JOURNEY ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN

Solomon Okoduwa, Benin

The "Travel Abroad" mentality amongst my people the Edo have long been forgotten; unfortunately my assumption is merely a wishful thinking as the trend has assumed a more dangerous dimension.

I call it a journey through the shadow of death with little or no ray of hope for a future they so greatly craved for. While you walk around both the city center and villages all you hear are parents priding amongst themselves on how either their sons or daughters have crossed (meaning crossed the Mediterranean sea from either Libya or Morocco to islands in either Spain or Italy).

Although the present government of Edo state has taken it upon itself to battle and curb this menace head on, alas what this practice mean to an average bini person is more than meets the eyes, another  dangerous dimension that calls for concern is the role our religious organization are playing, a case in point happened in one of the new generation churches where the pastor called out a young man and told him that he was in a vision when God showed him that the young man's destiny is in Europe, that he should give is parents no rest until they sell off their landed property to sponsor him to Europe, I learnt lately the young man was among dose that died in the Mediterranean sea trying to cross from the shores of Libya to Spain.

Second is the agencies set up by the federal government "NAPTIP" National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, to  curb the menace but little or nothing is seen to be done thus far.

Why is this a concern to me? It is disheartening to know that almost out of every 10 young person you see in the streets of Edo, 8 wants to travel to Europe through the desert not bordering about the harrowing experience faced in this journey, this has led to the high level of prostitution amongst our young women. Despite the emergence of social media and cable television campaign against this illicit trafficking of persons we are yet to see the end of this circle. You watch stations like the CNN, BBC and Al Jazeera and the stories of woe they tell of those searching for greener pasture in Europe but ends in the belly of fishes in the Mediterranean Sea, now is the time to speak out and speak up to save a generation of our young people from the obvious danger ahead in such journey of no return.

Lastly, let me end with the story of a young girl I encountered in a taxi 4days ago from Agbor Park to Ring road in Benin city. As usual I was trying to encourage a fellow passenger who felt there was no hope for him in Nigeria save he traveled to Italy because his relatives that already made it across to Europe have buildings in Benin city "popularly called 4flat" after narrating his order I asked him if any of his relative will send him an invitation, he said who told me he was flying to Europe, that he's going through Libya "a country turned upside down by war" as he spoke on, little did we know that the young lady seated next to me just  returned from Libya with a gory experience to share on how she was faced between the choice of going further and boarding this inflated boats to cross over to Italy or to prostitute there  at a camp in libya for some months to raise for herself money enough to bring her back home to Nigeria, her cousin Abieyuwa and friend Omosefe who tried to crossover to Italy with the last inflated boat never made it across because the boat capsized due to high turbulence on the sea occasioned by the patrol vessels of the Italian coast Guard. When Uyi one of the two survivors of the boat mishap called his friends in Libya waiting for their turn to cross that his boat capsized leaving him and one other alive, the young lady then wondered, cried and thanked  God she couldn't make it to that boat, she returned home to Benin to a heavy verbal abuse from her siblings seeing her decision to return home as opportunity wasted, she received curse from her parents attributing her actions to spiritual forces from the village, her peers mocked her for coming back asking if those already in Europe had two head, but despite all she sees herself as a survival ready to pick up the pieces of her life together and move on.