» "Nigeria's Reputation For Crime Made Them Unwelcome In Britain" - Buhari «

Nigeria's president has warned his fellow citizens to stop
trying to make asylum claims in Britain, saying that their
reputation for criminality has made it hard for them to be
"accepted" abroad.
Muhammadu Buhari, the tough ex-general elected last
year, said those who had joined the migrant exodus to
Europe were doing so purely for economic reasons rather
than because they were in danger.
He added that because of the number of Nigerians
imprisoned for law-breaking in Britain and elsewhere, they
were also unlikely to get much sympathy.
"We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way
to salvage that"
"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too difficult back
home, but they have also made it difficult for Europeans
and Americans to accept them because of the number of
Nigerians in prisons all over the world accused of drug
trafficking or human trafficking," he told The Telegraph.
"I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can
remain at home, where their services are required to
rebuild the country."
Mr Buhari's remarks may upset refugees' rights groups,
who claim that the vast majority of asylum cases lodged
by Nigerians are genuine. In recent years, many have said
they are fleeing Boko Haram, the Islamist group that Mr
Buhari's army is now struggling to stamp out in northern
Nigeria.
However, only around one in ten of the 13,000 asylum
claims lodged by Nigerians in Britain in the last 15 years
have been accepted.
And the claims of persecution appear to cut no ice at all
with Mr Buhari, a headmasterly figure who famously waged
a "war on indiscipline" on his fellow Nigerians while serving
as the country's military ruler in the 1980s.
Back then, Nigerians could be whipped if they did not stand
in line at bus queues, while lazy civil servants were forced
to do frog jumps in the office if they arrived for work late.
While he has not re-introduced such measures as a
civilian ruler, he makes it clear that a minority of his
countrymen could still do with improving their behaviour.
"We have an image problem abroad and we are on our way
to salvage that," he said.