Odein Ajumogobia, Foreign Affairs Minister
Nigerians living in Japan have accused officials of the country’s embassy in Tokyo of indifference to the hardship being experienced by their compatriots in the city of Fukushima, following the radiation in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in the wake of last week’s earthquake and tsunami.
Speaking with THISDAY on phone from Okaido, Japan, a Nigerian, who gave his name as Niyi (surname withheld), said there were several Nigerian students studying at a university in Fukushima that needed the assistance of the embassy to get out of their present predicament.
He said a couple of students and himself had called the embassy in Tokyo to alert them of the plight of the students and the need to evacuate them.
According to him, Nigerians in the town were cut-off from the rest of the world by washed-off roads and collapsed bridges, adding that they were currently housed in a relief camp in Fukushima.
“A female receptionist told me she would call me back after consulting with higher officials at the embassy. That was on Monday. Since then, I have not heard a word from them,” he told THISDAY.
Another Nigerian doctoral student in a Tokyo university said the embassy officials told him they had no fuel in their vehicles to get them to Fukushima.
“I wonder why we are calling ourselves the giant of Africa when countries like the Philippines, Kenya and Mozambique are already evacuating their citizens from the crisis zone,” he said.
He expressed disappointment with the general attitude of the officials, even when he tried to register with them two years ago on his arrival in Tokyo.
“I changed my mind about registering with them two years ago when I saw the picture of former President Olusegun Obasanjo on their website as the president of Nigeria,” he added.
A number of countries, including the United States of America, has already started evacuating their citizens to protect them from the dangers posed by the leaking nuclear reactors and the subsequent radiation.
The confirmed death toll from Friday's 9.0 magnitude quake, which triggered the tsunami, has risen above 5,400.
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