Birth Tourism - The Industry - My Worry

Today (23^rd July, 2015) should probably be tagged “baby’s day” for me because everywhere I turned to there was something that had to do with little kids! As early as 6am, one of my BFF (“One of” simply because I have many BFFs!) sent me a personal message on BBM “Bro we have another princess” and I was elated because I shared the journey with her (in prayers). Fast forward to 10 am on the same day I got a broadcast message from another good friend of mine “Join me and praise God, my wife has delivered a baby girl” another yay… my assortment of godchildren just increased :D.

Why are these events important to this post? Here is why, the two women had their (our) bundle of joy in the United State of America (USA) which I suppose has the best maternal mortality rate compared to the rest of the world - or maybe not – it might jolly well be because USA has a great policy that enables a child born on the plane in the US air space become the citizen of Uncle Sam with all accruable rights bestowed immediately through issuance of birth certificates and passports.

This seems to be the new craze for the emerging middle class in Nigeria even though the elites had always practiced this since independence, most of the children of the wealthy Nigerians in the 90’s hold dual citizenship.

Now here is what truly inspired this article, at exactly 5:40 pm, I was done with the most important items on my to-do list, so I jumped into my personal mail to at least act like I have a work-life balance, voila! I see child birth staring me in the face again, this time it is from a populardeal and coupon marketplace website… hold on, Child birth deals? Like will you give me a great wife deal that can give me triplets at once? So I do not have to go through the journey for 3*9 months? O my bad it is an offer of an “Affordable Childbirth in USA”, quite cheap compared to what I know so I clicked on it.

Guess what? It is simply a consultancy service for expectant mothers and fathers who are interested in having the blue passport in the next 21 years (when their kids can decide to make their parents citizens). I mean, just like the numerous consulting firms helping Nigerian students gain admission abroad we now have consulting firms that will tell you to wear a long kaftan for the visa interview to hide the bulging stomach, prepare a tourist itinerary for you to defend, should the immigration officer question your purpose of visiting Texas, and finally arrange for your accommodation, upkeep etc.

Here is my worry, just 4 months ago I came across an article on a major news site about the term ‘Birth Tourism’.

Birth Tourism is the term used to describe this sort of service being offered on the deal site, the FBI was on a mission to crackdown and track Chinese firms making huge profit from this unregulated industry or should I say this industry that has been created due to the absence of a firm law.

Now, why am I ranting or writing about this? Maybe I am just scared that by the time I have “Bae” and decide to join my good friends in exploring the Birth Tourism market, the Republicans or Tea party might be in charge of the USA and their strong immigration views might prevent me.

Or, I might just pretend I am not interested and stick to the argument that says make it big in Nigeria, fly to any country you want to, live in any country you so desire, buy properties in any corner of the world, make yourself a free citizen and not dependent on a free nation… but what do I know? I am just a wannabe birth tourist.

“’A’ parallel”

Dad to Son: Listen to me boy, you must make all A’s in this Common Entrance exam, I don’t want to hear any excuse(s)!!!

That's the scene i foresee in Nigeria in the coming years.

Just last month, i was having a discussion with a friend about the unemployment rate in Nigeria and we reasoned that with the way things are going, prospective employers will soon start making some ‘crazy’ categorization of the type of applicants they need for any advertised job. Our thinking then was “forward” in the sense that we reasoned, in the long run only graduates with a First class degree and Masters degree holders will be favoured to even  write an aptitude test in the country, but alias our thinking should have been “backward” (you can’t blame us simply because we are both  Masters degree holders, so we could only feel better with the thought that we are well placed for any job opening).

So the thought should have been “backward” because companies are now including grades from WAEC as requirements for the applicants they want, this new development obviously surpasses the requirement for gaining admission into the university (which is 5 credits) because grades such as B’s and A’s are the reques6ted standards.

Can i blame the companies for the new development? My answer is NO with the astronomic population of Nigeria and the rate at which we turn out graduates every year, employers are scared of placing placing adverts of vacancies in the dailies because they are faced with hundreds and thousands of applications and the process of selection could cost a fortune.

My advise thus is that applicant should brace up for more classifications e.g. Jamb scores, Primary school results, Common entrance grades, Junior Secondary School grades etc… ok maybe it won’t get that worse but hey don’t slack.

For the newly wedded, you better warn your children yet unborn of this development so that they will be able to rake in the A’s early in life if not “dem no go get job o” a word they say is enough for the wise. I rest my case.