Ordeal of an Immigrant: A Letter from My Prison Room to My Children
For me to live is
Christ and to die is gain
~ St. Paul to the
Philippians
My dear Children,
I know you are all still wondering for how long I am going
to be in this prison room! It has been over three and half years and counting
since I was relegated to my dehumanizing status in which I have been unable to
provide for you as a result of the stigmatization that has made it impossible
for me to work or make a living in the country that is the “Land of the Free and
Brave.” Sometimes I think about Mohammed Ali and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,
and try to imagine what is like to be incarcerated because of justice delayed.
How is your mother taking it in? I pray that the almighty
God will continue to endow her with wisdom, strength and the courage to wait
upon our God and therefore remain faithful.
And without asking, it is tough for you all, because I am
unable to take you all on the vacation we had initially planned because of lack
of income. However, please do not dismay, for initially I thought I was being
buried, but in reality our God just planted me like the mustard seed. I will
germinate and bear fruit most abundantly as long as I wait upon the Lord my God
who will grant me vindication in accordance to his plans for my life.
Today’s weather is so beautiful considering the fact that
only some day’s back the temperature was below zero degree Celsius ( Yes, go
ahead and convert it to Fahrenheit, since in America we are more familiar with
the later). The sun is beautiful and coupled with the gentle breeze this fall
season feels so amazing and my faith and hope and love for God is further
encouraged.
I am writing to you my children because the youngest among
you in his letter wrote he could not understand why I have to suffer this much,
when I was a victim of attorney misrepresentation and he felt I am being
victimized twice; first they took my source of livelihood and secondly justice
is being delayed, and I quite understand with him and consequently I will
attempt to summarize again, the events that has led to my present predicament.
I was born in Nigeria and trained as a medical scientist;
however what I am most proud of is being a father to you all and a husband to
your mother, the sweetheart I met at the National Hospital Abuja. Then I was
invited to the United States of America by the American Association of Clinical
Chemistry to receive the International Travel Grant Award, which is given to
deserving laboratorian from the developing countries of the world. After
receiving this award in Orlando Florida, I departed for Abuja and cannot
express in words how happy I was to be united with your mother. As fate may
have it, I received another invitation to present my abstracts which I
submitted to the Clinical Ligand Assay Society. Well I made it and it was
greatly successful indeed.
Now your mother and I decided to explore opportunities in the
United States of America, this was after I narrated the uncountable advices I
received from professional colleagues that believe my training is suitable and
qualify me for the specialty visa type called the H1B. We prayed about it and I
was given her blessings before the presence of our God, who united us as man
and wife. Without doubt, it was not easy, however by the grace of the almighty
God, I was given the strength to bear everything and behold it came to pass,
OMV Medical Inc. find it in their heart through Mr. Mike Geraci to file the H1B
Visa for me. It was approved and there began a different phase in my life; I
was posted to Mercy Hospital and then had the opportunity to begin the process
of working on brining the family to the USA. Everything was working according
to our plans, and then it happened, after series of setbacks, I visited Nigeria
and behold that was how we relocated to the United States of America legally
and without compromising our faith in God.
Then emerges the darkness at Mercy Hospital and the woes
that followed this dark era hunted me to this day and therefore the necessity
of this letter. I lost my job after over five years of meritorious services in
which I was blessed to receive numerous international and national awards while
at Mercy and even awards by the hospital too. I will not saturate you with
trying to neither vindicate myself nor explain the inimical inclinations that
led to my loosing the job. However I want you to bear in mind that we humans
can be evil indeed. I was deceived, confused and made mockery of by the same
institution that claim to protect my interest, when it went behind and revoke
my H1B Visa, while pretending they will support my quest for better
opportunities elsewhere, in fact, they wrote a letter of introduction during
one of my job application and offer processes.
I pick up two jobs in less than four weeks of departing
Mercy hospital; at Sinai Hospital and later Laurel Regional Hospital. In both
instances, I have never claimed to be a citizen and presented all the papers
and documentation I was asked to provide and this include what was called the
ALIEN NUMBER. I willingly resign these two opportunities in order to focus at
the new job at SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center in Baltimore. It was at SNBL
that for the first time I was made to understand that I need a new H1B petition
notwithstanding the validity of my I-140 Approval!
The genesis of my immigration mediocrity was further
compounded by the attorney I ran into through a referral from a fellow
Nigerian, brother and friend, and I understand he meant well for me,
regrettably the attorney I had to deal with was too greedy for money and sold
her soul to the Devil. She mistreated me and actually made me feel like less of
a human being, nevertheless, my God was able to strengthen me by the precious
blood of Jesus Christ and therefore through all the ordeals, I survived. When
it became obvious through the help of a Federal Senator that this attorney was
not representing my interest, I had to find another law firm and unfortunately
my issue remained unresolved! In fact as a matter of fact, it got worse,
leading to my present imprisonment, in which I was ‘ban’ from engaging in any
form of work that I can do to feed my family. Sometimes I liken my situation to
asking an individual whose hands are tight with a lanyard and then asked to go
and fight a Goliath.
My God continued to support my family through his divine
providence and later the attorney that mishandled my immigration papers was
found guilty of professional misconduct by the Attorney Grievance Commission
and disbarred. Unfortunately this development is yet to benefit me in any
practical way, with the exception that she will never hurt anybody especially
vulnerable immigrants again.
Our God later sent an attorney to us to attempt to resolve
my issues, so that I can become employable again and this is where we are so
far.
Now, I do not want any of you nor your mother to despair
over anything, because by the faith we have in God, there is nothing that comes
our way that God is oblivious of. Our God knows what assails us every day of
our lives and therefore, what is required of us is nothing short of love, hope
and faith in the almighty God who created us and gave us the gifts of life and
love and faith in him.
Yes indeed, it has not been easy, well, it was never easy
for our Lord Jesus Christ who did nothing wrong and yet was put to death by
ignorant men, who thing they were serving the God that unfortunately they did
not know nor understands.
What I ask of you all is prayer! Let us continue to pray without
ceasing and continue to wait upon the Lord, whose ways are not our ways and
whose mercy, love and compassion, justice and divine providence is as high as
the heavens from the earth. Nothing is impossible for our God to do and
therefore, if I live, it is for Christ and should death come it is gain for me.
My children, I encourage you all to rejoice in the Lord and
make a joyful noise to our Lord and God because his steadfast love endures
forever.
I am in the prison today not because I have done something
wrong by commission; on the contrary it might have been as a result of
omission, an omission that arises as a result of human deceptions, greed and
unfaithfulness, wickedness, godlessness and inhumanity and selfishness. Today I
forgive all those who have contributed to putting me in this prison right now.
My God told me that just like in the case of St. Paul and
many others that have to be put in prison as a result of injustices and lack of
love, compassion and mercy, this time is assigned to me to reflect upon the
goodness of the almighty in my life, and therefore, my new task is to spread
the Good News of Jesus Christ until he comes again.
Be encouraged and therefore keep me in your prayers, as I
patiently await my vindication from the almighty God!
You all know that I fear no man and trust only in God for
true justice and freedom and even though it seems to be delaying, I would
rather wait upon the Lord, to whom a thousand days is like a day, than try on
my own to resolve the crisis that assails me at the moment. I offer my life to
my God through Jesus Christ and by faith, I believe I will soon be release from
this mental prison created by false accusations from those who took my money
and refused to provide the services that they were paid for.
I have to rest now, for I am anxious to say my prayer, for
right now that is my ultimate consolation. I used to read about God, but in recent
times, I have seen the Lord with my eyes indeed! Whenever I think am about to
be handed over to the evil one, my God will send his angels and saints to
rescue me from the mouth of the dragon. Today is not any different, not at all,
in fact it was even made sweeter because of the benefactors that the almighty
God continued to send our ways.
It will not hurt for you to remember this story and share it
with your siblings as I have already shared it with your mother, my wife.
I was thinking about how to pay the mortgage and other
utilities and then the devil wanted to tempt me by making my heart to be so
burden that I began to think God is wicked, otherwise why did such a loving,
kind and compassionate God will allow me to go through such a horrific
experience of not being able to pay my bills? My heart was greatly disturbed
and I was truly depressed, when my cell phone rang and beholds it was one of
our benefactors! First, he was just checking and replying to one of my text and
before I knew it, he promised to wire $230, then another one promised $200 of
which your mother did go to collect. And as if that wasn’t enough, the same that
sent $230, two days later promised another $1000 when I narrated the various
options we are being saturated with, including but not limited to selling our
house and moving to Canada! When we went to his office to pick up the check,
behold it was for $1200!
Why am I telling you all these? Simply, I want you all to
put your trust, hope and faith in God and not man. The almighty God can turn
the impossible to become possible, and this example of his divine providence in
our lives is clearly the manifestation of how to the almighty nothing is
impossible. In a nutshell, within less than a week, the almighty God transform
a negative bank account into a plus $1830.00
I therefore repented of my evil inclinations of thinking
that my God was wicked and does not care about me, instead my heart is full of
his praise and my soul magnify the Lord my God.
This is what I want you all to hold on to; God! Hold on to
God and nothing else. Do good, love the almighty God by loving your neighbors
as yourself, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your
mother, father and mankind, love the Lord your God with all your being and do
not stop trusting, hoping and believing in God’s divine providences. Our God is
a faithful God and he never fail, therefore run to him in your distress, praise
him at all times and be the instrument of his peace.
Finally, I still remember my promises to you all; we shall
travel the world for our family vacation- we shall travel to see where the
Blessed Bishop Fidelis Orgah was laid to rest, then visitation to our native
lands, then to Jerusalem and when we are home, we shall make it to Chicago,
Atlanta and Florida again. And I am aware of your needs for the cell phones and
laptop computers. The plans that God has for us is better than the ones I have
for you all and consequently my spirit is uplifted whenever I think about the
wonderful ways that the almighty does his own thing!
My children please remain faithful! Love God and love man!
Respect your mother and man! And respect yourself too! And for the sake of God,
do not grieve the good spirit within you. We are coming out of this very soon.
My
Prison Room: Mentally imprisoned by an unjust system
that
glorifies the smart and punishes those who thrive to do well!
Thank you so much and I love you all.
Sincerely,
Daddy,
