What Are Our Women Doing In Iraq?, by Abdulkadir Salaudeen

The country is not in war but its citizens are scattered all over the world as refugees seeking asylum. Truly, Nigerians are economic asylum seekers across the globe. They are found both in the global south like Niger Republic, Mali, Sudan, etc. and the global north like Canada, the US, the UK, etc. To many deeply disappointed Nigerians, anywhere else is Paradise but Nigeria. Even if this is not the case, it is difficult to convince desperate Nigerians that there are hells in the “oases” of some of these countries they run to. 

This is not to discourage japa. Who am I to encourage people  to live a prisonlike life in Nigeria with no date of release from “imprisonment”? Rather, it is to caution anyone who intends to japa to shine their eyes and know the destination they are japa(ing) to. Also, they should be able to establish the trustworthiness of their hosts in whichever county they are escaping from Nigeria to.

I read a tale about a lady in “Tales from the streets” published by Vanguard newspaper on Monday, 19 January, 2025. It is titled “I ran from sleeping with men in Nigeria to sleeping with animals in Libya.” It is a horrible story of how a Nigerian graduate who could not secure job risked the desert to Libya with the hope of crossing over to Spain. She refused to sleep with lascivious men in Nigeria while searching for job only to find herself sleeping with assorted wild men in Libya. According to her, she sleeps with 20 to 25 men everyday. In other words, 20 to 25 men sleep with her everyday. Every couple—married or unmarried—understand the hell she went through.

She described those men as animals. I think she actually wanted to call them beasts. To quote her, “I became like raw meat. The worst part is all the money went to madam.” For those who are familiar with horrible stories from Libya, the “madam” in reference here is the godmother of sex workers who feeds fat while unfortunate ladies (prostitutes) under her “care” (or is custody the right word?) mortgage all the sensitive parts of their bodies to some beasts in a cloak of men for nothing.

Even though horrible tales of this nature are not new, one gets traumatized each time a new tale is narrated  as if one can actually empathize with the victims in those tales. Even if we can not affectively empathize with such victims, we should be able to express a cognitive empathy. Relating this to the news of about five thousand Nigerian women stranded in Iraq only adds to one’s trauma. Anyone who thinks Nigeria is not sick must be living in a comfort zone detached from the everyday harrowing lived realities of Nigerians in Nigeria.

The Chairman/CEO of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Hon Abike Dabiri-Erewa recently disclosed that over five thousand Nigerians are presently stranded in Iraq. Iraq itself is a war-torn country that is struggling to be its former self. This is a country that was invaded by the US-led coalition in year 2003 and terribly destroyed so much so that by 2011 when the coalition withdrew from the country, it already had at least 9.2 millions of its citizens reportedly displaced.

So, what are Nigerian women in that staggering number doing in Iraq? Dabiri-Erewa answered the question. According to her, the women were sent to Iraq as caregivers only to be stranded as they get there to meet harsh realities. She disclosed this in Lagos at the seminar on “Sensitisation and Advocacy Program for Promoting Diaspora Investment Potentials in South-West Nigeria” organised by NIDCOM in conjunction with G-Consulting International Services Limited. She said: “As I speak with you today there are about 5000 women stranded in Iraq. I just dealt with a case last week. A husband sent his wife to Iraq to go and be a caregiver. She’s dead.” 

This is an unfortunate case of running away from horrible death in Nigeria only to die in Iraq, still horribly. Many disappointed Nigerians would still argue that it is better for a Nigerian to die in any foreign country while struggling to “make” it than to die of hunger in Nigeria. I cannot blame them. Many Nigerians, due to poverty and hopelessness, are wired to hate Nigeria. 

Ordinarily, one would summarily dismiss a husband that sent his wife to work as caregiver in far away Iraq as irresponsible. Or can such a man be a responsible man? But thinking of how battered the Nigerian economy is where many people with narrowly survive, one may restrain oneself from calling anyone irresponsible for taking an obviously irresponsible decision in order to survive. May God forgive us.

It should be noted that this unsavory news is coming from Dabiri-Erewa—a government appointee. It is not coming from “enemies” of Nigeria who are “purveyors” of fake and bad news about Nigeria and its government. The said number of Nigerian women stranded in Iraq could be a conservative estimate. It could be way more than that. These women are not in Iraq to work as trained professionals. They are there to work as caregivers whose job roles include tidying up homes and taking care of babies. This could also include bathing and dressing the sick and the aged after cleaning their excreta. 

How would any happy citizen leave their country to do this kind of job in a far away foreign land where they are coldly received? This is  exactly what many Nigerians do in foreign countries. What is worrisome is that these stranded women in Iraq probably left little kids behind to the mercy of the society with all its amoral influences.

What is even more worrisome is that these Nigerian women are stranded in Iraq not for dreaming of any good job but for dreaming to get some caregiving jobs which are humiliating in the first place. I opened my dictionary to check if I still understand what the word “stranded” means. My dictionary confirms what I know. To be stranded is to be abandoned or marooned. That is to say, these staggering number of Nigerian women—in their thousands—are not even worthy of the caregiving jobs explained above. In other words, we are treated as worthless people. 

Yet, this doesn’t budge our elected rulers an inch. They don’t give a damn. Would it be shocking if these women are subjected to the Libyan treatment narrated above in this piece? These are all consequences of bad governance, official corruption, and disdain for patriotism by those we elected to govern but who choose to rule over us. 

My appeal to Dabiri-Erewa who broke this bad news is to appeal to the Nigerian government who gave her the diasporan job to rescue these vulnerable women from their state of hopelessness back to Nigeria. I understand many fled Nigeria because they  felt hopeless. Yet, I think it is better to be hopeless in the midst of one’s family and friend members than to be hopeless as a stranded foreigner in a foreign country. I may be wrong. 

Our rulers can do better to help improve the economy. Nigerians are very resilient people who can survive and remain in their country if they can feed. But when ability to feed, as basic as it is, becomes the privilege of a very few in Nigeria, taking exit from the county would not be an alternative but an obligation. If our rulers sincerely need God’s help to set things right and move this country forward, may God help them.

Abdulkadir Salaudeen 

salahuddeenabdulkadir@gmail.com