Human Trafficking: We want President Tinubu to visit Cote d’Ivoire

Chief Michael Emeka Onwuchelu is the Chief Executive Officer, CEO/Chairman of Mike Anthonio Pieces Auto, MAPA known as Motor Spare Parts in Nigeria. He is also the current President of the Nigerian Community in Cote d’Ivoire. He spoke with some journalists from Nigeria recently on many issues. Excerpts:

What was the reason for leaving Nigeria for Cote d’ivoire?
I left Nigeria for Cote d’Ivoire in 1992 for greener pastures. I was doing my business in Nigeria, to be precise, Nnewi, Anambra State before I relocated. I learnt a trade in Nnewi town, shortly after that time, things became difficult. I couldn’t compete with those that were financially buoyant.

I had a contact then that made me want to come to this place. I actually have a friend who is also my mentor, Mr. Tony Okeke. He loves me so much and wants me to succeed. He was the one that connected me with his Ivorian customers.

Has it been better, since leaving Nigeria for this place?
Well, from the side of the business, I give God the glory. 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 started changing but it is not like things changed from good to worst but some people were becoming smarter. 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. In fact, we don’t know what is called power failure in Cote d’Ivoire. When we had power failure, was when the Ivorian government or electricity company was trying to upgrade from where they were to another level. And later they built a new power plant, since then we have not had power outage, that is about four 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 messages 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 and radio, so that no one says he is not aware.

You are referred to as the president of the Nigerian Community in Cote d’Ivoire, how did you emerge?
I am the only elected President of the Nigerian community in Cote d’Ivoire. This is the first time they conducted elections to elect leaders to run the affairs of the Community.

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 different agendas. They started seeing the Nigerian community as a way of exploiting Nigerians. Some of them were bringing innocent young girls here to prostitute and that trade has gone wild. In 2017, the then Ambassador Isa (may his soul rest in peace), said No! 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. He said because the population of Nigerians in Cote d’ivoire is getting bigger, there is need to have a credible person, hence the need 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 made some frantic moves but the pressure from some individuals was so 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 Abikoye who took over from the then Consul in 2020. He then said we need to organize elections because they needed a person that will help the embassy carry out some responsibilities because the staff of the embassy might not be able to handle them and that was the reason why they came together to create the Nigerian community in the first place. The Nigerian Community has always helped the Embassy to intervene in any matter involving Nigerians who had or might be passing through some challenges. Then, Abikoye said that we needed 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.

What are the major problems confronting Nigerians in Cote d’Ivoire?
The major challenge facing us here is human trafficking and prostitution amongst Nigerian teenagers. In a day, you would see about 10 to 15 persons running out of the ghetto where they were held hostage. We have rescued many of them and we still need to save the remaining ones but you know it is a business for traffickers. They have been into it for many years and to break it won’t be an easy task. Some of these girls were promised lucrative jobs, like jobs in boutiques, where they will be paid huge sum of money. They will promise them N100,000 when they convert cefa to naira and a girl that has not been getting N30,000 before, 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 this is 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 meet with the Nigerian community to know what they are facing. Honestly speaking, it is not that the problem is associated with a particular state like we had with Italy in the past, the Deltans are amongst those prostituting, the Edos are there, Benue people, the Ibos are involved. This time around, the Calabars, Kogis, Akwa-Iboms, Hausas, you will see them in batches, up till this moment. From May 2021, the Nigerian Community under my care has succeeded in repatriating about 1,200 girls back to Nigeria.

The Nigerian Embassy usually issues Laissez-Passer to the girls returning to Nigeria, we have some of their documents in our care. We started having problems during COVID and you know there were a lot of restrictions during that period. Their transportation was between N250,000 to N300,000. These are our major problems, that is why without the intervention of the federal government of Nigeria, it will be difficult for them to be resolved. 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 now is that some of the girls are not coming on their own, but through traffickers.

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. So, until the federal government intervenes by collaborating with us and the Cote d’Ivoire Government, we might find it difficult to tackle this issue but we believe we will triumph at the end of the day. We are using this opportunity to call on President Bola Tinubu to visit Cote d’Ivoire and probably meet with the Cote d’Ivoire because this menace is causing embarrassment for Nigerians both at home and Cote d’Ivoire.

Tje President of the Nigerian Community in Cote d’Ivoire having handshake with the Nigerian Embassy Charge d’Affaire