No Nigerians welcome

RECENTLY, my good friend, Chief Udeh, the Head of Nigeria's Immigration Services has been soundin...Read the full article.

[InDiaspora]

Words fail.

This is what happen when we continue to vote for "seasoned politricktians/militricktians", who (according to some) "have what it takes" (whatever the hell that means)!

Vote Pat Utomi for President. Just imagine the possibilities.

[X-Ray]

The sadness of this story almost overwhelms your great writing and story-telling ability. It seems like it came straight out of a great story-book.

I must admit I read it with a bit of a tear in the eye and the regret that human beings continue to stigmatise others and undermine the basic principles of courtesy and humanity. Your piece also sadly demonstrates the subservience many black people still have for their white counterparts to the notable detriment and irritation of their fellow blacks. It happens everyday all over the world - from Africa, the Carriebean, to the United States. It's all a residue of slavery and how black people were treated as inferior species.

That said, this special negative treatment Nigerians experience is undeniably due to the way we have projected ourselves in the last 20 years or so. Our image just got progressively worse, though I feel the situation is being reversed somewhat. Still there is bit of a way to go. Every Nigerian must play his/her part in improving the country's image, which has been so *******ised by a few, government officials and citizens alike.

Father Kukah, I have to commend you on the way you handled both situations. I guess your deep faith and spiritual nature were vital tools to fall back on. In the end you left a good image of yourself and Nigeria. We will need to get our house in order to earn the respect we deserve. So the next time they see a Nigerian coming they'll be rolling out the red carpet. It is not an impossible dream, just requires a fresh new mindset and determination to change our ways of doing things for the better. Become a great and civilised nation and others will be forced to respect you.

One more thing Father Kukah, I believe you can easily add story writing to your list of talents. Very well done indeed and naturally, God bless.

[akuluouno]

Further to mine on vol 1 of Kukah's lucid essay, Kenyan's and Tanzanians have seen what we refused to see due to blind and fraudlent patriotism and crass ethnic squabbles, ie that the nation is a failed state with failed citizens.
So it was Havard that saved Rev Fr kukah (Cssp) from the hands of a fellow catholic Tanzanin immigration officer and his side kick Felix. No wonder Kukah Wept. It was not his fatherhood, catholickness and Africaness to boot. Perish Nigerianess and the fact that we risked our soverieignty in the hey days of apartheid by joining the frontline states all the way from our geopolitical west Africa. It is Kukah on that day. Imagine what fate would have befallen an ordinary citzen Duro, Obi Usman, Bassey or Nimi as an ordinary itinerant Nigerian traders, students and others. Who would have told their story. Let responsible Nigerian authorities confess that they were not aware of that list of abominable countries being widely used by East African countries and which includes Nigeria. That was why Kongi was given the commando treatment at the airport in South Africa. Yet our leaders host the leaders of these countries with open arms and legs without warning them to remove Nigeria from that ignoble list and apologise to boot. Because they do not care for me and you. But how to ensure a sunslide in 07. After the sunslide in 83, Shamgar knew what followed. Baba should consult Shamgar who is now the Antihill in the Savannah in 83to guide him on what happens after any moonslide elections, no matter how guided you democratise it.
BTW did you read about Dokubo,s performance in court.
Nigeria we hail thee, our own dear native land.....bla blah blaaa. Second bass jare before the moonslide 07. Up Baba, Umar and Jonathan, Na una bikoooooo.

[Abamieda Wanderer]

Father Kukah,

To me this is not just another story, this about the begining of the extinction of black people and the shame, ignorance and hatred that we have for each other. This type of black on black hatred is palpable in every continet we reside in.

Before you condem the Tanzanians and the Keyans, think about what we have been doing to our own fellow country men, brothers, sisters, friends, cousins, children through bad, irrespponsible and selfish leadership for years. Do you think that is any better or different than what he experienced in Keyan and Tanzania

Father, what you shed were tears of shame and as African, I shed and shared them with you. I once said to a friend that a white person is less dangerous to an African man (of any nationality) than his fellow African. As weird and stu-pid as that might sound it is the truth.

An African in his own home is less important than a White man and we have so many of my brothers and sisters on this site fighting amongst themselves that one thief is better than the other to lead Nigeria.


God Help us all.

Shikena,
Abamieda

[ErikP]

Firstly, I want to say that you were shamefully treated.

Secondly, what you have come against is partly a matter of unthinking bureaucracy. I had something similar on the Nigeria/Cameroonian border near Lake Chad where Africans can walk over the river bridge to Cameroon but whites must show a Passport and I had left mine behind. My friends vouched for my identity and honest intentions to no avail. So there is one border where it pays to be Nigerian.

I have a Masai friend from Kenya who says their poor opinion of Nigerians is because there are a number of organised criminals there who have a Nigerian connection. I suspect that is why there are these visa requirements.

Thirdly, there is no excuse for the underlying attitudes revealed.

[bakoso2000]

If you want more readings on this subject, go to this blog site -

http://uknaija.blogspot.com/2007/01/...n-african.html

You will never appreciate the goodness in being a Nigerian until you have encountered some other African nationals. If only we put aside our differences, put aside our self-hatred, turn this unfriendly attitude into positive energy and rebuild our country with all our God-given resources I mean look around, compare and see how blessed Nigeria is.

[Soul Sista]

What happened to Fr. Kukah is a crying shame; the ultimate humiliation. Imagine, they let him go because he is studying at Harvard? Well, it is incidents like this that make me very annoyned with OBJOKE and past Presidents like IBB. Why do we insist on carrying on our whole Big Brother of Africa charade when these countries do not care about us? Why is OBJOKE spending our money on propping up the AU? Why is he sending our young men to die in different crises in parts Africa? After the number of our guys that died in Liberia and for Liberia, don't be shocked if the Liberians too start treating us like nationals of a pariah nation in very short order. I am not saying that these countries may not have their reasons for their actions, after all, a murderer too will often profer a reason for killing another human being. What I don't understand, what absolutely gets my goat, what sickens me to the pit of my stomach is the charitable attitude from the Nigerian Government in the face of this type of treatment. OBJOKE is so intent on sustaining his profile as "the man we can deal with in Africa" that he forgets that he is using our money in the process. What a wasteful investment.

I am particularly pained by the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa and the frontline states. As a child, I recall my parents, particularly my mother, were involved in some local efforts to help the anti-apartheid/independence/liberation movements in those countries. I recall my parents hosting South African academics etc for short periods on their way elsewhere, probably out to exile. I was too young to fully understand. I recall helping my mother to collect clothes for the children in Soweto. I recall watching her sell rafle tickets for something or the other to raise money for some cause or the other. I recall my mother encouraging all her friends and acquaintances to go and watch Ipi Tombi when they came to Nigeria in the 70s because "these are our brothers and sisters." I still recall a very spirited discussion amongst my parents and their friends, all of them so excited, when Obasanjo nationalized British Petroleum in the 70s. I did not understand what was going on really. I just knew it was good for South Africa but I did not know the implications. So, now, my parents will be treated like criminals because they want to visit South Africa? Is that the liberation that their, admittedly, very small efforts worked in aid of? Now, they will get to the airport in Jo-Burg and be treated worse than Soyinka while those whose Governments propped up and supported those regimes will be treated like royalty. Those who refused to impose sanctions because it would hurt (but were quick to impose the same on Mugabe's Zimbabwe) are now the beautiful brides. Okay o!

Thank God, I have never bought into the whole African brotherhood, we are all one fiction. I treat people on a one on one basis. I don't assume that because you are Kenyan, therefore, you are my brother. Indeed, one of my worst experiences in school here was with a Ugandan student who was always so nasty to me from day one. Even three of the Muzungus in our TA section noticed his hostile attitude and asked me about it. Brotherhood ko, Sisterbottom ni.

Soul Sista a/k/a Soul Sizzling

[Balance]

No doubt a very touching but familiar story. Wole Soyinka had the same experience in South Africa or so. Many Nigerians are too ashame to tell their own stories in the hands of fellow Africans.
We must not forget that these are places where Nigerians of the 60s and 70s were respected and almost worshiped. We have overwhelmed our fellow Africans with 419s, hard crimes and prostitutions. They are so afraid of us for other reasons, as taking over their countries by our interlectuals from those early years, that they are willing to use our latest adventures against us. Even a small Country like Cape Verde insults us. It is a shame and I can understand the cry and the sadness. But that is reality. Some of our fellow Nigerians have disrepected us everywhere.
Pity!

[bababoyz]

My inquisitive mind will like to know if this is the same Rev. Kukah who was the Vice Chairman of the ill-fated and non-conclusive Obasanjo government sponsored conference on Nigeria sovereignty.

[Exxcuzme]

If we do not receive similar insult from our own immigration in Lagos, I would be mad at this account, however, we get treated to the same degrading and disrepectful acts by our own Nigerian immigration.

[Iphey]

I remember Fr. Kukah recounting this story soon after his experince with the immigration officers in Kenyan, and I remember his palpable anger as he told of that experince. His story is in tangent with the recent article by Ruben Abati told here What galled me about the story was not so much that he was refused entry despite having obtained the proper immigration documents to facilitate his travel, because your admission into country is predicated on the benovelence of the country itself, irrespective of correct papers or your visa stamp. Rather it was the fact that he was later granted entry based on his Harvard connection. So the fact he was a priest, could not do the trick, neither did the fact that he was a Nigerian, make any difference to the officlas, but as soon as the immigration man heard Fr. Kukah was a student at Harvard, he jumped off his seat and rolled out the red carpets. Despite the prestige of Harvard, it is indeed a shame, when an entire country has been relegated below the status of a school. What to say really???

[Willy]

Father,

Is it not always convenient an easy to label a bad behaviour when we can group the victims and villain?

Was the man at the Tanzanian post any worse than the daily hell Nigerians are subjected to by the police in their country to mention just an instance?

There is the problem of self immolation and class disdain the black world needs to address. I am not sure Nigeria has a worse crime record than many Eastern European countries, even some Western European countries like Italy, so I am not certain this was due to crime rate by a group.

[robert]

Father Kuka,

The experience could be worse at the home front. Imagine under exact same scenario, divulging that you are a visiting Harvard student to a Nigerian uniformed Officer at one of a thousand checkpoints on your way home from the airport. You might end up in detention and/or just not make it out alive. Let’s say you get lucky that some relation somehow gets to know about the ordeal and comes to rescue you, be assured that some high uniformed official would smile loaded to the beer parlor and brothel that night.

The outsider world is beginning to glean at our way of life and considers us a plague that should not be brought into their mix. It’s just beginning; the worse is yet to come. I bet next time the Nigerian President visits the US his aides would be thoroughly searched or even denied entry.

Hear yeah! Hear yeah!! Vote Utomi!!!

[tonsoyo]

After reading this article, I went from frustration for being a Nigerian to anger then shed some little tears of my own.
This is the situation we have come to find ourselves for being Nigerians both at home and abroad.

I believe this is a problem that should be decisively confronted by any responsible government, no government should allow profiling of her nationals for just being citizens of that country.

Nigeria has invested too much on these East/South African countries to be treated shabbily by any of them. Several of the ANC youths were brought to Nigeria on government scholarship to school in Nigeria during the apartheid regime. Many of our soldiers died so that they can be free, we gave away out of our very little just to see these people through the hard times. This is no way to pay us back.

The irony of the whole thing is how Nigerians are treated by the average nationals from these African countries. I remember how my friend from Tanzania getting married to a Kenyan both of whom live here in the USA tried so hard to get me to his wedding in Kenya last year. I think they have respect for Nigerians.

I also remember how elated they sometimes get when I get introduced as a Nigerian in the midst of these guys from East Africa. Now I am no longer sure if it positive or negative.

This made me to believe that something is not being done right at the governmental/diplomatic level to address this issue other than continuing to pump our money into this unprofitable venture of supporting these African countries, while our own citizens are dying of hunger.

I think OBJ is too full of himself and is comfortable with the red carpet treatment he gets from these countries to care about average Nigerian's experience.

God, when will thy kingdom come in Nigeria?

[otito]

Originally Posted by bababoyz

My inquisitive mind will like to know if this is the same Rev. Kukah who was the Vice Chairman of the ill-fated and non-conclusive Obasanjo government sponsored conference on Nigeria sovereignty.

Bababoyz

Iba oooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes be like say na him o

Otito

[olusola]

The treatment meted out to the respected clergyman is indeed shameful. The fact that the Tanzanian immigration officer accorded more respect to the Harvard credential of the priest more than his priesthood ,being a fellow catholic and above all,a fellow African is to say the least,the height of his inferiority complex. However, I will still not condemn the Tanzanian too much because I remember right at our own airport in Lagos in 2004,a Nigerian immigration officer threw my Nigerian passport at me just for no reason other than traveling to Poland for a program. The Nigerian officer checked my passport,looked at my face, asked me what I was going to do in Poland and then threw my passport at me ,saying many people of my age were going to England,America and other developed nations for conferences but I chose to be going for conference in Poland. This was despite the fact he also saw my Canadian residential documents. I just picked up my passport and went on to continue my journey. If the immigration officer in my own country can treat my Nigerian passport with this disdain and contempt, what can I do to a foreign immigration officer who treats with equal or more level of disdain? I strongly believe we should all take collective responsibility for this shame. The behavior of many Nigerians outside Nigeria is nothing to write about. I remember during my trip to London last summer,as I was walking along the street with a friend,I wanted to get money from an ATM machine outside the premises of a branch of HSBC bank.Immediately I told my friend,the next thing he would say is why couldn't you go into the bank and use the ATM machine inside the bank. I asked why,and the obvious answer was "na our brothers."It is also a well known fact today that Nigerians are the leaders in 419 deals.We all read or saw what happened in Texas the other day about those Nigerians who formed syndicate with others to defraud the health system . We have not forgotten as well what Emmanuel Nwude,Fred Ajudua,Ade Bendel,Amaka Anajemba and many others did to many foreigners. The cases of Joshua Dariye and DSP Alams should still be very fresh in our memory. The case of Tafa Balogun,the IG of police which was widely reported in global media is still very fresh as well in the minds of millions across the world who read the story. All these cannot be happening and we expect foreigners to treat us with the dignity we deserve.In all honesty,we all have to collectively take responsibility. The ministry of foreign affairs needs to do more,especially when eminent citizens like Father Kukah, Soyinka and others are being maltreated.They need to send the message across that we don't take that ****.Imagine Nigeria doing what South Africans did to Soyinka to Desmond Tutu. So,if the ministry of foreign affairs pass the message just like Femi Fani-Kayode is currently doing in the aviation ministry, we can probably have some improvement.

[igwe]

It seems to me that African diplomats feel they've done their jobs when they have insulted Nigerians. It's apparently their way of getting back to Nigerians who, despite the fact their country is not doing well, have continued to distinguish themselves in almost all areas of life internationally.

Fr. Kukah should have told those Tanzanian and Kenyan diplomats that he has more problems getting into their countries than he has getting to Europe, Asia and the USA. They did the same thing to Soyinka in South Africa.

It's really a pity because more than any other on the continent, Nigeria and Nigerians sacrifice their lives and resources to help other African countries.

Even if our president demands that others treat Nigerians well, it won't have any effect because we don't treat ourselves and our instititutions with the requisite respect. A president that disobeys the laws of his country is asking for the kind of negative things that happens to Nigerians daily all over the world.

I was a victim of that last year here in Montreal when I was refused to board a KLM flight on my way to Lagos via Amsterdam. When they saw my Nigerian passport at the counter, I was told in no uncertain terms that I need a transit visa to stop over at Amsterdam. While I went in search of the visa, I missed the flight. I had to pay again to revalidate my ticket and when I finally got to Amsterdam, the visa was only good for the Airport!

[DeepThought]

The treatment meted out to the respected clergyman is indeed shameful

True, but is it more shameful than the treatment "ordinary" Nigerians get on a daily basis from their own government officials.

While we are here (correctly) berating Tanzania and other countries, how much more should we be bothered about the treatment of the common man in Nigeria,by his very own officials?

And which one shoud we be more concerned about?

Just a thought.

[robert]

Did the Tanzanian Officer ask how much you had or behave such that you clearly understand that something has to give before he lets you go? No!

Did he insult you for claiming to be a student at Harvard? Again, No! A Nigerian Officer would have feigned insult that you are showing off while he is here suffering, and would have asked you if Harvard was food on his table. In fact, the mention of Harvard would have increased ten folds the bribe you must pay to be let off.

Overall, he was judiciously and conscientiously doing his job as officially instructed. Letting off the Rev. Father on account of Harvard connection was face-saving, being gracious to a fellow man and a Rev. Father of his faith, for that matter. As far as he was concerned, if he were a Nigerian Officer supposedly doing his official job, this Rev. Father is an imposter, a Nigerian known for every crime and cover in the book. After all, DSP disguised as a woman to evade customs, and the whole world knows it.

The moral lesson of the Father’s ordeal, as far as I am concerned, is none other than the difference between a corrupt, rotten society and people and a Godly one. Trash all that Blackman’s story and African big brother sentiment and call a spade a spade.

Vote Utomi!