As the United Kingdom voted on Thursday to leave the
European Union, experts have said Nigerians should be worried about the
negative impacts of the referendum that polarised their former colonial master
52 per cent to 48.
Director-General of the Institute of International Affairs,
Lagos, Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, told Saturday PUNCH that migrants should expect
tougher days ahead as a fall out of the decision, tagged Brexit.
According to him, the side which called for the exit of
Britain from the EU had particularly ascribed many of the problems plaguing the
UK in recent times to migrants.
He said, “Some of them blame migrants for unemployment,
various econometric issues and even traffic jams. “When a British lawmaker, Jo Cox, was murdered by a
nationalist recently, his killer, (52-year-old Thomas Mair) shouted ‘Death to
the traitors, freedom to freedom!’ in court. The implication of that for
Nigerians is that those who advocated for leaving the UK would be very strict
and hostile to migrants in the foreseeable future.
“The mere fact that migrants are believed to be responsible
for a lot of problems and the fact that many Nigerians would like to make
Britain their second home, is a sign that they must prepare for harder days to
come.”
The don also said Brexit might reduce the amount of
development aids Nigeria gets from the EU since Britain, which had decided to leave, contributes 15 per cent of the operational
budget of the union.
He said there is likelihood that Brexit would weaken the EU
especially in terms of financial capabilities and the fall out would be a
reduction in aids and assistance to Nigeria.
“This will also affect Nigeria because European countries
are the first direction of our trade. If the union is suffering from whatever
virus, Nigeria will also have its own share,” he said.
Some of his views are also shared by Professor of Political
Economy, Pat Utomi, who said that the referendum might ignite similar
self-determination spirit in other parts of the world especially, Africa.
“I have a feeling that this is a new dawn for plebiscite or
referendum democracy. People are going to be asking why they should be in any
union. It could be Sierra Leone, it could be Nigeria. They will call for their
own referendum. Culture, trends and patterns tend to take on a global
dimension,” Prof. Utomi said.
“We have arrived at the age of self-determination. Making
people stay in a union that they don’t like is now the equivalent of slavery in
the modern age. It may get to the extent that many of the concocted states of West
Africa that came out of the Berlin Conference, will begin to unravel. It has
huge implication,” Prof Utomi said. The don said there might not be any change
in immigration situation in Britain since the nation was already tough on
immigration.
But he believes the EU will seek to build new trade
partnerships while Britain will make efforts to cement old trade alliances with
countries like Nigeria.
A Professor of Energy Economics, Adenikinju Adeola, said the
fact that the exit of Britain from the EU had created an uncertainty in the
global market, would have a direct impact on Nigeria’s open economy.
According to him, Nigeria’s effort to sign a partnership
agreement with the EU, which Britain is part of, that will allow for free
access of goods and services from both sides, may have to be renegotiated.
He said, “Every agreement that has been signed will be
affected in one way or the other. Like some experts have rightly said, the exit
is going to cause a global recession in the economy because it will affect the
demand for oil, which is the major source of Nigeria’s income.
“Nigeria is trying to borrow money from the global financial
market to fund the budget and other projects, but the Britain exit may also
affect the chances of the country in assessing the loan.”
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo, told Saturday
PUNCH that the historical tie between Nigeria and Britain, which indirectly
dovetails into the EU, is one of the reasons, the country should be worried
about Brexit.
“If Britain, which is the strongest ally of Nigeria, pulls
out from the EU, you can imagine what that means for Nigeria.” he said.
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