Travel News

By Sergio Goncalves

LISBON (Reuters) - Around 60 flights were cancelled at Lisbon airport on Sunday, the last day of a strike by handling workers that has brought more disruption to summer travel at Portugal's main airports since Friday, data from national airports operator ANA showed.

Employees of handling company Portway are demanding better holiday pay and more career progression. ANA's website showed 31 arrivals and 28 departures had been cancelled on Sunday at Lisbon, Portugal's busiest airport.

Pedro Figueiredo, spokesman for the National Union for Civil Aviation Workers (SINTAC), told Reuters that around 90% of Portway's ramp operations workers at Lisbon and Porto airports were taking part in the three-day strike.

SINTAC expects between 70 and 80 Lisbon flights to be cancelled on Sunday and 30 to 40 at Porto airport, he said.

ANA did not show any flight cancellations at Porto, Faro - which serves the tourism-dependent region of the Algarve - or Funchal on the island of Madeira.

"In the coming days, our union will evaluate the results of this strike and we may adopt news forms of fight," Figueiredo said, without elaborating on what they might be.

Handling workers assist airlines with baggage and also push planes onto the tarmac.

Scores of airport ground staff have protested across Europe this summer to demand higher pay to cushion the pain of rampant inflation, emboldened by booming demand for air travel and staff shortages after most COVID-19 restrictions were lifted.

Airlines are meanwhile grappling with soaring fuel prices and airspace closures related to the war in Ukraine.

The strike took place on one of the busiest weekends of the year, with foreign and Portuguese tourists still travelling for summer vacations.

Portway, which is owned by French group Vinci, said the "irresponsible" strike would jeopardise Portugal's tourism sector, which accounted for almost 15% of gross domestic product before the COVID-19 pandemic.

(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Catherine Evans)

Canadian airports continue to improve service levels as the summer travel season begins to wind down, with cancellations and delays declining at the country's busiest airports.

Transport Canada says that between Aug. 15 and Aug. 21, 168,812 passengers departed all Canadian airports, representing 83 per cent of pre-pandemic capacity levels.

At Canada's busiest airports – Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Calgary – 86 per cent of all flights left on time or within an hour of their scheduled departure in that week, an improvement from 75 per cent in the first week of July. During the same week in 2019, before the pandemic struck, 92 per cent of flights were on time or left within the hour, although capacity levels were higher.

Two per cent of scheduled flights at the country's busiest airports were cancelled in the third week of August, an improvement from 5 per cent of all flights in July. While that cancellation level is the same as in 2019, capacity levels in 2022 are still below pre-pandemic activity at Canadian airports. Both Air Canada and WestJet cut flights from their schedules in July and August and flew fewer passengers than in 2019.

While flight cancellations and delays improved from earlier this summer, the number of flights where passengers were held on board because of a lack of capacity in the airports crept up slightly. For the third week of August, two per cent – or 47 international flights – were held, all of those at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Although that is down significantly from the peak when 373 flights were held in the first week of May, it is above the four-week rolling average at Pearson Airport of 37 flights held per week.

A surge in travel demand this summer resulted in an increase in flight delays and cancellations, as well as chaos at some of the country's biggest airports.

But airlines say the situation is improving. Air Canada said last week that it had improved its service levels through the summer, reducing delays and cancellations and bringing its baggage mishandling rate back to 2019 levels. Amos Kazzaz, the airline's chief financial officer, told attendees at a Raymond James conference this week that he expects the improvements to continue for the remainder of the year.

"We certainly don't expect to see this sort of level of disruption into 2023," Kazzaz said.

"I think it will continue to improve."

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.

PARIS (AP) — Fisticuffs in the cockpit, leaving a leaky engine running while cruising over Africa -- Air France pilots are under scrutiny after recent incidents that have prompted French investigators to call for tougher safety protocols.

Two Air France pilots were suspended after physically fighting in the cockpit on a Geneva-Paris flight in June, an Air France official said Sunday. The flight continued and landed safely, and the dispute didn't affect the rest of the flight, the official said, stressing the airline’s commitment to safety.

French newspaper La Tribune reported that the pilot and co-pilot had a dispute shortly after takeoff, and grabbed each other by their collars after one apparently hit the other. Cabin crew intervened and one crew member spent the flight in the cockpit with the pilots, the report said.

News of the fight emerged after France’s air investigation agency, BEA, issued a report Wednesday saying that some Air France pilots lack rigor in respecting procedures during safety incidents.

It focused on a fuel leak on an Air France flight from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris in December 2020, when pilots rerouted the plane but didn’t cut power to the engine or land as soon as possible, as leak procedure requires. The plane landed safely in Chad, but the BEA report warned that the engine could have caught fire.

It mentioned three similar cases between 2017 and 2022, and said some pilots are acting based on their own analysis of the situation instead of safety protocols.

Air France said it is carrying out a safety audit in response. It pledged to follow the BEA's recommendations, which include allowing pilots to study their flights afterward and making training manuals stricter about sticking to procedure.

The airline noted that it flies thousands of flights daily and the report mentions only four such safety incidents.

Air France pilots unions have insisted that security is paramount to all pilots and defended pilot actions during emergency situations.

The BEA also investigated an incident in April involving an Air France flight from New York’s JFK airport that suffered flight control problems on approach to its landing in Paris.

By Adeyemi Adepetun (Assistant Editor, ComTech) and Gloria Nwafor

• Private sector grapples with talent retention over remote work, relocation 

• 65,929 Nigerians on approved study visa in UK as of June 

• U.S. issues 6,915 non-immigrant visas to Nigerians in June 

• Microsoft opens employment opportunities for offices abroad   

• Insecurity, economic slowdown, low remuneration intensify brain drain  

• Nigeria heading to a gridlock, experts warn

Fear has gripped the private sector, especially the services and technology space, following mass resignation of skilled workforce to seek greener pastures abroad.   

Findings by The Guardian showed that software, hardware engineers, system integrators, digital marketers, accountants and auditors are dumping high-paying employment in banking, financial technology, education, insurance, manufacturing and teaching as economic opportunities shrink amid rising insecurity.   

There is another category of people leaving the country through the education route, driven by lingering industrial action in Nigeria’s universities. Majority of these people head to the United Kingdom and Canada.

The Guardian checks also suggest that most of those who leave the country via the study route, especially those seeking second degrees, only use the pursuit of knowledge as a leeway, as they do not intend to return on completion of their programmes.     

As a confirmation of this migration, the United Kingdom immigration statistics as at June 2022, revealed that there were 486,868 sponsored study visas granted (to both main applicants and their dependants), 71 per cent (202,147) more than 2019.    

Of the study visas issued by the UK, Nigerian nationals saw the largest relative increase in sponsored study grants compared with 2019, increasing by 57,545 (+686 per cent) to a record high of 65,929, making them the third largest nationality group.

Similarly, out of 722,962 non-immigrant visas issued by the United States in June, Nigerians got 6,915 with B1/B2 category recording the highest at 5,061. Other categories of visas issued include G2, J1, C1/D, A1, K2, H3 and P4.    

This migration figure could be compounded if statistics from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is to be considered. USCIS revealed that 40,000 immigrant visas are set-aside yearly for skilled workers, who seek to immigrate based on their job skills.    Selected applicants are allowed to relocate to the U.S. with their spouses and children. 

The U.S. said 65,000 immigrant visa allotments remained unused at the end of 2021, and as such, it has taken steps to avoid a repeat.     

The five categories eligible for the visa include persons of extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics and “members of the professions holding advanced degrees.” Others are special immigrants and businessmen/entrepreneurs, who can “invest $1.8 million or $900,000” in the U.S.    

“An unusually high number of employment-based immigrant visa numbers were available in Fiscal Year (FY) 2021,” the notice reads.

Beyond the desire to migrate to other countries, findings showed opportunities in remote work, especially with many undertaking dollar-denominated projects and work, is equally creating concerns for talent retention by local firms that are unable to match the foreign exchange earnings of many talent hunters. This phenomenon became pronounced with the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown that ensued.

The trend poses an enormous challenge to local companies, which are now struggling to replace ‘fleeing’ talents. Companies now conduct interviews to replace good hands monthly, sources disclose to The Guardian. 

Unlike in the past when unemployed and individuals in low-paying jobs were those eager to leave, multinational firms operating in the country are also trapped in the quagmire.
   
The reason for leaving the country is apparent: Currently, Nigeria is battling rising unemployment estimated at 33.3 per cent; rising insecurity, manifesting as banditry and hostage-taking, has risen to a new height, while inflation is taking a serious toll on the real incomes of households.

   
With the situation not abating, findings showed that Nigerians, especially within the age bracket of 25 and 45, whose services are critical to the information and technology operations of some leading organisations, especially banks, manufacturing firms, Fintechs and insurance companies, are exploring offshore jobs abroad, forcing them to leave the country in droves.
   
Chief Information Officer of one of the leading first-generation banks, who preferred anonymity, told The Guardian that within the first-half of the year, about 750 software engineers resigned their appointments from some of the leading financial institutions in the country to pick what they described as mouthwatering offers from overseas companies. The popular destinations are Canada, the UK, Ireland, Germany and the United States.
   
Painfully, it was also gathered that the migration figure could triple between September and December as companies abroad continue to dangle irresistible offers.
   
Overseas companies baiting Nigerians with great jobs are Microsoft, Google, Oracle, usmlelab.com, Amcor Plc, Anglo American Plc, Antofagasta Plc, Associated British Foods Plc, AstraZeneca Plc and British American Tobacco Plc. Others are Compass Group Plc, Computacenter Plc, HSBC Holdings Plc and Intel Corporation.
  
Microsoft, recently, announced employment opportunities for fresh graduates from Nigerian universities and other African countries. Specifically, the company is looking for software engineers from across Africa to join its U.S. and Canadian teams.
   
Announcing this via a Twitter post, Microsoft said the potential candidates must be open to relocating to either the U.S. or Canada. To be qualified for the position, Microsoft said such a person must be “pursuing or recently completed bachelor’s or master’s degree in engineering, computer science or related field.”      

The Guardian gathered that the Microsoft openings have seen thousands of fresh graduates applying. Even those who graduated about four and five years earlier submitted applications.
   
Indeed, this mass resignation from local firms is beginning to take its toll on some organisations, including banks.  Earlier in the year, a report had it that the mass resignation of software engineers in banks obstructed the seamless operation of electronic and mobile banking systems.
   
 Speaking on this challenge, a telecom expert, Kehinde Aluko, said the brain drain in Nigeria is setting the country up for a disaster, adding that continuously losing a huge part of the skilled workforce is no doubt a recipe for disaster.
 

 
According to him, the reasons for Nigeria’s alarming brain drain is not hard to diagnose, as poor infrastructure, crippling economy, devaluation of the naira, insecurity, high unemployment rate, poor education, human rights violation, among others, as very glaring reasons why both the young and old are moving out of the country in droves.
   
Aluko said the implication is the decline in the country’s economic growth. He said it would lead to a reduction in the quality of service, as the absence of skilled workers would create a gap, which only unqualified individuals are going to fill.
   
The Marketing Manager, Eskimi Africa, an AdTech platform that helps brands and agencies to conduct programmatic advertising campaigns, Oluwatobi Adekunle, said the attraction abroad remains very huge.
   
Adekunle lamented the growing dearth of digital skills in Nigeria, stressing, “lots of people are running away from the country. These are skills that are exiting Nigeria at the moment. Currently, there is a platform that tries to aggregate them. I receive CVs from companies to recruit for them. The skills are scarce these days, especially in digital marketing. These skills are exiting the country today and we need to refill lots of roles today. We just must encourage ourselves.”
   
According to him, the attraction is that everybody wants to earn dollars, live in an environment that is comfortable for them to grow and know that the future is guaranteed, which according to him, is missing here.
   
“For example, a digital marketer in Nigeria at a professional level, who is at the peak of his career, may be earning N800,000, but outside the country, you can earn between $4,500 and $5,000 a month. Convert that to naira and you become a ‘big boy’. It is a lot of money. The fact that you can earn a dollar, grow your career among others is enough attraction for anybody to leave this country.”  

   
The Founder, Jidaw Systems and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Policy Advisor, Jide Awe, noted that there is a global tech talent/skills shortage and companies in Nigeria are feeling the brunt.
   
Awe said the developed economies, in the west, depend on ICT to power their economies, for continued competitiveness and productivity, adding that the global tech industry grows at a phenomenal pace, and the number of available tech positions vastly outnumbers the available talents.
   
He said the shortage of tech talent is not a new problem but worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic-triggered tech adoption. Referring to Canada, the UK and U.S., the Jidaw founder said demand is huge in these countries that even engage in tech talent wars to attract the best talent from all over the world.
   
He explained that these countries could use impressive wages, better infrastructure and working conditions as well as their living environments to attract tech talent from Nigeria.
 
“Because it is a pressing need and priority for them, many of these countries adopt special visa programs, global talent schemes to source international tech talent for their internal tech skills shortage. ICT skills are in high demand. For technology professionals that relocate, it’s about creating a better future for themselves and their families. Sometimes, the perspective is also that the new environment is an advanced one that is safer and more stable for growth and other quality of life issues,” he added.

 
Considering that this trend is predictable, Awe submitted that as a nation, Nigeria should have done more to prioritise human capital development in ICT – skills development, career development, workforce development, among others.
   
To the Chairman, Mobile Software Solution, Chris Uwaje, the missing link responsible for the country’s latency to attain digital prominence is primarily due to the lack of understanding of the enormity of the challenges, opportunities and benefits of digital transformation and the negligence of the role of IT/ICT professionals.
   
He said the ultimate goal of digital transformation is to create and enable digital citizenship, saying that today, nations, governments, tech corporate businesses, and indeed all organisations in the digital economy, have come to realise that digital skills are a primary and critical resource for global competitiveness, success and sustainable development.
   
On the dangers of this trend, the Mobile Software Solution boss said there are many, but the most critical include rendering the monumental Investments in the national IT/ICT ecosystem useless, obsolete and quantum reinvestment in mitigating digital disaster recovery processes – under the control of foreign knowhow with protected Source code/IT.

A former Director-General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, Dr. Harold Demuren, has urged the Federal Government to allow first-class and business-class passengers to buy tickets in dollars, while passengers in economy class can pay in naira.

Demuren proposed this as a way of solving the squabble between Nigeria and foreign airlines over the carriers’ $464m trapped funds.

He said this during the Aviation Round Table second quarter 2022 Breakfast Business Meeting which had as its theme, “Perspective in Multi-Layer Aviation Security System and Passenger Facilitation,” held in Lagos on Thursday.

According to the former NCAA boss, doing this would help the carriers to repatriate their funds with ease and put a stop to the issue of trapped funds or, at best, help to significantly eliminate the problem.

Airlines on APG Interline Electronic Ticketing Agreements GP code 275 had, in April this year, disclosed that it would start issuing tickets in United States dollars and not naira.  Demuren’s position sits with foreign carriers who had initially planned to start asking passengers from Nigeria to start paying for their tickets in dollars.

This new policy, according to the group, was caused by the difficulty in repatriating airlines’ huge funds stuck in Nigeria and other countries  with the foreign exchange crisis.

When asked if allowing foreign airlines to charge dollars for first -class and business-class tickets would not amount to hurting national pride, Demuren said, “Listen to me, you must take emotions out of it. When people leave the shores of Nigeria, what do they spend? Naira? The people in the first-class and business-class are people who have money, and who can pay in dollars, but it is due to the current forex crisis.

“I know that there is a pride in national currency and I believe that there is a wide disparity between naira at the official and the parallel markets and one which leads to speculation. It is dangerous.

“This problem needs to be solved and we must stop this problem. Is your family abroad? Ok, will you go by boat to see them when the airlines stop operations? They have money, but they can’t take it out. It is not done in other places. You need to cut your losses. What I am saying is that we can solve it.”

The Minister of Aviation, DG NCAA, and Minister of Finance are working on it. They are sitting down to look at it, but it will keep growing.

“Airlines have left and did not come back. At the end of the day, if they don’t get their returns, it is not good business for anybody to do. We have to face it. If the government has a solution, that is great. They must work together.

“This government didn’t cause it. It is a problem we have. If Nigeria is selling oil, we will have a lot of oil. We have to make sure we solve it together,” he added.

By Bankole Orimisan

The Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA) has expressed its readiness to address the challenge of uninsured vehicles plying Nigerian roads across the 36 states.

The immediate past chairman of the association, Ganiyu Musa, disclosed this at a briefing to give an account of his stewardship for the past two years. He said that the NIA was engaging with road traffic officers to constrain integration of the third-party motor insurance across the states.

Musa said the industry was burdened by what it is losing to insurance racketeers and non-insurance of vehicles in the country.

He said discussions were ongoing with the states to ensure that motorists get genuine insurance cover at the point of renewing their vehicle particulars at licensing offices.

The former chairman said the association was also working with Lagos State Building Control Agency as part of its engagement on the implementation of the Lagos State Building law Occupiers Liability and Builders Liability Insurance.

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors has said six out of 10 doctors in the country plan to leave the country for greener pastures.

This is just as it disclosed that there are only 12,297 resident doctors in both the Federal and state tertiary health institutions in the country.

The NARD President, Dr Dare Ishaya, disclosed these in an interview with The PUNCH on Monday.

Ishaya said, “As of the last time we issued the questionnaire, we found that out of 10 resident doctors, six of them are planning to leave or have the intention to leave.

“The statistics we had then was in December 2021. So, it’s either they are planning to leave or they have thought of leaving.”

Identifying the reasons behind the development, Ishaya said, “As we speak, I am aware that a lot of my colleagues are working towards leaving the country, and there are a lot of factors responsible for that. The push factor is majorly the economy.

“Of course, you will agree with me that we are having inflation in the country and the rate at which our naira is being devalued is alarming. If you compare our pay with the pay where most of these health workers go, you will discover that what we earn here is not up to one-tenth of what they get practising there.

“As long as these factors exist, our members and other health workers will continue to seek greener pastures except if things are done to reverse them.”

Ishaya added that currently, there are only 9,297 resident doctors in the FTHI and there are between 2,000 and 3,000 resident doctors in the STHI.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Medical Association said the brain drain being witnessed in the country would worsen if the doctors leave the country.

The NMA President, Dr Uche Ojinmah, in an interview with our correspondent, also said, “From 1960 till today, the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria has registered about 80,000 doctors in Nigeria, and some have come in to practise in Nigeria. You will know that from 1960 till date, some have died, some are no longer practising, some are incapacitated, some have joined politics and a reasonable number of about 20,000 to 25,000 are practising outside the country.

“So, by the last analysis we had, we had between 20,000 and 25,000 doctors in Nigeria and this number is supposed to take care of 200 million people.

“So, we have a ratio of one doctor to between 4,000 and 5,000 patients. Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation recommended one doctor for 600 patients.

Nigeria on Monday expressed commitment to tightening its diplomatic relations with China.

Ambassador Baba Jidda made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Beijing.

He spoke at the 2022 International Food Fair ceremony organised by the Commonwealth Society of Beijing (CSB) held at the embassy.

Jidda recalled it had been 66 years since China- Africa officially opened diplomatic cooperation in 1956.

The envoy noted that the two countries had already signed numerous bilateral agreements.

Jidda described Nigeria as “a very close friend of China” with agreement on the One China policy.

Others include deals in the exchange of education, trade, commerce, and bilateral air services.

The ambassador said Air Peace now flies from Lagos to China due to government cooperation.

“Nigerian officials holding official passports do not require a visa to come to China; likewise we allow Chinese to go to Nigeria and obtain a visa on arrival.”

He disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari had directed the embassy to issue visas to Chinese heading to Nigeria for investment within 48 hours.

Jidda said despite the difficulty for students to visit China, measures had been taken by the Chinese Government to relax restrictions for Nigerians.

The diplomat hinted there were about 2,000 Nigerian students in China, unlike other countries whose students could not return due to issues caused by COVID-19.

Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa, Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has commended Nigerians in the Diaspora on the rise of remittances in the first quarter of the year, by 20.3 per cent, representing the seventh consecutive quarterly increase in diaspora remittances since last quarter in 2020.

In a statement by the Commission’s Head of Media and Public Relations, Abdur-Rahman Balogun,  Dabiri-Erewa said that increase in remittances by Nigerians abroad which has played a significant role in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), has a great impact on socio-economic growth of the country.

She said, “As the world recovers from the global pandemic and confronts instability of many kinds, we want to honour the efforts of all those who continue to support their loved ones despite the challenging circumstances.”

According to the NIDCOM boss, the recent figures released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) showed an increase in remittances in quarter one of 2022 to $5.16 billion from $ 4.29 billion same period in 2021.

Also, the ‘Naira 4 Dollar Scheme’ created by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2021, attracted $2.4 billion in diaspora remittances within eight months, surpassing the figure reported in 2021.

She said “NiDCOM will continue to push for more engagement with our diaspora who are an indisputable economic factor and are becoming an investment factor in the country, noting that many Nigerians abroad are investing in agriculture, real estate, health, education and ICT, amongst others.

Dabiri-Erewa implored all stakeholders to continue engagement for Diaspora Voting with the National Assembly to amend relevant sections of the law to enable INEC to do the needful.

She assured Nigerians abroad that details of Nigerians Diaspora Investment Trust Fund (NDITF) will soon be unveiled as a platform for structured diaspora investments, just as Diaspora mortgage and housing facilities are some of the programmes being introduced by NIDCOM for the welfare of the citizens abroad.

Similarly, 33 states now have State Diaspora Focal Point Officers with Abia setting up Abia Diaspora Agency, while Edo and Enugu are almost set with their own agencies just as Ondo and Anambra states have Commissioners.

She also described the Diasporans as a valuable asset worth more than the billions of naira they sent home as remittances as they are contributing immensely to national development through training and capacity development.

Stressing that no nation can develop without its diaspora, she emphasized the need for Nigerians at home and in diaspora to work together.

It is expected that by the end of the 2022 financial year, the remittances from Nigerians in the Diaspora  from official sources would have increased from its current $22 billion to about $25 billion.

Last week, the top three presidential candidates in Nigeria’s 2023 elections were in London, holding meetings with people seen as political powerbrokers in Nigeria. They ensured that those photos were sent out and most Nigerian newspapers published them on their cover. Most of the people in the photos were on holidays in Europe or on medical trips, while a few were on short visits.

The interesting, or rather sad, part of the story is that there is nobody in all those photos that is from Europe or any country outside Nigeria. Nobody in those photographs lives in Europe or is there as a temporary worker. All of them flew from different Nigerian cities recently.

Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, met with the Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike. Also in the meeting were Governors Samuel Ortom of Benue State, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State and Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State.

Similarly, a former president of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, met with Wike, and the Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in London. Also in the meeting were Ortom, Ikpeazu, Makinde and former Cross River State Governor, Donald Duke.

Wike also confirmed that he and Ortom, Ikpeazu and Makinde also met with the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, in London. In the past, of the three top presidential candidates, only Obi had visited Wike in Rivers State since the completion of presidential primaries in early June. Even Abubakar, who is in the same party with Wike and has wanted to resolve the rift between him and the Rivers State governor, could not visit Wike in Nigeria. He had to go to London to see him.

Some may say that the reason for the preference for London was because of security concerns. But that cannot be true. In the past weeks, many politicians had visited Rivers State, on the invitation of Wike, to commission some of the projects he had completed. There has never been any story of an attempt on them.

Some have also said that the reason was that Wike was holidaying in London with Ortom and Ikpeazu, making it easier for his itinerary to accommodate his visitors who need his support as the governor of the oil-rich Rivers State with a sizeable number of voters in Nigeria.

But all those excuses are untenable. The optics of a former president of Nigeria, a former vice president of Nigeria, top presidential candidates, incumbent governors and former governors gathering in a London hotel to hold political meetings among themselves—with no single non-Nigerian in attendance—was awful. It was a slap on the face of Nigeria.

Could you just visualise the political leaders of New Zealand, South Korea or Austria flying into London or New York to hold political meetings amongst themselves? Even the thought of political leaders of such countries holidaying in another country is something that would not make their citizens happy.

All serious countries take pride in showcasing things that depict them as patriotic, while Nigerian politicians take pride in showcasing things that depict them as unpatriotic. They derive a special kind of joy from showcasing their foreign tastes as a mark of their sophistication. Yes, Wike is an important figure in the 2023 election. But if the Independent National Electoral Commission keeps to its word to be detached, disinterested and unbiased in the conduct of the election, no individual— including Wike—will have any control over the way voters will cast their vote.

The best many politicians can do is to use money to induce voters. But because millions of voters will be voting, unlike what was obtained during the party primaries, the number of people to induce will be too high to be possible. In spite of the hunger in the land, many people are angry with the condition of Nigeria and are eager to register their anger with their vote.

Some days ago, Wike and his fellow governors returned to Nigeria. One then wonders what was so important with meeting Wike in London that it could not wait till this week or next week for the meeting to be held with him in Rivers State. He had hosted different political party leaders in recent times in Port Harcourt in Rivers State. Why couldn’t those meetings be held in Port Harcourt instead of London?

National pride is not all about wearing the national colours and mouthing slogans like “I love my country.” It appears in little acts like giving medical treatment to Nelson Mandela within South Africa until the day he passed. If he were a Nigerian, the Nigerian government would have flown him to a hospital in Europe, North America or Asia.

Over the weekend, Ondo State announced that it has become an offence for teachers employed by the state to enrol their children in private schools. The state chairman of the Universal Basic Education Board, Victor Olabimtan, said the order came in reaction to the dwindling population of pupils in public primary schools across the state. The South-West state said it was worried that despite its investment in primary education, public primary schools’ enrolment continued to dwindle.

Ordinarily, this action of the Ondo State Government should be commended. But the hypocrisy in it is what makes it sickening. The Federal Government and the various state governments have a record of trying to enforce patriotism on others, especially the weakest in society.

In a country where federal and state officials send their children to foreign universities or private universities in Nigeria or go abroad for medical treatment or holidays, what moral right has the Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, to force teachers employed by the state not to send their children to private schools where they will get a better education?

If Akeredolu, as well as the deputy governor, commissioners, members of the House of Assembly, and members of the public service, had their children in public primary schools, secondary schools and universities, it would be justified to direct government-employed teachers to keep their children in public schools. That is how to lead by example. You can’t be selling a product you don’t use.

Patriotism is not decreed into law. It percolates through the system and becomes part of the national culture when the citizens see that those who lead them practice what they preach by putting the country first and showing a readiness to make sacrifices, including the ultimate sacrifice, for the country.

– Twitter: @BrandAzuka