Does the United States of America [USA] have any
ulterior motive commencing the recruitment of young men and women from two
ethnic groups in Nigeria: Igbo and Hausa into the US army?
According to the recruitment
exercise’s dedicated website www.defence.gov/news/mavni-fact-sheet, the US army
is looking for native speakers of 44 languages, including Hausa, Igbo,
Azerbaijani, Cambodian-Khmer, Persian Dari (spoken in Afghanistan), Portuguese,
Tamil (spoken in South Asia) and French (spoken in West Africa), among others.
The programme, code-named, Military
Accessions Vital to the National Interest, or Mavni, is not open to illegal
immigrants, who are barred by law from enlisting. In general, immigrants who
are not citizens must have a permanent resident visa, known as a green card, to
enlist. Under the programme, a total of 1,500 immigrants are to be recruited
each year for two years, mainly into the Army.
Already, the New York Times, in its
October 28, 2012 edition, reported the excitement of the recruits and US top
officials handling the entire process.
Eileen Lainez, a Pentagon
spokeswoman, said the programme was intended to fill “some of our most critical
readiness needs.”
The programme , which was
reportedly active in 2009, was suspended in January 2010, only for it to be
re-activated in September this year.
According to the report, thousands
of immigrants were enthusiastic of being recruited throughout the period the
exercise was put in abeyance in January 2010, despite the fact that they could
be deployed to conflict spots around the world.
Towards the end of September, the
US Army headquarters, Pentagon, re-opened the programme, which the authorities
claim is designed to enlist legal immigrants with special language and medical
skills.
Some analysts say the eagerness of
the immigrants is due to the prevalent appalling socio-economic and
political crises in their home countries, as it has encouraged the scramble by
most youths for the American visa lottery, with prospect for job opportunities
in the United States.
US military officials were quoted
as saying the year-long pilot programme brought an unusually well-educated and
skilled cohort of immigrants into the armed services.
“Their qualifications were really
stellar,” said Naomi Verdugo, assistant deputy for recruiting for the Army.
“And we have been very pleased about how these folks have been performing.”
The programme is open to immigrants
on temporary visas, who otherwise would not be eligible to enlist, while to
qualify, immigrants must have been living in the US legally for at least two
years, as well as be high school graduates and pass the entrance test.
According to the report, the first
round filled up quickly, and the Army turned away thousands of people. Many of
them signed the Facebook petition and were hoping the programme would start
again.
Healthcare professionals, who
enlist as officers, must serve either three years of active duty or six years
in the Reserves. Immigrants who enlist based on their language skills must
serve for a minimum of four years of active duty, while participants who fail
to serve their term can lose their citizenship.
Its powerful lure is that it allows
them to naturalise as United States citizens quickly, in most cases at the end
of basic training, which lasts about 10 weeks.
Most immigrants on temporary visas,
whether they are students or workers with particular skills, must wait years –
for some nationalities, more than a decade – to become citizens