Nigerians in China having disputes with authorities because they find it difficult to abide by the stringent laws

An ambassadorial nominee, Mr Ismail Abba, has given reasons Nigerians living in China are having disputes with Chinese authorities.

He added that anywhere that you have strict law and order, a lot of Nigerians would have problems

Abba, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs on Friday, stated this while answering a question from a member of the Committee, Senator James Manager, on how he hoped to address the hostilities between the Chinese officials and the Nigerians there if posted to the country.

The nominee said from his diplomatic experience in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, a lot of Nigerians usually had problems in any country where there were strict laws.

He said they found it difficult to cope “because many things Nigerians take for granted in their own country are taken seriously in other climes.”

He further stated,

“The challenges that Nigerians are having in China are not limited to China alone.

“I discovered in the course of my career because I had worked on the consulate immigration desk, I found that anywhere that you have strict law and order, a lot of Nigerians would have problems.

“ This is because a lot of things we take for granted here, others don’t; that is the number one problem.

“The second problem is that of constructive engagement. The job of a diplomat anywhere in the world is to constructively engage his host country to the benefit of his home country.

“We have a big distraction to the point that the consular issues tend to overshadow the real diplomatic issues and then your engagement with the host country would be always about prisoners, among others.

“When I was in China, we had about 2,000 Nigerian students in China from all over the country, a lot of them on self-sponsorship and private sponsorship and they were doing very well and the Chinese respected them.

“The people that the Chinese do not respect are those who come in with tourist visas, overstayed and did nothing, that is the problem.”

He said the consulate often enlightened the people whenever they arrived in China.