That $1000 Ukrainian Fight, Young Nigerians' Existential Fright, and Air Peace Controversial Flight
That $1000 Ukrainian Fight, Young Nigerians' Existential Fright, and Air Peace Controversial Flight
Last week, about 115 young Nigerians besieged the Ukraine Embassy in Abuja and offered to join Ukraine in its fight against Russia. The young people put down their names in a register provided by the embassy.
The volunteers were responding to a recent call by Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, urging people around the world to join the fight. Zelensky had on Sunday accused the Russian army of killing civilians and praised Ukrainians for having the courage to defend themselves.
On February 24, Russian troops invaded Ukraine after Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, ordered a special military operation in Donbas, a separatist-held region in Ukraine. Since the invasion, there have been reported casualties on both sides, and many residents of Ukraine, including Nigerians, are fleeing to neighbouring countries.
By this week, the number of volunteers had soared from 115 to over 400, according to major newspaper reports.
At a time Nigerians in Ukraine are struggling to return home, and many Ukrainian nationals are moving out of the troubled country, the decision of the Nigerian volunteers has stirred conversations across fora, especially online.
Interestingly, as though it could notice that the motive of some of the volunteers was not primarily altruistic, the Ukraine embassy in Nigeria on Thursday told the volunteers who are willing to travel to Ukraine to fight Russian forces to provide $1000 for flight ticket and visa. Many of them have chickened out, lamenting the 'high cost' of the flight requirement.
Yet the big question lingers still: why would young Nigerians choose to leave the relatively safe comfort of their homes and travel to a troubled country in the middle of war, destruction, despair and potential catastrophes?
The devil, as the popular saying doesn't quite go, is in the numbers.
Scary Bombers Abroad; Scarier Numbers At Home
According to a Ukrainian online data platform, with $4000 to $5000, one can get a medical degree from a Ukrainian university. This is low compared to tuition fees in countries like the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom where Nigerians cough out as much as $20,000 to $90,000 for the same degree.
One does not need to cough out as much to obtain a medical degree in Nigeria but students pay more in elongated number of years occasioned by industrial actions and government nonchalance to education. As at the time of the Ukrainian invasion, the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) is battling it out with the government, and on yet another one of its incessant strike actions.
So a major factor determining migration to Ukraine is the quality and affordability of their education. According to data from UNESCO, there are 3,302 Nigerian students currently admitted into academic programmes in the country.
Interestingly, medical degrees obtained in Ukrainian universities are recognised globally, including by the World Health Organisation (WHO), European Council, and numerous other global bodies.
In the same breath, the unemployment rate in Ukraine as of September 2021 was 9.2%. In 2020, Ukraine unemployment rate was 9.48%, a 1.29% increase from 2019, ostensibly on the basis of the global lockdown occasioned by Covid-19. In 2019, Ukraine unemployment rate was 8.19%, a 0.61% decline from 2018.
In contrast, Nigeria's unemployment rate as of the last time the data was computed was 33.3%. Within the same period, youth unemployment rose to as high as 53.4%.
Apparently, there are far higher chances of getting a job in Ukraine than there are in Nigeria.
Again, in terms of job remuneration, Ukraine has a minimum wage of 6,000 Ukrainian hryvnia. When converted to Nigeria's local currency, that is way above N80,000 — more than double of the amount of Nigeria's N30,000 minimum wage which many states across the federation have been unable to pay.
So these and many other factors are the driving forces of migration to Ukraine, even in times of war. Many Nigerians residing in Ukraine, as well as those volunteering to go amid war, have made references to these concerns.
More than 2,000 Ukrainian civilians have so far been killed during Russia's ongoing invasion, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said last Wednesday. But despite the dangers ahead, Nigerians are undeterred in their desires to fly to Ukraine.
Afterall, insecurity in Nigeria leads to casualty figures similar to those recorded in war situations.
Faced by Blight Yet Determined to Fly
On Friday, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the first batch of 450 Nigerians stranded in Ukraine returned home from Romania.
An aspect of the news that has generated reactions was that the Federal Government gave all the returnees the sum of $100 to ameliorate their sufferings. In the local currency, that's about N48,000----an amount that would easily be blown away in today's Nigeria of skyrocketed domestic prices, poor power supply and biting fuel scarcity.
In some ways, that gesture explains the irony of why many would rather jump into the theatre of war in Ukraine, with the hope that if they survive the war, they would find greener pastures.
In its last report, the National Bureau of Statistics said that although Nigeria’s consumer price inflation rate fell in January to 15.60 per cent from 15.63 per cent recorded in December 2021, food prices continued to surge skywards.
The bureau said the composite food index rose by 17.13 per cent, pushed by increases in prices of bread and cereals, food products potatoes, yam and other tubers, soft drinks, oils and fats and fruit.
Within the same period, a petrol scarcity problem that the authorities seem not to have any solution for has crippled the informal economy, draining the wallets of households who barely enjoy stable power supply and, thus, rely on generators for electricity supply.
The entire situation explains why, having been battered by the blight of homegrown poverty and despair, irrespective of destination, Nigerians would jump on the next available flight.
Banjul to Kano with controversies
Still talking about flight, Air Peace and Emir of Kano have been in the news this week after the airline was accused of "disrespecting" the Emir.
Isa Bayero, cousin of Aminu Ado Bayero, the Emir of Kano, gave the airline a 72-hour ultimatum to offer an apology for allegedly ‘disrespecting’ the monarch and causing a delay to his flight from Banjul to Lagos and causing him to miss his flight to Kano from Lagos.
Bayero had earlier written a letter of complaint to the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), seeking punitive actions against Air Peace Airline for what he tagged “disrespect to the emir and the people of Kano State.”
But Air Peace reacted, saying that it did not disrespect the Emir of Kano as alleged in the petition.
Expectedly, the issue has thrown up conversations on social media, with many Nigerians chastising the Emir's aide for being "entitled". There have also been debates about airlines, delayed/cancelled flights, and general customer relations issues in Nigeria's aviation industry.
Interestingly, Air Peace has always been at the centre of these conversations.
In 2019, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) recorded the operation of 65,401 flights, of which 37,510 were delayed and 356 were cancelled.
That year, the percentage of delayed flights stood at a whopping 57%!
Last year, Air Peace, Overland, Azman and others delayed over 55% of their flights. In the first quarter of 2019, Nigeria recorded 7,926 delayed domestic flights.
Earlier in 2018, Nigerians were hit with over 60% delayed and cancelled domestic flights, according to data obtained from NCAA.
Apart from delayed and cancelled flights, there are also cases of missing luggages which the airlines always fail to address properly.
In 2019 alone, there were 41,968 recorded cases of missing and delayed luggage in Nigeria, according to a report by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA).
In essence, even if Bayero's conduct in the Emir of Kano-Air Peace controversies may have shown that he probably needs to hire or buy a private jet to operate at his convenience, Nigerian airlines also need to do better in customer relations.