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Dear Sir,

I have the good fortune – as many would see it - of being a citizen of both
Nigeria and the UK. For the last twenty years or so I have chosen to live in
Nigeria, although I travel to the UK from time to time for professional as well
as personal reasons. Almost ten years ago I married my wife, Juliet Ezenwa,
the artist and a Nigerian citizen.

Shortly after our marriage she applied for, and received, a six-month visa to
travel to the UK but was unable to use it for reasons which she explained in
her three subsequent visa applications, the most recent being just last
month. On each of these occasions she was denied a visa, apparently
because it was thought that she might abscond and thereby become a
burden on the state, and this despite the fact that we have our home here and
have no desire to go and live in the UK, at least for the foreseeable future.

On those three previous occasions she had been invited by family, including
my mother, a British citizen who lives in the UK and had undertaken to host
her for the duration of her stay. However, on this last occasion she was also
invited by the King’s Theatre in Portsmouth, which invited her to hold an
exhibition of her paintings from 29 July to 11 August 2011, the details of
which are with you, including a letter from the director. I am now at a loss as
to what to do.

Neither the Germans nor the Italians shared your view about her likely
intentions when they granted her visas to travel to their countries, both times
in connection with her art, and yet she cannot travel to her husband’s country
for a similar activity. I know perfectly well that foreigners married to British
citizens do not automatically qualify for British citizenship, and I know how
difficult it can be for British citizens to have their wives join them in their own
country, but it seems an abrogation of a fundamental human right that the
wife of a British citizen is barred from travelling to her husband’s country for a
specific period of time in pursuit of her legitimate business. I feel insulted on
my own account and also on hers.


Many others have written over the years about the cavalier treatment meted
out to |Nigerians by the British High Commission and I know exactly what
they mean. The pity, of course, is that successive Nigerian governments have
never stood up for their own citizens, which is why other countries treat them
with the contempt they do. Indeed, I witnessed it myself some time ago when
I ran into a problem in neighbouring Togo with only my Nigerian passport to
hand but that is a matter for Nigerians to solve. As regards my wife, by all
means continue denying her what seems to me her legitimate right but I can
at least voice my sense of outrage that she – and, by extension, myself also
- should be treated in this despicable manner.


Yours sincerely,
Adewale Maja-Pearce.
Adewale Maja-Pearce
African Examiner, Baltimore | Friday, July 22, 2011
Open letter to the British High Commissioner
| More
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