About the same time, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, was hosting Nigeria’s president-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, at his official residence in London, a Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu, was being arrested by officers from the National Law Drug Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in faraway Lagos.

One would expect the British press to be more interested in the meeting between their leader and the in-coming leader of the largest oil exporting country in Africa but they were apparently more interested in the arrest of a suspected drug kingpin and the fact that his nefarious activities inspired a TV series.

British Tabloid, The Sundaymail, carried what it would call a juicy piece about the arrest and the fact that Buruji Kashamu’s criminal enterprise inspired a Netflix TV series, “Orange Is The New Black”, which is based on the true story of a white sub-urban American lady who was sent to jail for trafficking cocaine across international borders. The news story was complete with pictures of Buruji Kashamu and scenes from the TV series to properly establish the connection between two seemingly unrelated issues in readers’ minds.

The Sundaymail and its sister publication, the Dailymail, have never shied away from publishing stories that disparage Nigerians. One can even be forgiven for coming to the conclusion that they actively look for such stories.

They do not only stop at publishing such stories they sometimes spin the stories to the detriment of the Nigerians involved.

Take for example an incident reported recently about Muslim immigrants who drowned some Christian fellow immigrants by throwing them overboard while crossing the Mediterranean: Most media agencies reported that the Christians who were thrown overboard were Nigerians and Ghanaians without identifying the nationality or nationalities of the Muslims. The Dailymail was the only media company that identified the Muslims as Nigerians but failed to mention the nationalities of the Christian victims.

When Obama visited London in 2008 before he even became elected as president of the United States, then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown did not take pictures with him at the entrance of 10 Downing Street because he would have had to do the same for Obama’s Republican opponent, Senator McCain. Regardless of the de-escalation of Obama’s visit, it was still one of the most important news items of that day, which incidentally was on a Saturday as well, across the entire British media platform.

Not one single British publication deemed it fit to mention Buhari’s visit to 10 Downing Street, despite the fact that David Cameron shook hands and took pictures with the president-elect outside the door. Not even the more responsible publications like the Independent, Times or Guardian.

It should no longer surprise anybody that the only news stories that excite British journalists about Africa are news about tragic deaths, diseases and destruction.


http://www.urnaija.com/typical-british-press-report-kashamus-arrest-ignore-buharis-visit-prime-minister/

that was because it was private.

Because he was unwanted. Who invite Buhari? Cameron was just being civil by suffering few minutes of Buhari's presence and didn't waste time to shoo him out.