Germany is a very gracious state, or better enunciated, Germany has very gracious politicians in government. The level of grace displayed in 2015, was so emotional that it set dormant fires of hatred alive. Angela Merkel, Germany’s long-serving Chancellor who offered to step down at the end of her present tenure, wanted to tell the world that the hearts in Hitler’s home are not cold, so she imported more than enough brushwood to keep them truly warm and active. Between August and December of 2015, no fewer than 800,000 persons were welcomed into the former Nazi territory. By April 2016, Merkel’s quota of one million refugees from the hot-headed state of Syria where a tripartite war cannon installed by the USA and its Middle East allies on one hand and Russia as well as its Persian brother, Iran, and on the other, had been exceeded.
With this glowing report, a Nigerian who has stared down death in Kajuru, Kaduna State, for too long, might jump at a trip to Brandenburg or Saxony Anhalt in search of peace and a fair chance at life. Added to being a refugee, she or he might just have the misfortune of practicing Islam. Not finding any travel advice on the Nigerian media or the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, this fated individual could in bliss walk into the lair of right winged extremists In Dresden or Leipzig.
Travel Advice, the USA- puts Nigeria on Level 3, ‘reconsider travelling’.
While Borno, Yobe and Northern Adamawa, are on the same rating as Afghanistan— ‘do not travel.’ The United Kingdom has Abia State in South East Nigeria, listed as a place British citizens should make only essential visits to. The Nigerian government always lives its citizens to sought things out except in extreme conditions, when some unfortunate Nigerian is on death row.
With all these said, here is a little help if you’re venturing into Germany. Germany is not as violent as Nigeria but if you are a migrant or a Muslim, there are certain trends you should pay attention to.
When you compare how Nigerian officials react to killings to how their German counterparts respond to the rising prevalence of right winged extremists— persons who harbour violent intent towards Jews, Muslims, refugees/people of colour, you would think the German officials are making unnecessary noise.
Maybe this is why the Nigerian government has not thought to raise the same alarm to citizens’ intent on going to school, work or unwelcomed and endless vacations in Germany.
If a Nigerian running away from a brutish life in Wukari, Taraba State, sees a clip of the viral video of thousands of Germans welcoming refugees from Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as they enter Munich in
Bavaria, she or he should know that the German police said pro-refugee volunteers, politicians as well as journalists were likely targets of violence.
In April 2016, the German police released a report informing those it had the duty to protect that, apart from ‘physical harm, one has to reckon with murders.’ Far from attempting to sound ambiguous or politically correct, the report plunked the blame at the center of the forehead saying, Neo-Nazis and their supporters had created a ‘climate of fear.’ As the police predicted then, a pro-refugee politician was finally struck with a bullet to the head after two failed attempts with knives on two mayors. Walter Lübcke, regional Governor of Kassel in the Western German state of Hesse, was killed in his home on June 2, 2019, by Stephan Ernst. Only because it happened in the efficient country of Germany do we know who the killer is by confession within a month of the act. Reacting to Lübcke’s murder, Heiko Maas, Germany’s Minister of Foreign Affairs wrote an opinion in German newspaper Bild saying,
”Eighty years after the beginning of World War II, politicians have again become victims of right-wing terrorists. Because of their beliefs. Because of their commitment to our country,” Maas wrote.
“All these shows what many still close their eyes to even now: Germany has a terrorism problem.” He even followed his words with a proposal to begin a Thursday protest for Democracy, emphasizing how scared German officials are.
After a right-winged terror cell sent out death warnings via email to German politicians, journalists, and two previously targeted pro-migrant mayors, Henriette Reker of Cologne as well as Andreas Hollstein of Altena— both in the most populated German State of North Rhine Westphalia on June 18, Thomas Haldenwang, Acting President of The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BFV) – based on its German translation, said in a press conference that the state cannot keep tabs on all violent right-winged extremists in the country. He put the size of their rank at 13,000.
Haldenwang’s predecessor, Hans-Georg Maassen, left office because he was accused of being too chummy with right-winged extremists. Three should suffice for emphasis. Speaking of those 13,000 the BFV cannot keep surveillance on, you might think they are a paltry number to be bothered by when compared to over 1.2 million refugees between 2015 and now or 17 million non-Germans. But…
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