[Comment]Nigerian Pilgrims And The Attack On Saudi Banks

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[patonaiyekan]

One should naturally be shocked by this story but most Nigerians will not. We see this attitude of intolerance and impatience in places of worship everyday with pushing and shoving to get the best seating position or even to buy the days bulletin/ programme. Our view of what God expects from us seems to me completely different from the rest of the world. It is known only in Nigeria that one can steal public money or even rob and pay 10% tithe from it. Is that to make God look the other way or what?
If the story is properly investigated, i bet this confusion was caused by inefficiency and poor communication on the part of the pilgrims board.

[lateesha]

I AM not supporting violent conduct but I think the Nigerian pilgrims who took out their anger on a number of Saudi banks on Tuesday, November 3, smashing the banks' glass windows and doors in the process deserve understanding, not condemnation. The story as reported in the Daily Trust (Wed., Nov. 4) is explanatory enough. One of the cardinal rules of banking is that the service provider must know his or her customer (KYC). This provides the necessary guide in managing both relationships and risks.

The Saudi bankers made the mistake of subjecting pilgrims who needed to cash their travellers cheques to unnecessary delay and humiliation. First, it was only Nigerian pilgrims that had to queue up at the banks. Why Nigerians only? Were the Saudi bankers trying to suggest that the Nigerians could be holding stolen cheques? Coming from a country where a queue in a banking hall could mean shoddy service, no money, or humiliation, the Nigerian pilgrims must have been seized by the emotional memory of the banking situation at home, forgetting for a while that they were in the holy land. I have been in banking halls where such delays led to the customers raising their voices and asking the tellers and their bosses to hurry up. We are Nigerians. We don't like to be delayed.

Has anyone forgotten the case of the member of the House of Representatives who was asked to show his identity card by a security guard? He responded with a slap to the guard's face. Don't you know who I am? Don't the Saudis know that we are Nigerians? The affected banks got off lightly with only a few smashed windows. It could have been worse. The bank managers should count themselves lucky they were not beaten up. The Tuesday encounter must provide a learning opportunity for the Saudi Arabian banking sector: don't mess with Nigerian customers, or any customer coming from a country with a banking crisis. I can bet that the key impression in the minds of the Nigerian pilgrims must have been about the possibility of their cheques being dud cheques.

Suppose the Saudi bankers were trying to play a fast one on them. For three days, the Nigerian pilgrims had tried to cash their travellers cheques, but they were reportedly kept on the queue from one bank to the other and told stories. This was in Saudi Arabia, not Nigeria. Impossible, they must have thought. They had no money; many of them could not buy food. A few started spending the Naira notes they had to buy food from fellow Nigerians. Meanwhile, they were not sure that their travellers cheques would be honoured. Today, very few Nigerians trust bankers. For the past month or so, Nigerians, the pilgrims in Saudi Arabia inclusive, had been treated to stories and revelations about all kinds of sharp practices by bankers. Bankers who steal depositors funds. Bank CEOs who loot the bank and use the funds to buy private jets. Banks which give unmerited overdrafts creating a new generation of "onigbese billionaires".

Clearly discriminatory but who could blame them?
Nigerians have done all sorts of things while on pilgrimage and outside of pilgrimage.
It is the sin committed by our townsmen that's now rubbing on everyone.
Let them wipe their tears and bear it.

[eire]

Most northern Muslims are some way or another primitive talakawas with very archaic sense of reasoning. the fact they worship a religion borne out of brainwashing does not help either.

If the same Saudis who treat Nigerian muslims like 3rd class camels ask them (northern muslims) to go kill their fellow Nigerian Christians, will many of them not do it?

Let them get rough justice from their fellow Mohammedan brothers for a change!

[vicchenyo]

Nigerians know their rights anywhere they are. The Saudi should be thankful it was breaking of window glasses. Next time, they will get something more dangerous. Pay them their monies and collect their travellers' cheques, period!

[Agidimolaja]

Once again, Moslems' insincerity about calling their religion holy and peaceful is on open display in Saudi Arabia, the grand seat of Islam, when Nigerian pilgrims were singled out for oppression and humiliations.
Worst still, the Sultan of Sokoto who is parading himself as Nigeria's Islamic Chief of Staff has got nothing to say in form of protest or in defense of Moslems from his home country in the face of that unholy humiliations.
Where art thou,loud-mouthted Northern Islamic clerics?Where art thou, abominable Governors of Sharia States? Where art thou, Southern Islamic stooges like Lateef Adegbite,Arisekola Alao etc?
It is so shameful that Reuben Abati{a Christian} has to come out pleading your cause while you moslems who ought to show great concerns about the unfortunate incident in Saudi Arabia by speaking out loudly against it remained perfectly silent.
But, if a diagram was painted in Europe,innocent non moslem Nigerians living in perverse Northern Nigeria would be massively murdered{ including women and children} by you pathetic moslems.
I said it before and will continue to say it that Islam is devilish and demonic, considering all the facts that cannot be denied about the religion which is well noted for murderous and terrorist activities all over the world, including our Northern Nigeria.

[lateesha]

When are they returning from Hajj sef
I hope the aircraft doesn't forget them like last year and our men and women started washing dishes for food on Saudi streets.
It's not easy being a Nigerian even in supposed holy lands.