It only been three days after the Germany-Nigeria bilateral talks that somehow got overshadowed by the domestic squabble between President Buhari and his wife, Aisha Buhari over totally unrelated matters.
President Buhari was in Germany for a few days meeting with the German leaders including Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss several issues ranging from the fight against terrorism and the rebuilding of the Northeast to trade and economic relations between Nigeria and Germany. It is still not very clear what the outcomes of these meetings are but we have enough previous relations between the two countries to have set the ground for the just concluded state visit.
For one, Germany, earlier had promised to donate €47.6 million as financial support to Nigeria for technical cooperation programmes and special project initiatives. Also, German President Gauck had first paid a state visit to Nigeria in February to discuss trade and investments with key players in the government and private sectors.
However, while we are yet to get an update from the Nigerian government about the outcome of the meetings, the German media is rife with stories about how Germany is going to send back most Nigerian asylum seekers.
Although Merkel promises to help Nigeria in the fight against Boko Haram, she says Germany won’t be able to grant asylum to all the Nigerians who claim to be fleeing the menace of Boko Haram. She went on to say that she “presume[s] that most of them came for economic reasons,” unlike the Syrians or Iraqis who are actually fleeing war zones.
True talk though, why seek asylum in Germany from Maiduguri when you can move to another state?
But then there is reason to believe that this move by Merkel has less to do with Nigeria than it has to do with Angela Merkel trying to redeem her own image in her Germany. She has come under serious fire for her open door policy which saw Germany at the top of the list of European countries accepting refugees. After a series of attacks last year some which were carried out by immigrants, Merkel had to defend her wir schaffen das (we can manage it) stance on the refugee situation. This might just be a strategic move to reassure Germans who have started to become intolerant of the millions of immigrants that have trooped into Germany.
