available means of going to the Promised Land. We had no other alternative than to yield to this generous offer.
“All the passengers were stuffed and packed like iced fish in the delivery van from Cairo enroute Desert of Sinai. It was an eight-hour drive from Cairo to the desert of Sinai. The journey was painstaking, sweaty and humiliating. Thank God, we got to the desert narrowly without any arrest or being cornered by any security operative.
“We were let in, in a shaft built with rafters by the traffickers. Nothing in the shaft attracted our attention apart from six-spring foams decorated with old, dirty winter blankets. Also, in this shaft, we saw some other passengers from Russia, Turkey, Romania, Sudan and Eritea that had stayed for a very long time. You can tell that from their looks.
“The desert is an open, barren and isolated area. It is blank, lifeless but filled with sand dunes. Abyss has eaten a lot of souls, tormented many and made some hopeless. Some passengers were either shot dead or buried to die in the sand dunes by eagle-eyed military officers of Egypt. Others were either tormented by the influx of parading demons or went abnormal as a result of the intake of their urine as a substitute for water. It was a very pathetic, if not disheartening, scenario.
“The people in Israel spent 430 days in the desert of Sinai before the passage to the Promised Land. I spent 100 days in this horrible and hopeless world before I entered Israel. Within the period, my food had been rice once or twice everyday. I couldn’t have my bath and there was nowhere to pass faeces for fear of being seen or spotted by anyone. We made six attempts to the border area to see if we could make it, but we failed.
“Our visas had already expired in the desert, so we were faced with no retreat, no surrender. The chances of going back to Cairo were quite remote, as this would take us to an Egyptian underground prison. So, it was either we stay or die in the desert or wait patiently for the day fate would take us through.
“Many of us took to holiness. We read the Bible, Good Book, from Genesis through Revelation; prayed and fasted; preached to ourselves and sang songs of praise. Our hopelessness, dehumanization and emptiness became vain fantasies on the day we made the seventh attempt to the border area. It was a miracle; no soldier, no Police, no security agent.
It was only the cutting of security barbwire by our Egyptian aids; and the crossing of the road that demarcated the two strained friends. God took us to the Promised Land on Eagle's wings. Just like that.
That night, I slept very soundly, forgetting the hypnotism and attacks that characterised the day before the night. It was the fresh morning breeze and the Eastern sun that woke me up in the morning. I suddenly saw the ants around me which seemed to tell me: You ain't seen anything yet.”
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