Nigeria as a nation in this 21st century human universe is known worldwide in the bad light and for the criminal activities of her nationals in those foreign countries. Nigerians are today synonymous globally with corruption, illegalities, crimes or criminal activities, such as, terrorism, the internet fraud (419 scam), mail fraud, wire fraud, visa fraud or immigration violations, banking fraud, security fraud, drug smugglings, human traffickings, illegal prostitutions and for impersonations or identity theft. There is hardly any nation out of the 195 countries of the world today that Nigerians cannot be found serving various prison time for one or more of the above listed criminal activities. The Federal Government of Nigeria does not have an accurate or the up-to-date data on the exact number of Nigerians in the foreign prisons in 2013.
Mr. Femi Ajayi, the Director General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency of Nigeria put the number of Nigerians in the foreign prisons at over 6,000 which I personally considered to be an underestimated figure in all reality. The information from some of the available data showed that 4,000 Nigerians are in the Iranian jails, 6,000 in the British prisons, 1,000 in the Chinese jails, 500 in the Indian prisons, 100 in the Ukraine jails, 409 in the South African jails, 500 in the Brazilian prisons, 300 in the Malaysian jails and 500 in the prisons of the nation of Thailand. The number of Nigerians in the American prisons is low today in 2013 because American government has the financial resources to deport these convicted Nigerians back to Nigeria which is cheaper to do than spending about $26,000 a year of the American tax payers' money to support each Nigerian prisoner in the United States.
In conclusion, the Nigerians that live in the foreign countries should never forget that their Nigerian citizenship that they currently hold and the sovereignty of the Federal Government of Nigerian do not extend beyond the international borders of Nigeria in all reality. The Nigerians in diaspora should never forget that those foreign countries have their own laws which they will implement if broken by Nigerians. All Nigerians are expected to follow the laws of the foreign nations where they reside or visiting, in order to stay out of trouble with the governments of those foreign countries.
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