THE EBIRA-SOVIETNIKS AND THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE IN THE EX-USSR

By Mathew Raji Andah
For ten years, 1981-1991, there was a steady rise in their numbers. They were the beneficiaries of a contractual agreement, trained at the tertiary institutions of the host country. They studied hard to earn their PhDs or diplomas in medicine, engineering, economics, linguistics and other specialties. Upon graduation, many have gone back home, some have opted to travel to other parts of the world or stayed behind in the host country. Others failed to graduate, returned home, stayed behind or gone to overseas. No one knows exactly how many there are. Conservative estimate put their number at about a hundred. They are the Ebira-sovietniks.


The Ebira-sovietniks who went home upon graduation--probably about 30 percent-- are making their mark in the academia, the medical, engineering and other professions. Those who failed to graduate before heading home have enrolled and did so at home upon arrival. To both group of returnees, readjustment and settling down was hard. The vacancy sections of national dailies were perused with gusto, countless applications for work were written and resumés sent. Journeys were undertaken as follow-ups. The compulsory one-year National Youth Service Corp provided respite to most returnees enabling them to practise their skills and reintegration back into the society. Some lucky ones were retained as employees at the place or institution where they served.


Others who opted upon graduation or before it to other parts of the world especially the west constitute another 30 percent. Most gained entrance via the US or the Canadian equivalent of Green Card Lottery programmes, others through visitors’ visas that were then converted on arrival into residencies. Whichever way the entrance was secured, readjustment and settling down was also hard. It required doing the so-called survival jobs, retraining and integration in the new society.
The third group of Ebira-sovietniks are the hangers-on, those--about 38 percent-- who stayed behind after or before graduation in the ex-Soviet Union.
Most of the Africans in the Soviet Union in the early nineties were students and Anebira owe their being there, in large part, to Ajaokuta steel company. Shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and immediately afterwards, a wave of hustlers, “transit guys” began entering the country. Mainly from Nigeria, many were relations or friends of students already in the USSR. Others paid to facilitators to get taken there. All the “transit guys” have one thing in common. They were using the country as a transit camp to get the necessary travel documents to continue the onward journey to the western countries. Some succeeded. Others who could not were left to their own devices and the growing network of criminal gangs to cope. They became hawkers: selling shoes, wears and illegal drugs. Of “the transit guys”, only one Anebira has been identified and she now lives in Holland.
I recently returned from Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, after a thirteen-year absence. I was amazed at the extent of the transformation. There were banners everywhere in the crowded city advertising everything from mobile phone providers, PCs and latest Jeeps to fast food joints. There were the trappings of modernity and the Ukraine is revelling in its consciousness as a democratising and independent country with eyes firmly fixed on joining NATO and the European Union. Five political parties are represented in the Verhovna Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, out of the forty-five that contested the parliamentary elections on the 26 March 2006. Other parties did not cross the 3 percent threshold imposed by the country’s electoral laws.


One of the main causes of disquiet amongst the African community in Kiev is the rise of xenophobic and nationalist parties like the Ukrainian Conservative party and the Freedom party. Then there are also the Skinheads who are inspired by the racist rhetoric emanating from the xenophobic and nationalistic politicians like Prof. Georgy Shchokin and Oleh Tyahnybok of the Ukrainian Conservative party and the Freedom party respectively. The Skinheads are young people with skin-deep haircuts, “omolo”. Fans of punk, rock music and heavy metal, their standard dress comprises of jackets, jeans and boots. They are usually violently aggressive. And they are found all over the world in various political stripes ranging from the far right neo-Nazi, racists to the far left extremists. Estimates from the human rights organisation put their number worldwide at about 70,000 of which 50,000 are believed to be in Russia alone.
It was easy to see the need for apprehension amongst the African community in Kiev. In the summer of 2006, Silavka, a popular bazaar-- where many Africans owned shops selling articles such as used car radios, mobile phones, wears and shoes-- was torched by arsonists suspected to be skinheads. On the 25th October 2006, few days after my arrival, skinheads attacked Dr. Godknows Mievi, a Nigerian from Bayelsa state with knife at the back in the spinal cord and died near the metro “Pozniyaki”. He had a PhD and was survived by an ex-wife and a son. Dr. Godknows was 44. According to Dr. Johnson Aniki, 45, the murder was the first of its kind to a Nigerian in Kiev. Attacks are common these days. A homeboy, Dr. Sheidu Onimissi on a visit from Maryland narrowly escaped being attacked by gangs of skinhead in late October 2006. According to Mr. Sunday Adelaja, 40, the Nigerian protestant minister, “Africans are assaulted on a weekly basis in Kiev”, linking “the rise of racist violence in the Ukraine to the growth of neo-Nazi movement in neighbouring Russia”. At an emergency meeting of the Nigerian community in Kiev to discuss the murder of Dr. Godknows Mievi there was a palpable sense of helplessness and siege mentality. Participants worry that the Ukrainian authorities are in denial of the existence of hate crimes to which foreigners are daily subjected and as such are not doing enough to bring perpetrators to book.


I want to re-emphasise a point once made by Mr. Justin Isa in the August of 2005. He suggested that the Ebira Vonya International should engage with the Ebira-sovietniks still in the ex-USSR. In my conversation with the president, Dr. Joseph Akomodi, I reiterated this point and suggested that a fact finding mission be sent to the ex-USSR to ascertain the plight of Anebira still hanging on there. Of the thirteen Ebira-sovietniks in Ukraine today, only one--Richard Aniki-- is a student. Others are hangers-on with PhDs or Masters but scrapping by in the bazaars selling articles or working in the factories. Six are living in Kiev.
No one, not even the EVI can force people to relocate. The EVI must take cognisance of the plight of the Ebira-sovietniks still in the ex-USSR because they fall well within its orbit and it can certainly encourage people in their late thirties who graduated more than a decade ago to make the right choices. In most countries of the world, people need to put in at least ten years of service to be eligible for pension. The Ebira-sovietniks hanging on in the ex-USSR should take a long-term view of their stay and their lives.