Nigerians resident in Botswana have appealed to President Goodluck Jonathan to intervene over what they described as a clear case of hatred and racism against them.

The group, which raised alarm over recent developments in the country said there was serious plan to deport majority of Nigerians from Botswana.

According to one of them, Lawrence Bassey, who also claimed to be under deportation threat, “What we experienced here in Botswana from Thursday to Friday last week was very tragic and devastating. Many law-abiding Nigeriams with official permits doing their legitimate businesses here in Botswana were massively arrested, beaten, detained and were refused visit by their relations.

“The sick ones among them were denied access to medication and their wives were not allowed to see them hence no food and care. Most disturbing is the fact that the reason for their arrest has not been disclosed to them up till the time of sending this mail (Monday) and some people who went to ask the authorities what the problem is were also detained”.

He further alleged that some Nigerians were picked up from their business places, on the road, in their cars while driving and even to the extent that the security agents (DIS) bumped their cars to get them arrested.

He said, “Another gentleman was picked up where he was buying air time simply because he did not speak Seswana. The big boss of the security agency was involved and personally decided who should be put in which prison and ordering the beating of any person who ask what he has done”.

He added that the current dehumanizing treatments being meted to Nigerians in Botswana “has nothing to do with one having resident permit or trading license but rather a clear demonstration of arrogance and deep rooted hatred for Nigerians by Lieutenant General Seretse Khama Ian Khama administration”.

Bassey quoted one Mr. Kosi, a Botswana security chief as telling the Nigerian detainees that ‘Botswana does not want you Nigerians here; what we are doing is operation clean up Nigerians. If your home country cannot take care of you, it is your business not ours, so you guys must leave’.

He further noted that “Majority of the people in detention have valid permit issued to them by the immigration but unfortunately they turned around to say that it is not valid because the company is not exiting; the question now is do the Botswana Immigration issue permit to people who are not working? Or to companies which do not exist?

“We are asking the Nigerian government to please ask all Nigerians in Botswana to please vacate the country immediately because of the high level of hatred being shown to her citizens at al levels. The development has become very alarming and it is clear that our safety can no longer be guaranteed.

“If possible the Nigerian Embassy should be closed because the relationship between the two countries has broken down. Nigeria should stop issuing visa to the people of Botswana, not less than 50 – 70 Botswana citizens come to Nigeria every month but how many Nigerians come here?

“Those who apply for Botswana are being subjected to a serious check only to be denied straight away. Even Nigerian government officials are treated the same way as there is no exception.

“Before now Nigerian-owend businesses have been subjected to an untold routine check three to four times every week asking for permit, license, and asking silly questions like how many Nigerians are working here?, how many Nigerians do come here? Where are they resident? If you are courageous to ask them why they are doing this, they will tell you that they don’t want you Nigerians again”.

Mr. Rasaq Lawal, a staff of Nigerian Embassy in Botswana was also reported to have said that “the Nigerian Ambassador here is currently on home leave and Mrs. Obla who is acting for him will be in the best position to answer your questions but being a staff of the embassy I can tell you the much I know.

“We received the report of the arrest of some Nigerians here on Saturday morning and we went there immediately to meet with the authorities but we were not allowed to see the people arrested.

“We were referred to the Assistant Commissioner of Police who later granted us access to the people. We had access to discuss with them and they said they did nothing to warrant their arrest and that they have all necessary permits to reside in the country.

“We made the Botswana government to know that what they did is against international norms and demanded that our citizens should be released but the authorities declined. We went there at 8 am and we were on the matter until 4pm trying to persuade them to release our people but all to no avail.

“They are relying on municipal law which according to their arguments, it seems they don’t know the convention that binds us (Nigeria and Botswana). The convention says when ever any of our citizens is arrested the Ambassador should be notified within 24 hours but they have failed to comply.

“Our citizens are saying that they were detained without water and food for days and we have let the authorities know that it is wrong for our citizens to be detained without water more than 30 minutes except if the person is fasting. They don’t seem to understand the implication of what they are doing.

“However, we wrote them officially Monday to let them know that what they are doing is wrong because the affected persons have genuine resident permit.

“The Acting High Commissioner wrote the immigration requesting to meet with him on the issue Monday but all to no avail, we haven’t got from them officially. We learnt, though unofficially, that the authorities made a similar arrest of China citizens last week but we don’t have details. We won’t relent in defending the interest our people here. We have to continue with the struggle”.

“We counted 27 Nigerians in detention that Saturday and most of them are from Imo and Edo, Delta and Rivers States, nobody from South West and Northern states”, he added.

Plshavmercyamen: Chai! Even Botswana? I'm heart broken! Which way Nigeria?

ayswags: Ibos are economic nomads,like what the Bleep are they looking for in botswana,a country even godforsaken nigeria is better than a million times

Ikengawo: The ignorance on this thread is record breaking

Botswana has the highest standard of living in Africa and is rated as the most stable government.
This is a result of neglected education for the generation of nigerians that are now old enough to travel. Nigerians have an extremely dim understanding of the rest of the world and themselves and will find themselves crawling the globe to humiliate their own lives. I don't believe it's primarily igbos by far that are leading this global foolishness, but before we start saying it's and igbo problem we have to realize it's really a national one.

Igbos are ambitious, nobody will take that from them but it's almost impossible to convince them what they own is better than what they can possiby own or have and that's what leads to their desperate nature.

Yorubas are fearful, nobody will take that from them either. A yoruba person is not going to risk what he has, even if it's very little, no matter the reward and don't typically think outside of what's theres. Many yorubas don't know there was a civil war in Nigeria.

The reason I point this difference out is because the igbo ignorance is manifesting in travelling the world blindly and becoming a nuisance and the yoruba ignorance is manifesting in not being able to think or look outside of the very narrow box they already have, hence poverty and a total ignorance of anything outside of their family and region. They typically don't want more because they don't know there's is more out there and would rather brag about whats been done that complain about the need to do more. the root of the problem is ignorance. While igbos are developing and even destroying other places, their homeland is neglected, and while yorubas are boxed in by fear their homeland remains stagnant. This is why the two regions of africa that should be the most developed, aren't.

ignorance mixed with our respective cultural nature isn't doing anything for us.

dasparrow: By the way, I just noticed that the title of this thread is misleading. The title states that Botswana is deporting Nigerian destitute but the article says this:

"Many law-abiding Nigerians with official permits doing their legitimate businesses here in Botswana were massively arrested, beaten, detained and were refused visit by their relations."

So how can you call people who own legitimate businesses and have legal permits to live and do business in Botswana destitute?

Zetdee,
I know you are one of the bigoted south Africans we have on this forum who hates Nigerians. You better change the title of your thread to a more appropriate title reflecting on what was said in the article before the moderators do it for you.

DeLaRue:
“We counted 27 Nigerians in detention
that Saturday and most of them are
from Imo and Edo, Delta and Rivers
States nobody from South West and
Northern states”, he added.



ASSUMING THIS REPORT IS CREDIBLE, then ...not much surprise there.

Why is it whenever the locals are fed up with Nigerians and ask them to leave, they always go on about being disturbed from running their 'business.'

Everything boils down to 'business' 'business' 'business.' Claiming a right to being left alone to do business in another man's land without reciprocating by abiding by their laws, and most importantly hating on your hosts is never going to get you anywhere.

First China;
Then South Africa;
And Kenya;
Then Lagos;
Now, Botswana.

Seriously, you guys have to check yourself, and see what you are doing wrong. You will find Japanese doing business in most countries, but you never hear them making trouble or claiming a God-given right to 'do business' on their own terms.

Ikengawo: The ignorance on this thread is record breaking

Botswana has the highest standard of living in Africa and is rated as the most stable government.
This is a result of neglected education for the generation of nigerians that are now old enough to travel. Nigerians have an extremely dim understanding of the rest of the world and themselves and will find themselves crawling the globe to humiliate their own lives. I don't believe it's primarily igbos by far that are leading this global foolishness, but before we start saying it's and igbo problem we have to realize it's really a national one.

Igbos are ambitious, nobody will take that from them but it's almost impossible to convince them what they own is better than what they can possiby own or have and that's what leads to their desperate nature.

Yorubas are fearful, nobody will take that from them either. A yoruba person is not going to risk what he has, even if it's very little, no matter the reward and don't typically think outside of what's theres. Many yorubas don't know there was a civil war in Nigeria.

The reason I point this difference out is because the igbo ignorance is manifesting in travelling the world blindly and becoming a nuisance and the yoruba ignorance is manifesting in not being able to think or look outside of the very narrow box they already have, hence poverty and a total ignorance of anything outside of their family and region. They typically don't want more because they don't know there's is more out there and would rather brag about whats been done that complain about the need to do more. the root of the problem is ignorance. While igbos are developing and even destroying other places, their homeland is neglected, and while yorubas are boxed in by fear their homeland remains stagnant. This is why the two regions of africa that should be the most developed, aren't.

ignorance mixed with our respective cultural nature isn't doing anything for us.

nnenna.1:
Right.

I see that there is only 1 core SE state listed in that article.

The rest of those states are South South.

I guess the bigots here conveniently left that fact out when they started shouting about Igbos.

The Niger-Deltan anti-igbo freedom fighters are also conspicuously silent - I'm thinking that they don't mind being lumped with Igbos on select occasions.

Not surprisingly, any future attempts of Igbos to unite with their SS brothers will still be shut down with accusations of dominance and "attache" mentality.


Just another day in NL.

Aigbofa:

There are probably Yoruba everywhere you find Igbo, you are just more likely to find the Igbo in the detention.

Tony Spike:

I'm trying to make a sense of what you wrote up here. I'm a Yoruba and I don't generally agree that we are fearful. The difference between a Yoruba and an Igbo is basically between temperamental attitude and cultural programming. I won't bother explaining the concepts, but in the long run, a Yoruba is your typical calculative risk-taker, deep thinker, law-abiding, not necessarily over ambitious, practical, quiet achiever and considerate. Temperamentally, the Yorubas are like the British, while the Igbos are like the Germans. Those two countries are always at loggerhead...hey, I'm not racist.

Based on my premises above, you can guess why Igbos are likely to be affected by any immigration laws wherever they are.

Doff_Man:

I don't get you? Are Edo's, Rivers people and Deltans being sent home from Lagos too?

Tony Spike:

I'm trying to make a sense of what you wrote up here. I'm a Yoruba and I don't generally agree that we are fearful. The difference between a Yoruba and an Igbo is basically between temperamental attitude and cultural programming. I won't bother explaining the concepts, but in the long run, a Yoruba is your typical calculative risk-taker, deep thinker, law-abiding, not necessarily over-ambitious, practical, quiet achiever and considerate. Temperamentally, the Yorubas are like the British, while the Igbos are like the Germans. Those two countries are always at loggerhead...hey, I'm not racist!

Based on my premises above, you can guess why Igbos are likely to be affected by any immigration laws wherever they are.

Doff_Man:

Rubbish! Prisons in UK are filled the brim with Yoruba. In fact, I can't recount how many times I've read articles in papers about Nigerians with yoruba names being caught for one crime or another.

Tony Spike:

Read my comment again and take a look at the mirror. You've just exhibited a temperament of the other side! I can see you've quoted me twice in less than 5 minutes...impressive, hey?

Doff_Man:

I'll quote you 10 times if that is what it takes to make my point. You wrote a complete lie and I corrected you. In order to deflect from the point, you say I'm temperamental? Amazing!

Doff_Man:

In fact, I'll go as far as to say that the bad reputation of Nigerians in UK is due to the activities of desperate and reckless yorubas.

Tony Spike:

Oh well, we don't need to argue so much on this. I only spoke about temperament, which is just one of the two traits of a typical human in a society. I have not spoken about character, which I believe is related to what you're referring to in your response(s). My list of Yoruba temperaments are quite valid, but the character may vary from person to person . Enough said...