Buhari promises to evacuate Nigerians in Libya but says he cannot help those without documentation

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has reacted to the recent revelation that Nigerians are being enslaved in Libya by pointing out that there is nothing he can do for anyone who dares the desert and Mediterranean without documents to prove that they are Nigerians.

Over the last week, the world has been shocked by videos and images of West Africans being enslaved in Libya and chained together ready for auction. It has led to widespread calls for a worldwide campaign against the practise, for serious sanctions against Libya and for the punishing of those involved.

Thousands of Nigerians brave the Sahara desert and the Mediterranean Sea annually trying to get to Europe but many of them die in the process. Following the latest revelations, President Buhari has promised to fly back anyone in Libya who is Nigerian but said he is powerless to help those with no documentation.

Speaking to the Nigerian community ion Ivory Coast during the ongoing European Union-African Union (EU-AU) Summit, President Buhari said the federal government was hoping to evacuate identified stranded Nigerians in Libya and rehabilitate them. He also promised that his government would do everything possible to make the country conducive to discourage youths from embarking on such journeys and risking their lives.

Furthermore, President Buhari assured the community that by fixing security as well as providing other critical infrastructures in Nigeria, it would also reduce the chances of people taking the risk and ending up in the Mediterranean Sea. Nigerian has one of the highest illegal immigration rates in the world, with thousands trying to get to Europe in search of a better life.

President Buhari said: “Whenever Nigerians are identified especially in Libya and so on, we hope to evacuate them back home and then rehabilitate them because the indoctrination is what is happening with the Boko Haram where girls of about 15 years old  strap themselves and go to the market blow themselves up. I am telling you all this because I know that those of you who are making it here send contributions home for feeding and for school fees and for healthcare.

“These are the basic things that the government should do and we are to make sure that the people who are challenging the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, so there will be less Nigerians going that way and perishing. When it was announced that 26 Nigerians died, before it could be proven, they were buried but the evidence I got from the senior special assistant on diaspora affairs is that only three were identified as Nigerians."

"However, for anyone who dared the desert and the Mediterranean without document to prove that he/she is a Nigerian, there is nothing we can do, absolutely nothing. In the interview some of you saw, some of the Nigerians said they were being sold like goats for a few dollars for years in Libya."

He added that after 43 years of Gaddafi recruiting so many people from sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, all they learnt was how to shoot and kill. According to President Buhari, they did not learn to become electricians, plumbers or any other trade, so, when the Libyans stood against their leader those who are not their people were chased out.