Drug trafficking, visa overstays tarnishing Nigeria’s image in India — Don

Associate Professor at Woxsen University, Telangana, India, Dr Michael Oyenuga, speaks with BIODUN BUSARI about Nigerians in the South Asian country, among other issues

Can you briefly talk about your childhood?

I grew up in Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. It was a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. I had fun growing up. I was a church boy as a Catholic. Many people, including myself, thought I would be a priest.

Also, I was a simple child in a polygamous family. I was my mum’s last-born, so I took on most of the house chores. I remember that even up to SS3, I hawked moin-moin for my mum.

Did you find education easy as a child?

My parents were teachers, so they took education seriously. Even as my mum combined her teaching job with other things, she monitored my education. As the youngest in the family attempting to go to university, some of my older brothers had graduated. It was a bit hard, but I couldn’t complain. I thank God for where I am today.

What were the highlights of your childhood as a church boy?

I was baptised as a child. My parents were Catholics, although my mum was a Muslim before she met my dad. They met in Ibadan, Oyo State, and she converted. So, I found myself in that family. While I was in JSS3, I enrolled to become a mass server.

With my Catholic faith, I was among the boys helping the priest at the altar. As I grew up, I became the president of the Catholic Youth Organisation of Nigeria. But it didn’t affect my school at all. Instead, it helped my education. As a mass server, I only went to meetings on Saturdays.

It helped build my self-esteem and shaped my time discipline. In church, mass servers arrive about 30 minutes before the service to help the priests. Even to this day, I don’t go late to meetings or functions. Those times built and prepared me for this period.

How about your tertiary education?

I had a bachelor’s degree in business administration through a part-time programme at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State. I was in the commercial class in senior secondary school, but accounting wasn’t my favourite, so I chose Business Administration.

Along the way, I had courses in marketing, and I liked them. While I was writing my final-year project, my topic was on marketing. After I left the university, I got a job with Xerox, where I worked for over seven years before I transitioned into academia.

Being in the sales and marketing departments also reinforced my interest in marketing. Then I had to take a certificate course. I became a member of the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria. When I wanted to do my PhD, I didn’t look for any other concentration except marketing. I had an Executive MBA in Leadership. But my major focus is on marketing. I also had a master’s in digital transformation.

Despite your interest in marketing, why did you go into lecturing?

I love teaching naturally. My parents were teachers. I think there’s a passion for it in my family. When I was doing part-time Business Administration at OOU, I was a full-time teacher in a primary and secondary school owned by one of my lecturers, who was a professor.

I loved teaching to the extent that during my job interview at Xerox, the panel asked me where I would see myself in the next five years, and I said lecturing. I was just being honest; I never knew it could jeopardise my chances, but I was employed.

Why did you choose to relocate to India?

I got the offer through LinkedIn when there were openings. Before this one, there was a postdoctoral job for 18 months where I was supposed to do a virtual interview. But that day, there was an internet glitch. We tried for hours, but it didn’t come up.

However, when this current one came, I even proposed that they should give me three weeks to prepare, but they just told me I could do the interview the next day. I agreed, and everything worked out fine. I just believed that God had a hand in my coming to India.

The university needs my service. Before going to India, I virtually lectured at a French university. I worked with Xerox from 2008 to 2015. Then I joined a privately owned university in Abuja, where I worked from 2015 to 2023 before I joined Woxsen University in India.

Is there any difference in your relationship with Indian students and Nigerians back home?

It’s probably cultural differences, but not academic differences. Every country has its cultural bias, and you just have to respect that. I remember my first class here in India; it was a 90-minute class. Then, after a few minutes, I asked a particular boy if he understood my lecture, and he wobbled his head.

So, I wanted to start explaining again, but the class told me that wobbling the head signified yes. I was surprised because, for us in Nigeria, if you wobble your head, that’s a no. Again, when it comes to interacting with female students, there is a gap you should give them as a male. You are not expected to come too close, which was not the case in Nigeria. So, those kinds of differences should be respected.

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Why do you think Nigerians are often involved in drug trafficking offences and visa overstays in India?

The stories are true, and it’s disheartening. It has rubbed off on Nigerians who go about their lives legitimately. In my university, we have 13 Africans working, and eight of us are Nigerians.

So, there was a time when one of us went to the Nigerian Embassy in Delhi to renew his passport, and he came back with a lot of stories about the stigma attached to Nigerians because of these issues.

I’ve seen cases where landlords don’t give apartments to Nigerians because they believe we all deal in drugs until they see some of us with decent jobs and businesses. The reason is that many of them came with different intentions, using school as a means to enter India.

We had cases where people moved to India for studies and went into something else. As a result, when you tell Indians and other foreigners that you are Nigerian, there is this look of stigma they give you.

Does it mean Nigerians only go to India through study visas?

India has different visas for Nigerians. However, what I realised is that India is a closed system. For instance, not just Nigerians, but foreigners generally are given one-year visas. I have not seen anywhere else in the world where that happens.

So, we renew our visas every year. Meanwhile, in the West and some other countries, you can have a five-year visa and so on. So, even if you are here with your family, everybody renews their visa, which costs money annually.

They are just beginning to open up to foreigners, especially those who are coming to work. If you are here with your family, your wife will not be allowed to work because she is on a dependent visa.

How does a spouse using a dependent visa cope without working?

The spouse does business that doesn’t require registration, banks or other official processes. They are allowed to study because when you are studying, you are paying money into their system. But when you are working, you are taking money from the system.

I remember my colleague’s wife selling fries sometimes, and we paid in cash. That type of work doesn’t allow you to open a bank account. It is not just for Nigerians, but for all foreigners. I think it’s common in South Asian countries.

In a nutshell, there’s no official work for dependants. In such a system, we have to live with integrity. If we want to earn the respect of these people, we should not soil our hands.

Do you think the Nigerian government has done enough with bilateral relations with the Indian government to help Nigerians there?

I don’t think the Nigerian government is doing enough. This is my perspective, and I may be wrong. In 2024, we celebrated Independence Day on October 1 on campus. As Nigerians—students and lecturers—we reached out to the ambassador or whoever was in charge to come and give a speech on campus. He didn’t come.

We sent an invitation before the day, but it never saw the light of day. They were just giving us excuses. In another instance, the University of Technology Sydney invited me to give a speech, but I was denied a visa because they said I wouldn’t come back.

I contacted the Nigerian embassy to intervene. The response I got was that there was no relationship with them. At the time, they said there was no substantive ambassador from Nigeria to India.

I think the Nigerian government should do better in terms of diplomatic and bilateral relations with India. I have a Zambian colleague and other Africans who enjoy support from their embassies in India. It is not so with Nigeria.

How is the Nigerian community faring in India?

I think the Nigerian community in India is doing well. We enjoy one another’s company and support. Unlike at home in Nigeria, where people allow religion, politics and ethnicity to divide them, it doesn’t happen in India. I think it’s the same in the diaspora.

This even extends to Africans. Nigerians relate well to other Africans such as Ghanaians and Zambians in India and elsewhere.

What is responsible for this?

I think the Nigerian spirit is more visible and practical abroad than in Nigeria. Personally, the problem is the differences I mentioned earlier, which are politics, religion and ethnicity. We don’t allow these differences to divide us in the diaspora.

Another factor is that you don’t see your family around when you are abroad, so you don’t have a choice but to embrace your fellow Nigerians as family in host countries. On Fridays, we all wear our cultural attire. We celebrate one another and share opportunities. We promote our work together.