Nigerian Refugee Elected Mayor In Ireland

I wonder what kind of religious persecution he was fleeing from.I don't think he is from Northern Nigeria

  Religious persecution in the yr of our Lord 2000? Was i not in the same country?

He could have just relocated to the South.He didn't have to fly all the way to Ireland 

DAMN. Africans doing everything to be citizens,

McKren. . .

Please lets not play PC here. Islam is the REAL and ONLY problem especially in northern Nigeria. The religious crisis has NOTHING to do with christianity at all. Unless of course you want to produce evidence of riots and killings in the name of Jesus.

The religious crisis is not even the problem, most likely mr. Adebari's REAL problem was economic in nature. It is unlikely that he was based in the north. Excusing the problem of pockets of religious crisis here and there, Abuja is less than 5 hrs drive away from most northern states. What about the southern states?
I was a student in Nigeria in 2000 and i can't remember anytime anyone was persecuted for his religious beliefs!

@ degoat,

the job of a mayor does not include the portfolio of an immigration officer. No doors are open for you o.

@Topic

Congratulations oh jare!  Mr. Adebari.  Since for some reasons, you could not make it in Nigeria, you are welcome to try anywhere in the world that would give you a chance.  I praise your hard work, for I know it was not easy.  White men came with "bible" and all kinds of "goodies" to help themselves develop their countries, by looting everything in Africa and other countries around the world.  

While we are still bowing our heads and praying with closed eyes, they are still "stealing" as much as they want.  We carry the bible for head pass them kpa kpa!  So please even if it is "female circumcision of our grandmothers in the villages in Nigeria" you can use as excuse----please fire on!   I no blame you at all! Some of you Nairalanders are the kinds that will accept money to call Immigration officers on your own brothers and sisters in foreign countries!  Na wah for una oh!  I no mind if we fight for Nigeria amongst ourselves. But if you dey outside, make some of una take small shame unite abeg!  HABA!   Shooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Davidylan

You know the initiators of religous unrest in Nigeria, those who granted Rotimi assylum don't know that. What they know is that Nigeria is always subseptible to religous unrest. You and I will argue that his sojourn abroad is economic not religous threat but the BBC has stated why he was granted assylum which is religous unrest.

It does not matter what you think, the truth is that it is a shame to our country that a Nigerian can be granted assylum in another country on religous grounds. Trust me Rotimi will not gain assylum on Religous grounds if he was Ghanaian or South African.

There is no need pointing fingers in any directions, Nigerians need to understand that both Islam and Christanity were borrowed and it is a shame that it threatens our peace.
Unfortunately the provisions of the constitution on Religion is not implemented in the right way, that is what I advocate for not which Religion between Islam or Christanity is more peaceful or superior.

 Ireland gets its first black mayor
DUBLIN, Ireland - Ireland elected its first black mayor Thursday, the latest sign of how rapid immigration is changing this once all-white nation.
Rotimi Adebari, a Nigerian who arrived in Ireland seven years ago as an asylum-seeker, was elected unopposed to lead the council of Portlaoise, a bustling commuter town west of Dublin.

Adebari, 43, who has been an independent politician on Portlaoise Town Council since 2004, was backed by both the right-wing Fine Gael party and left-wing Sinn Fein.

Adebari, who planned a post-election party Friday at the new parish hall in Portlaoise, called it "a great honor to become the No. 1 citizen of the town."

Little more than a decade ago, a black person in Ireland risked being gawked at, so rare was the sight of visitors from different racial backgrounds. But Ireland has absorbed more than 30,000 asylum seekers — particularly from Africa's most populous nation, Nigeria — since the mid-1990s, a wave attracted by Ireland's booming economy and its relatively lax immigration rules.

These days, West African entrepreneurs run stretches of shops in urban Dublin and other Irish towns and cities, and social activists like Adebari are encouraging the newcomers to integrate into their communities.

"I got involved in the community and I volunteered. It gave me the opportunity to meet people firsthand and they got to know me," Adebari said. "We all have to make an effort to reach out to one another."

Adebari traveled to Ireland with his wife and two boys in 2000 and claimed asylum on the basis of religious persecution, citing bloody clashes between Christians and Muslims in his homeland. His application was rejected because of insufficient evidence he had personally suffered persecution, but he gained residency because his third child, another boy, was born in Ireland.

Asylum-seekers flocked to Ireland in part to gain European Union citizenship on the basis of having a child born in the country. Ireland in 2004 stopped granting citizenship to foreign parents of an Irish-born child, a law that had been unique in Europe.

Adebari said he had trouble finding work at first — in part because of an Irish law that bars people from working while they are seeking asylum.

So he volunteered at a local tennis club, helped found a lobbying group for unemployed people in Portlaoise and ran for office, winning a council seat on his first try in 2004.

Since then he's finished a master's degree in intercultural studies at Dublin City University, founded a consultancy advising authorities and immigrant groups on how to work together, and hosts a weekly radio show on his local station, Midlands FM.

"I want to encourage immigrants to be a force in their communities, to engage with their communities," he said. "People will get to know you. Their perception of you will change just like that. That's what happened to me."

guy wetin be your problem

you dey live for naija

if it be say adebari sef dey into more legal doings than u sef  

How many of us were born abroad? It will not surprise me if the ones making noise here are still "illegal aliens and Yoo-F-O"s" till now running through windows from anything that looks like or spells immigration"!  How soon we forget!

We are not forgetting anything. How easy it is for us to rationalise illegality, fraud and violation of the law when it suits us on flawed moral grounds.
Let us ask ourselves the question, why did Ireland stop granting citizenship to illegal aliens who happen to have children there? Simple! Because many of us took advantage of their generosity, using it as a stepping stone to obtaining EU citizenship and running off to other countries.

Most of us are immigrants to foreign countries, it is not wrong. However the end should not justify the means, there are legal avenues to immigrate, as long as we don't break the law those opportunities will never go away.
We all cry today about the hardship we go through at the hands of foreign embassies in Lagos, forgetting that we are merely paying for the sins of those ahead of us who chose to abuse the system.

But for Adebari's quick thinking to have his third child in Ireland, he would have been deported long ago. Now he is the first black mayor of his town but his deciet has effectively shut the door in the faces of the many others who one day hope to cross over to where the grass is greenest.

True!  I guess it is pay back time!  Oyinbo came to Africa illegally and by force too with guns to our heads when we did not comply or sign treaties.  What is wrong in returning the favor.  Mr Adebari did not break any laws but use the loopholes in the system to improve the lives of his family members.  What is immoral about that?  He did not kill anyone to get what he needed to survive abi?

Ireland itself was a colony of the English from the 17th century to the 20th century.He can't use that colonialism excuse with the Irish 

Why are we accusing the man of fraud?  Do you think his political opponents would not have investigated him?

I wonder why inferior people are always sad when one of them achieves some measure of success.  By inferior I mean Africans, Women, etc.  Instead of rejoicing with the few successful ones, they try to drag them down.