₦airaland Forum

Don't forget that Wole Soyinka and Fela Kuti are first cousins and the radical non conformist / freedom fighter blood flows in their veins.

Knowledge is power and a little research does a lot of good.

David Calvert-Smith, the former Director of the British Crown Prosecution Service once described most Britons as racist with a culture of "institutionalised racism" and his belief is that prejudice is so widespread it can be found by just watching a couple of hours of television or reading a newspaper."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2061524.stm


From reading through the responses above, its very interesting and eye opening to see what low level of self pride Nigerians now have. how did we descend to this level where we are ready to roll over and play dead and take any "generalised" insults thrown at us

For those saying why protest ?, my reply is why not protest when I am not an email scammer and I am "forced" to pay my £12 a month TV licence which funds the BBC.

Even if there are 169 million scammers of Nigerian origin, I know I am not one of them, so why must I keep quiet in the face of an injustice on my Fatherland ??

Yes we Nigerians have to be very vocal in our condemnation of the criminals amongst us be they our LOOTOcratic leaders or the low level email scammers amongst us and shame them at every available opportunity BUT EQUALLY we have to be as vocal in our condemnation of BBC's and UK society's attempt at tarring a nation of 170 million people with the same brush.

Some may decide to keep quiet and thats surely their right to do so, but as long as I live and as and when I see or hear any unjust "generalisations" and PRE-JUDGING (a.k.a prejudice) directed against me or my nation then I will ALWAYS complain whenever I encounter such overt or covert racism however veiled they are.

If Mandela had kept quiet about the Racist Apartheid Regime then Black people in South Africa would still be in Chains.
That is why I love the fighting spirit of Black Americans. See where their struggle has taken them

For those who thought it was a waste of time complaining to the BBC, please be informed that the BBC has now published my original complaint in full on that programmes website. I actually thought I was the only person who spotted the presenters misguided and prejudicial statement about Nigeria but someone else spotted it and duly made a seperate complaint which is now published on the BBC's website for every one to see around the world. And that was my original intention.

Below are the two complaints as now published on the BBC website :-

Andrew Neil on "This Week" of 6 Dec 2012 11.35 pm started the programme by cracking an irrelevant joke and comparing something to "Nigerian email scams". The topic he was discussing had nothing to do with Nigeria but he still went ahead and cracked his racist joke all the same just like I have been noticing in a few BBC programs of late. These subtle and not so subtle distasteful and racist jokes about Nigeria have to be stopped by the BBC. I know that the BBC is painfully white in the words of a former Director of BBC but I expect the BBC to show a duty of care to its many Nigerian viewers who also pay their TV licence and are sick and tired of these racist jokes about their
country. Even if you at the BBC and/or majority of your viewers find such jokes funny, Nigerians do not.
If the BBC is saying that all Nigerians are email scammers then they are simply being racist and ought to be ashamed of themselves.
Jibola Hurst, Londom

The show tonight opened with the moderator stating: 'Evening all, welcome to This Week - the show that promises so much and delivers so little, leaving gullible viewers feeling conned and out of pocket. Think of us as the Nigerian email scam of BBC current affairs or the autumn statement'. I felt it was tasteless to have used the great nation Nigeria in such stereotyping. There are vices in every society and certainly email scams are deplorable and should be dealt with by the law enforcement agents in that country. There are however great innovations, gifted, honest people and incredible good to come out of Nigeria which it would be preferable to elevate on such a worldwide platform rather than this constant reference to its weaknesses perpetrated by an unjust few.
Oladejo Olaleye, Warwickshire

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_week/8298641.stm

It is people like the culprits in the original post who cause all and sundry to wrongly think that all Nigerians are scammers.

For example, Andrew Neil on the BBC1 programme "This Week" of 6 Dec 2012 11.35 pm started the programme by cracking an irrelevant joke and comparing something to "Nigerian email scams". The topic he was discussing had nothing to do with Nigeria but he still went ahead and cracked his racist joke all the same just like I have been noticing in a few BBC programmes of late.

I've made a written complaint both to the programme web page and also on the general BBC complaints page. The text of my complaint is reproduced below :-

Andrew Neil on the BBC1 programme "This Week" of 6 Dec 2012 11.35 pm started the programme by cracking an irrelevant joke and comparing something to "Nigerian email scams". The topic he was discussing had nothing to do with Nigeria but he still went ahead and cracked his racist joke all the same just like I have been noticing in a few BBC programmes of late.

These subtle and not so subtle distasteful and racist jokes about Nigeria have to be stopped by the BBC. I know that the BBC is painfully white in the words of a former Director of BBC but I expect the BBC to show a duty of care to its many Nigerian viewers who also pay their TV licence and are sick and tired of these racist jokes about their country.

Even if you at the BBC and/or majority of your viewers find such jokes funny, Nigerians do not.

If the BBC is saying that all Nigerians are email scammers then they are simply being racist and ought to be ashamed of themselves.

These are the relevant complaint pages if you want to make a written complaint :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_week/contact_us/default.stm

https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor

Andrew Neil on the BBC1 programme "This Week" of 6 Dec 2012 11.35 pm started the programme by cracking an irrelevant joke and comparing something to "Nigerian email scams". The topic he was discussing had nothing to do with Nigeria but he still went ahead and cracked his racist joke all the same just like I have been noticing in a few BBC programmes of late.

I've made a written complaint both to the programme web page and also on the general BBC complaints page. The text of my complaint is reproduced below :-

Andrew Neil on the BBC1 programme "This Week" of 6 Dec 2012 11.35 pm started the programme by cracking an irrelevant joke and comparing something to "Nigerian email scams". The topic he was discussing had nothing to do with Nigeria but he still went ahead and cracked his racist joke all the same just like I have been noticing in a few BBC programmes of late.

These subtle and not so subtle distasteful and racist jokes about Nigeria have to be stopped by the BBC. I know that the BBC is painfully white in the words of a former Director of BBC but I expect the BBC to show a duty of care to its many Nigerian viewers who also pay their TV licence and are sick and tired of these racist jokes about their country.

Even if you at the BBC and/or majority of your viewers find such jokes funny, Nigerians do not.

If the BBC is saying that all Nigerians are email scammers then they are simply being racist and ought to be ashamed of themselves.

These are the relevant complaint pages if you want to make a written complaint :-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/this_week/contact_us/default.stm

https://ssl.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/?reset=#anchor

“Besides, there are no plans by the President to witch-hunt Obasanjo with any probe.”

Another way of GEJ telling OBJ to be careful if he doesn't want his skeletons exposed.

In 2005, I was the only candidate invited for a second interview for the post of an Accountant with a Finance Brokerage in London and the Lady asked me why my "compatriots" were fond of fraud and 419. I told her that it was not all of us but the lazy ones but she obviously wasn't convinced and her fear got the better of her 'cos I didn't get the job.

Fast forward to Feb 2012 and I lost another Temporary Accounting Post because I protested at my line managers insinuation that a Nigerian Accountant may not be safe for their cheque book. My protest forced the HR Director to get her to apologise to me but he still gave her the leeway to either allow my contract to run on or terminate it and she chose to terminate it. Not that I minded the termination as there was no way I was going to feel happy working there after her subtle prejudice.

Employers don't get it when you feel aggrieved if they insinuate that Nigerians are fraudulent but if I am not a fraudster, why should I be a partaker of other peoples sins just because we bear the same moniker as Nigerians ?

Having said that, all those years studying to be an Accountant in London may be a waste afterall as with the antics of some of my Fraudulent country men being exposed in England by the day, then which employer is going to trust a Nigerian Accountant to look after their cheque books ??

What a sorry state the name Nigeria is in.

Ile latin kesho rode. Charity begins at home but there are a hardcore of our boys in the West who are intent on poisoning the name Nigeria for the rest of us. And the sad thing is that Nemesis is not catching up with them fast enough.

The name Nigeria has now become a laughing stock in the UK thanks to these thieves.

In fact I asked an IT Director of a Multinational where I was contracting a few months ago if she was Nigerian (not knowing she was Siera Leonian) and she retorted back "Don't Smear Me" in front of colleagues both White and African. I then ask her if there was anything wrong with being a Nigerian to which she had no answer. We were to work on the same project but her initial prejudice and her aggression meant we were never going to get along well.

When other Africans in the UK are now distancing themselves from Nigerians and also outwardly showing us prejudice because of the antics of the greedy fraudsters amongst us then it is a sorry state indeed.

But I still remain a Nigerian for life despite the fact that the name Nigeria is evolving into a corrupted brand on a daily basis.

Nigerians were once noted mainly for our Academioc achievements but at this moment in time our bad name acquired because of the 419'ers amongst us now means that some unscrupulous employers in the West are now beginning to cast aspersions onto the honesty with which we acquired those qualifications in the first place.

An example was in 2006 when I was an Accountant at a Hospital in London and the National Health Service sponsored and encouraged employees to sit a certain computer exam where you had to sit the practice test anywhere you wanted and on passing that, you could then proceed to the main centre to sit the real exam. In the practice tests, I scored 90% in the first paper and 92% in the second one. At the main centre, the first invigilator a white lady duly recorded my marks in the log book and allowed me to sit the real exam but the invigilator for the second paper (a black lady - Afro Carribean) took one look at my practice exam scores and said I had to retake the exam and I asked her why ? She answered back "How am I sure you did not cheat to pass". I had to then lecture her on how a lot of Nigerians were highly educated before we left the shores of Nigeria and that not all Nigerians are exam cheats. Obviously, I lost my cool and gave her a piece of my mind and refused to retake the mickey mouse exam and told her I was going to report her to her boss and she promptly supplied me with her bosses contact details.

Suffice it to say that in classic NHS political style, the whole saga was turned around with the victim now becoming the villain and I was duly summoned to a kangaroo disciplinary hearing where after 3 hours I was found guilty of "losing my temper" when she insinuated that I might be an exam cheat. Their "sentence" was that that finding was to be placed in my HR files and I would be observed for the next 1 year to see if I lost my cool again.

Not to disappoint myself or depart from who I really was, I went back to my desk and wrote my resignation letter on the spot and relocated back to Nigeria 3 days later to open a restaurant - a "castle in the sky" adventure that lasted 2 years before I threw in the towel and reluctantly came back to London in 2008.

My point is that it may soon get to a stage where more and more Nigerian professionals in the West are having their qualifications scrutinised because they happen to come from the same country as these lazy thieving 419'ers mentioned in the original post.

A bad Brand named Nigeria is not good for all of us, there are not enough voices of dissent condemning those amongst us who are daily tarnishing our already battered name abroad. Instead you are seen as out of touch and not smart if you don't hail or partake in the "evil prowess" of these fraudsters. We tend to forget that Evil flourishes when good people keep quiet. Eje ka panupo ba ole wi. Lets all with one voice condemn the thieves amongst us instead of hailing them as smart.

Rant over.

e-herbal
do you know the number of our girls that are now into 'hustling'?you need to go to surulere and ikeja every evening,you did think there's a ladies carnival on parade.ladies aged between 15 to 40,different size and shapes,different tribes,all ties3 for one thing;prostitution. i've even seen albinos! it's that bad. funniest part is that this same women will be a wife to one unfortunate bloke,who,unfortunately will be under the illusion that he's found his missing rib. GOD save the nigerian man, amen.

Even though not all Naija women fall into the above category and also considering the fact that it takes 2 to tango, as a Naija man, I am somewhat scared of falling for a woman who later turns out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. But on the other hand men are not all saints either and I know certain men who I would pray against meeting if I were to be a woman.

God help us all.

COOLDUN:
I don’t know if you have ever heard this big girls slogan, Is love a food?

God help us all.

okpara ugo:

Definition of wife material :-

A woman that works hard to see that her marriage is a success.

A woman that supports and doesnt compete with her husband.

A woman that shares her dreams with her husband and helps him pursue his.

A woman that keeps no secret from her husband.

A woman that loves her man come rain or shine.

A woman that beleives in her husband even when he is losing belief in himself.

A woman who sees her marriage as a lifelong committment.

A woman who loves her man in good times and in bad times in equal measure.

larrymoore
frm experience l met a lady recently, she was earnestly predominant about how financially l was ready 4 marriage, she doesnt talk about luv bt money n money l had stopped calling her before she questions me on why l dont have my own house.

Reminds me of a single 36 year old lady I met recently who said she was waiting for her knight in shining armour plus she also said money would play a part in her decision to date or not date a guy.

This makes me wonder what she would do if her once financially bouyant husband were to fall on hard times financially then she would stop loving him.

If only a woman knows when a man is trying to interview her to sense her true character

I am a 44 Yr old male based in London and available for a monogamous committed relationship.

If you are a single lady, also living in London and ready to settle down and honest then send me an email through Nairaland and I will get back to you.

I am a 44 Yr old male based in London and available for a monogamous committed relationship.

If you are a single lady, also living in London and ready to settle down and honest then send me an email through Nairaland and I will get back to you.