USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: 'We are not criminals' Nigerians tell their president

Indeed we are not all criminals but people "used to 'Nigerian' scams" and when it comes to the image of the Black Man abroad, in the eyes of the Oyibo - if you are not an uncle tom then we are all Nigerians and we are all potentially 419 artists, rapists, big or small time looters  or potentially all Boko Haram.

The eventual devaluation of the Naira will inevitably exacerbate the negative creative tendencies latent in all Nigerians and other Africans, since man must survive. That is an imperative . Sometimes it's the survival of the fittest and the billionaire church pastors may tell or sell their congregations the message that "Man does not live by bread alone" but when the manna  does not fall from heaven and with the shortage of access to foreign exchange they too will feel the pinch as rich and poor become increasingly desperate, some even converting to Islam to get foreign exchange to go on pilgrimage to Mecca. I saw it happen with my own eyes – and that's why that Bank Manager of Savanah Bank , at No 10 Aba Road Port Harcourt told me in late 1984, that if I wanted to take out my money immediately  (as per my contract 15% of my earned salaries for two tours  plus my two months leave salary, totalling £6,000 sterling) – he emphasised the word immediately –  and that I should therefore give him  "half" as in that song , "seller  give me half oh".

 He who feels it knows. I  recently recounted this painful incident here "When something is not right it's wrong" and it's not confined to Nigeria and Sierra Leone alone; in Ghana it's known as kalabule!

In my humble opinion and I know that I may be wrong, but I think that it's a problem that has to be fought first and foremost in Nigeria by stringent laws that are enforced and enforceable, and a moral crusade that teaches anti-corruption in school and preaches and acts upon it from the mimbar and the pulpit, all the revered elders chipping in. Right now the Buhari administration seems to be mostly concerned with retrieving some of the money looted by the big kahuna and less interested in the small fry. That too figures: "Steal a little and they throw you in jail. Steal a lot and they make you king." Or make you president.  There's St Augustine's story of the Emperor and the pirate

President Buhari should be commended for his stand against corruption! I wish that he would bring that Bank Manager to Justice and restore my hard earned money over a period of more than three and a half years, which that Bank Manager looted!

Cornelius

We Sweden

 

 

On Tuesday, 9 February 2016 16:28:47 UTC+1, olaka...@aol.com wrote:

 

 

Dear All:

 

The Nigerian protesters are not criminals;

their only problem is they can't comprehend

written or spoken English language very well..

 

President Buhari did not refer to Nigerians residing

and working abroad as criminals.

 

What he did was to acknowledge in open forum that

that there are too many of us in jail in foreign

countries. This is an undisputable fact.

 

Even though one can protest and refuse to acknowledge the truth,

such denial is unlikely to change the truth into falsehood.

 

The first step in the healing process is to accept that one has

a problem. The rest follows in a short order!

 

Instead of protesting Diaspora Nigerians should be acknowledging

the truth and brainstorming amongst ourselves to find solutions to a

 pervasive problem

which is giving Nigeria a bad name throughout the world.

 

Bye,

 

Ola

 

 

---- Original Message ----
From: Cornelius Hamelberg <cornelius...@gmail.com>
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafric...@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Tue, Feb 9, 2016 10:10 am
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - fwd : 'We are not criminals' Nigerians tell their president

'We are not criminals' Nigerians tell their president

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