This must be the joke of the century!

http://www.guardiannewsngr.com/news/article02/210606

In keeping with the tradition initiated by the US and UK, Nigeria has issued it's first travel warning to it's "citizens" travelling to the UK. The Nigerian government says citizens must beware of "miscreants" who employ a "great variety of tricks" to dispossess people of their property.

Since when did the federal government begin to think of ordinary Nigerians as fellow citizens? One thought our only use was to hoodwink the international community using the guile of the "peoples vote" to smuggle miscreants and rogues into political office.

When did miscreants begin to issue travel warnings to other Nigerians to beware of miscreants?
Most Nigerians do not need to worry about being dispossesed of their property in the UK, politicians, armed robbers, policemen at checkpoints, lecturers, and co are doing an excellent job already. By the time most Nigerians get to the UK (for the few who can even afford to do this), they have no property to lose anymore.

The Nigerian report notes that there has been an "upsurge in pickpocketing, robberies and assault against Nigerians in the UK in areas such as hotels, airports. Pickpocketing indeed has been on the decline in Nigeria, armed robbers and pickpockets now rob brazenly and in broad day light. Our politicians live in self-made prisons for fear of armed robbers. Cell phones are routinely snatched, police checkpoints have become pseudo robbery operations where live could cost as little as N20. The Niger Delta is a night mare for foreign oil workers, police armouries are being looted at random and the army keeps blowing up their own armory.

The report also advices Nigerian travellers "not to carry large amount of money on their body and ensure their air-tickets, passports, expensive wrist-watches as well as trinkets are securely hidden." Nigerians do not need this warning, they have learnt from experience in Nigeria that going out with a large amount of money is a magnet for robbers. Most Nigerians do not keep expensive watches and trinkets, most of them have been stolen by armed robbers, the few who still have prefer to keep them abroad. As for making sure passports are "securely hidden", no one knows this better than the average Nigerian.

Me thinks this must have been a travel advisory to Nigerians about Nigeria!

Its about time!! I welcome Nigeria to 21st century politics. I love this part of the article:

"The "miscreants," the government added, are "generally white" although "persons of east European and North African origins are not excluded."

Indeed I will be on the look out for these white criminals when I next visit UK!

warning indeed, the message is not for individuals like us, its for them looters only (politicians)

LOL Ashiwaju, Good one.

Seriously though, its about time. Eye for an eye. As they say, in politics, there are no permanent friends, just permanent interests

So right about now, the UK should be practicing the doctrine, "If u scratch my back, I will scratch yours".

All you cynics. Their governments have always behaved like all Nigerians are criminals and crooks. About time we started hitting back.

Hitting back with what we dont have?

and i bet you really don't want to find out who these misreantes are?

@Ashiwaju, LET UK BRING IT ON!! All we powerless Nigerians can do it place an Oil embargo on UK and suspend their businesses in Nigeria. That wont cost much. Who needs Oil? FYI Nigeria is the biggest trading partner with UK in Africa. We deserve the same respect the accord to Kenyans.

Travel warning to Nigerians traveling to UK from Lagos abi?

Please save me the bull. . .

@All, I applaud the effort. They should also bring up the upsurge of pedophilia among the natives in England.

Yes kajad the warning in reverse

Ayanfe, i dont think nigeria is bold enough to suspend the uk, we dont ave the guts and thats why they throw all pass at nigeria

Nna, david, me sef read the tory for guardian. I wan laugh die! No wahala, we don begin do tit for tat now.

dat na still part of the dividends of democracy!!

ayanfe:

@All, I applaud the effort. They should also bring up the upsurge of pedophilia among the natives in England.

Not just England,

I read it too and I wondered why it did not make headlines in CNN or BBC. Its time we start playing the same politics with them. The BBC or CNN only reports what is bad in Africa. They will never report the good things that are happening in Africa. If it is UK or US that issued a travel advise, it will make headlines in BBC or CNN. The reverse is now the case and its conspicously missing in their news. Its time we dig out their own dirt too and and broadcast it worldwide.

I believe we should have known that BBC,CNN and UN itself is nothing but an instrument of destruction for africa's image, they are good at doing that, them go leave ikoyi, Ajah,Marwa Garden dey show sango ota and ijoko for TV like say nothing good fit come out of africa and funny enough they say all this an feed on our oil and resources. So unfortunate we dont have an ambassador yet. IF only nigeria could be couragous enough to shun BBC and co, i bet things would be a lil bit better here.

@ Ashiwaju, you forgot that they use house niggers like Jeff Koinagie!

Yeah Jeff Koinange, I hate his gut. The guy is so biased in his reporting that any story he carried, I dont believe in it. I cant remember the story now, but I am in the know of the truth, but when Koinange report it to CNN, it was a diffent version that he reported. I was very dissappointed. I am glad nigerians are now aware of those western countries news propaganda, that is what they are using to rule the world. They dont ever see anything good in stories that comes out of Africa, and when you protested, they will tell you is that what we want to paid them with, having develop our continent with technological advancement.
Now to the topic, I wont say it is a bad idea to issue such travel warning, there lots of Nigerians that travel legitimately for business, and they really needs this type of warning. Having said this, I dont think those politician alone are the one that are travelling out of this country, lots of Nigerians especially from the place I work travel weekly to europe and this type of warning is good for them.

@Twinstaiye

how many business man and legitimate man/woman would travel to the uk everyday? like the politicians do? How many legitimate woman/man no get lagos sense of how to keep and protect what he suffers for? How many of them would flaunt diamond & jewelries in the eye of Ologbo?

the Warning is for theives like the alam and the looters, they have got all to loose and they even loose count of where and where they have been per day? How  many bags i dey carry wey ologbo go fit steal inside? Abeg. its just for the looters like them

As for the warning i see it as "you scratch my back i scract urs", tit for tat, God no vex. I ll love to see more of that propaganda but africa is just too afraid, why is CNN one big news station on earth? bcus they ll always protect the whites and sacrifice the blacks. if only we have got a black station of our own and if we have got good leaders(not the ones disgracing themselves on VOA, like kalu,obj and tutu). Africa would be a better place i tell you.
Looking forward to more of that kind of propaganda pleaseeeeeeeee

When i first saw the travel advisory, i thought it was a joke, by the time i read and saw the government were actually serious i couldn't stop laughing. When the U.k and Europe generally are trying to reduce the number of immigrants to their country especially from Africa. I'm sure Tony Blair will give Obj a pat on the back.

wiseguy

They will never report the good things that are happening in Africa. If it is UK or US that issued a travel advise, it will make headlines in BBC or CNN. The reverse is now the case and its conspicously missing in their news. Its time we dig out their own dirt too and and broadcast it worldwide.

it will make headlines news in BBC and CNN because thats their duty: to inform their own citizen! its missing in their news probably because the warning is for nigerians so the Guardian and nigerian embassy are doing their bits for their own citizen too

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/5101826.stm

It made it to the BBC website.

@twinstaiye

Concerning Jeff.perhaps the story you refer to is the one when there was an explosion on the Lagos isalnd.I heard him report that 'the city's only fire fighting truck , ' and I was really upset that this guy will tell the whole world that Lagos has just one fire fighting truck.Remember how he said that the Ikeja explosion was a coup or something?

I think he fits his report into the west' expextation of us Africans;gun totting rebels with starving children begging for aides.

I know that there is another thred on the CNN report on Nigeria but this piece was written by Olusegun Adeniyi of Thisday Newspaper and I think it is relevant here as well to a certain extent.

After the long flight from Abuja and the minor but irritating experience at the airport immigration, Reverend Father Matthew Hassan Kukah felt he needed a cup of Coffee on his way out of the train station. But as he made to refresh himself, two 'good Samaritans' appeared to inform him there was tomato ketchup on his jacket and being such 'nice people', they offered to help the Reverend Father to do the cleaning with their handkerchief.
With his guards down, Kukah did not know when his 'helpers' disappeared with his bag, computer, international passport and all his money. It took a while for him to realise he had fallen into the hands of con men. This real life story did not happen at Oshodi in Lagos, it happened in London last week Thursday. The crooks involved were also not black men. They were whites, most likely British citizens.
When Kukah narrated to us his experience last Saturday in London, I could not resist telling him of my 'disappointment' that an Oyinboman would con a Nigerian so easily. but on a serious note nothing could be more distressing than to have such experience in a foreign land and I really felt for the Reverend Father. It took the timely intervention of the Nigerian High Commissioner in the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, for him to be able to travel back to Nigeria at the weekend. As the travel advice issued by the federal government, based on the report from the high commission in UK reveals, such occurences have become common to many unsuspecting Nigerians, especially on Edgware road, Heathrow and Gatwick airports, Picaddily, Oxford street, Charring Cross and the train stations. But do we now use that to say all Englishmen are crooks?
Of course no sensible person can extrapolate such isolated incidences involving some unscrupulous characters to pass a character judgement on the people of any nation. Unfortunately, that is what the CNN has done to Nigerians with a recent report on credit cards fraud in Houston, Texas, titled 'How To Rob A Bank', in which our people were criminalised on account of the activities of some crooks.
While it is good journalism to go behind the scene to expose the activities of scam artists, nothing can be more irresponsible than to stigmatize a whole nation because of the activities of a few people. There were several things objectionable about the report but two will suffice. One, it tended to portray all Nigerians as inherently fraudulent with the comment that what happens in Houston is a reflection of the situation in Nigeria. Two, the report drew its examples mainly among Nigerians, eight out of ten, when credit cards fraud is common even among Americans.
The programme was aired thrice before it was suspended but the damage is already done. Besides, any interested person can always get the transcript on-line. Curiously, the reporters, I am told, admitted that the report was rushed yet concluded with a slanderous attack on majority of Nigerians living in Houston Texas. While I do not subscribe to the persecution theory in which some people claim there is a western conspiracy against Nigeria because of our 'potentials', there is also an element of truth in the suspicion that many of these countries would like to put us down given the slant of their media reports.
What the CNN has shown with the report is that it has no respect for us as a nation and many can easily conclude that it was motivated by racism and I believe honest Nigerians who reside in Houston Texas should seek legal redress especially since the society is governed by the rule of law or at least so they have made us to beleive. What is more disturbing about the documentary is that it is already a hot topic for the CNN Presents Classroom Edition and is to be shown again on July 12 for the benefit of some Grade Levels 11-12, College students in the United States while teachers are advised to "preview this programme, as its content may not be appropriate for all students."
What this means is that the documentary in which Nigeria was slandered as a nation that breeds con men has now become a case study on fraud for some young Americans who could now grow up with the misconception that fraud is a way of life for Nigerians wherever they may live. This is unacceptable and the relevant authorities must intervene to prevent further assault on our national image and our psyche as a people. Among the several discussion questions listed for the college exercise are:
According to an FBI official who testified on Capitol Hill in 1998, what percentage of Houston's counterfeit checks could be traced back to Nigerian criminal enterprises? How do Houston's Nigerian leaders respond to this and similar charges? How do some explain Houston's Nigerian criminal activity as a reflection of the political climate in Nigeria? Why and how do some Nigerians who are deported after committing crimes in the US. sneak back into the country? What, if anything, do you think should be done to rectify this situation?
The question to ask is: could there be a motivation behind the story? Given that the Nigerian population in Houston Texas is rather huge, it is not impossible that the report was instigated to achieve sinister agenda. Even though one may not have practiced in the US, I have done some studies on the laws governing their media practice and I do not know the justification for such unprofessional report. The documentary cannot in anyway pass the test of the Fairness Doctrine, which after several challenges by the media, the US. Supreme Court upheld in 1969 to be necessary in Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC which involved the broadcast of a personal attack by right-wing preacher Billy James Hargis to author Fred J. Cook, who had written a book critical of then Republic presidential candidate, Barry Goldwater.
In that landmark decision, the US Supreme Court held that the Fairness Doctrine served to enhance, rather than abridge, the freedoms of speech and press protected by the First Amendment. The apex court further proclaimed that, "It is the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount."
What is interesting here is that the CNN and other western broadcast media can actually invoke that clause to justify many of their clearly unfair stories on Africa and particularly Nigeria since they have more or less defined their listeners to be their 'own people'. That explains why over the years, most of their interviews, commentaries and reports (wars, famine, disease etc.) have all pursued the same objective: to severely damage African people in the eyes of the civilized world.
Beyond the anger and indignation, however, there are lessons we should take away from the CNN report because if we must be honest with ourselves, there is a crisis of values in Nigeria today. There have indeed been similar reports lately on the growing cyber crimes in our country especially with the Yahoo Boys who are growing in population by the day in Lagos. These are boys who want to just 'make it' without work and at the expense of honest people anywhere they may be in the world. All that these miscreants do is to sit by the computer for hours trying to decode the credit card numbers of unsuspecting foreigners. They are said to have godfathers in high places and it is time our security agencies did something about this development before our image is further dented.
The media has a responsibility in the way it presents facts and the damage is heavy when a respectable news organisation like CNN presents the people of a certain country as dishonest. That sort of stereotyping can only inflict injury as it has done to Nigerians living in the United States. While we admit we have a few crooks who give us a bad image all over the world, majority of Nigerians are honest people doing honest job, especially in Houston Texas. And they deserve the respect of CNN.