HIS name, Victor, could have been given fortuitously almost three decades ago but beyond chance, Victor Amienwanlan, 28, is an Edo State native of Esan origin who has had to fight to claim his place in this world. I first met him at one of the branches of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Italy — in the city of Bologna to be precise. He serves as one of the volunteers at the church, performing a wide range of functions including but not limited to logistics and bible teaching. His peculiar way of vocalizing the common Charismatic refrain ‘Hallelujah’ is rather amusing. He always goes: “A-Lei-Loo-Jar!”

One Sunday morning last spring, I walked into the church as Mr. Amienwanlan was giving one of his biblical lessons. He was narrating his own story as an adjunct to the main teaching for the service. It was then and there I learned that he used to be a refugee. As he told his tale, I was drawn to the harrowing experience he had endured and wanted to know more. His is one story of endurance and inspiration, the kind that sometimes makes it into Hollywood. I was convinced his experience would benefit thousands of African youths seeking greener pastures in Europe.

Benin City to Bologna via Benghazi

Famous for its bronze artifacts, some of which are currently being held in European museums, Benin City is one of the greatest achievements of Africa in the second millennium of the Common Era. Like many African polities, the city and the empire that grew around it suffered foreign incursions and subjugation towards the end of the nineteenth century when British troops invaded, looted and destroyed a civilization that had existed for hundreds of years. Benin City has since risen from the ashes of British brutality to become the capital of Edo State, one of Nigeria’s 36 subnational divisions.

Mr. Amienwanlan spent parts of his adulthood in Benin City where he studied accounting at the extension school of Olabisi Onabanjo University. Upon completing his studies, he took up a job at a UBA bank office where he served customers receiving funds via Western Union for three years. He soon became friends with a Nigerian woman who lives in Libya and frequently sends money back home to her family in Benin City. Sometime in 2014, the woman promised to help him immigrate to Europe where it is hoped he would get a better job. Over the course of few months, arrangements were made for him to make the big move.

As part of the travel logistics, he was to take a bus to the northern State of Sokoto from where he crossed the border to Niger, Nigeria’s northern neighbor, through the bush, effectively evading the checkpoints of the Nigeria Immigration Service. The woman had also arranged for a company of traffickers to move him through the Sahara Desert. The stint operates like a relay. Once he arrives at a destination, he is instructed to contact someone who takes him in and moves him through the desert before handing him over to the next go-between. Mr. Amienwanlan recalled surviving on just sugar and water as he traversed the desert.

In Niger, he was put on a bus heading to Agadez where he bought a local SIM card to stay in connection with his traffickers. The trip took two days. Upon arrival in Agadez, he was taken to the house of an Arab man where he met two other Nigerians attempting to cross the Sahara to Europe.

“He brought out a gallon of water which we paid for,” Victor said. Next, they were placed in the back of a Toyota Hilux van. About 60 persons were packed in the vehicle like sardines for the long journey through the wilderness. “We were told to wear a mask,” he recalled. “We paid for the mask to protect our faces from the sand. We drove for about one week in the desert. We saw a dead person in a well. We saw skeletons during our stops.” Victor said he paid around 10 Libyan dinars for the mask.

Upon arriving in Libya, he recalled being locked up in a holding cell with about 70 other persons of different nationalities. They were fed bread occasionally. “I was locked up for a month in a small cell. In fact, it’s a prison, on a farm where people cannot find you,” Victor Amienwanlan said.

Eventually, he left the ‘prison’ and travelled to Benghazi, Libya’s second city where the Nigerian woman took him in for almost four months. She provided Victor with basic lodging — he had to learn welding to fend for himself during his sojourn in the Libyan port city. Having earned enough cash to make the journey across the Mediterranean, he bid his hosts goodbye and took a boat towards Italy. “I spent four days on the sea and the boat was leaking.” Despite the mishap, he chose to stay on the boat even when a Tunisian ship came to rescue them. Eventually, he reached Italy where the local police brought them to the refugee camp.

At the refugee camp, he met with a Jehovah Witness adherent who told him his options for survival in Italy were limited to one of three livelihood alternatives: begging, e-waste trade or internet fraud. He chose the only decent of the three options: to barter in e-waste.


https://www.icirnigeria.org/stash-or-trash-does-africa-have-a-taste-for-the-worlds-e-waste/

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